Family, Career and Fun – Lessons Learned as a Dual Career Couple

President Kirk Schulz and Professor Noel Schulz at the Spring 2017 presentation

Washington State University’s First Couple shares their lessons and advice learned over the last 30 years as they have worked to integrate family and their careers as well as having fun. Kirk and Noel met as undergraduates at Virginia Tech in the mid-80s. Over the last 30 years they have worked to balance both their careers and goals with their family and personal activities. This session will discuss their similarities and differences and handling this as a couple, goal setting, time management ideas, strategies with family and advice for communicating as a couple. They will provide suggestions for helpful books and other resources. Additionally, attendees will have a chance to interact and ask questions throughout the workshop.

Kirk Schulz started as the 11th President of Washington State University in June 2016 after seven years as President of Kansas State University. Kirk has his BS and PhD in Chemical Engineering from Virginia Tech and has been a faculty member/administrator for 26 years at University of North Dakota, Michigan Tech, Mississippi State University, Kansas State University and Washington State University. He is a Fellow of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) and American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was chair of the NCAA Board of Governors from 2014-2016. Additional biographical information is available at: https://president.wsu.edu/about-president/

Noel Schulz joined the School of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at WSU in August 2016. Noel has her BS and MS in EE from Virginia Tech and her PhD in EE from the University of Minnesota. She has over 23 years of faculty experience at Virginia Tech, University of North Dakota, Michigan Tech, Mississippi State University, Kansas State University and Washington State University. She was engineering associate dean for research and graduate programs at K-State for four years. Noel served as President of the IEEE Power & Energy Society in 2012-2013, an international organization with over 35,000 members worldwide. She is a Fellow of ASEE and IEEE. Additional biographical information is available at: https://president.wsu.edu/noel-schulz-bio/

Kirk and Noel have two sons, Tim (26) and Andrew (22). Tim finished his BS in CS at Mississippi State and his MS in CS at the University of Tulsa. His wife, Tricia also an MS in CS graduate from Tulsa, and he work at Sandia National Laboratories in Albuquerque, New Mexico. Andrew is a first year senior at Oklahoma State majoring in mechanical engineering and mathematics.