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May 9, 2019

Evelyn Gard is helping community colleges amplify and redefine their public mission

Evelyn Gard PHOTO | DAVID OTTENSTEIN Evelyn Gard, Associate Dean, Gateway Community College, Housatonic Community College
By Holly M. LaPrade

The bright future of the business landscape in New Haven and beyond lies in the hands, and the minds, of generations to come. And there are few if any professionals more conscious of that fact than Evelyn Gard. 

Gard, who is associate dean of public affairs and marketing for both Gateway and Housatonic community colleges, is on the front lines of connecting students with the region’s business community. In her role, she also works closely with media partners throughout the state in order to promote the various offerings of two of Connecticut’s largest two-year colleges.

Through her work in marketing the two schools’ programs, Gard also disseminates information to local businesses with a mission that is two-fold. Her ultimate goal is to forge and deepen trusting relationships that will result in the hiring of Gateway and Housatonic students upon graduation — continually restocking the state’s precious workforce resources while helping young people chart meaningful and rewarding career paths that can last a lifetime.

“There’s a fresh supply of young minds, that’s the beauty of my job,” Gard says. “It just blows my mind how amazing these kids are.”

The second component of the outreach that Gard conducts is her work in promoting the value of the college’s workforce development and continuing education programs to local businesses. These offerings range from bookkeeping to information technology to advanced manufacturing, and they provide employers with the resources to effectively train and advance the skillsets of their employees.

Gard is particularly gratified by the popularity of Gateway’s automotive-technology program, which enables students to earn certificates in various aspects of vehicle technology, repair and service.

“The students in that program get jobs before they even graduate,” Gard says. “I’m very proud of my little piece of that success.”

In recent years, Gateway has also added many innovative new programs to its career offerings. Among them is the school’s railroad engineering technology degree program, which was designed in 2013 in response to a 19th-century industry that has been reinvented for the 21st century — and the resultant urgent need for highly skilled employees.

“The railroad industry is thriving and railroad companies are desperately looking for qualified workers to fill a variety of positions throughout the country,” the GCC website explains.

According to the Association of American Railroads, “Freight railroads alone will hire thousands of new employees to build teams of skilled, highly motivated people to help safely transport materials and goods that sustain the nation’s economy and people.”

Eastern exposure

Gard first came to New Haven in 2001 after Gateway launched a comprehensive national search to fill the position of director of public relations and marketing.

She had been working professionally in a related role at Mount Saint Mary’s University in Los Angeles, but for years had dreamed of relocating to the East Coast due to her passion for music and the performing arts.

“I knew I needed to come to the East Coast, but life happened in the meantime,” Gard recalls.

Gard is originally from Australia and came to the United States with her family in 1968. From that point, she forged a varied and diverse career path that included roles as a teacher for the Los Angeles Unified School District and a radio producer at KPFK-FM, a Pacifica Radio outlet, in Los Angeles.

It wasn’t until Gard’s husband Richard applied to a program at Yale University that her longtime personal dream started to transform into a reality. At that time, Gard and her husband were both in their 40s and shared six grown children.

“When we got the opportunity to come here I was out of my mind,” Gard recalls. “It was a lifelong dream to be here.”

Upon Gard’s arrival at Gateway, the college was split between two campuses. One location was housed in an aging building tucked away along the Long Wharf corridor on Sargent Drive, while the second facility was roughly ten miles away in a residential section of North Haven. The situation was less than ideal, as both students and faculty had to shuttle back and forth between the two campuses, Gard explains.

In 2013, Gateway completed the consolidation of the two campuses with the opening of its gleaming new campus in downtown New Haven. The move positioned the school to better serve existing and prospective students while bringing it closer to the business community.

“It was a big deal for us,” Gard says.

In addition to the transformative opening of its new four-story, 358,000-square-foot campus, Gateway has also grown from a medium-sized college to become one of the largest in Connecticut’s community college system, with more than 7,000 full and part-time students. This growth has occurred steadily over the past 11 years, Gard explains.

In 2017, Gard was promoted to associate dean, and her responsibilities were expanded to include directing the communications and marketing operations for both Gateway and Housatonic Community College in Bridgeport — both among the largest schools in the state system.

“It’s nice to have a new challenge,” she says. “Right now I’ve been looking for efficiencies. It takes a lot of creativity, and that is the challenge — not to get complacent.”

Gard acknowledges that over the past decade or so she has been confronted with a “steady stream” of budget cuts that “trickles through to everything.” As a result, the task of identifying the most efficient and effective ways to address the public-relations and marketing needs of both schools has become a more urgent priority for Gard than ever before.

“This is a transitional time, and things are changing constantly,” she says. As a result, “I’ve gotten very good at saying, ‘Okay, I’ll work with that.’”

The emergence of social media outlets such as Facebook, Twitter and Instagram have been something of a Godsend for Gard, as the new technology allows her to reach a larger audience with fewer dollars.

“Social media has changed how I communicate with people,” she explains. “It’s an efficiency I am able to create, and it costs a lot less than [renting] a billboard.”

For Gard, the opportunity to interact with students “from different walks of life but all with a common goal” on a daily basis far outweighs the challenges of balancing the budgetary difficulties and marketing activities of two thriving urban colleges. 

“The younger people I work with and mentor eventually leave me, and they go on to great things,” she explains. “I’m really proud of that because it’s giving to the next generation.”

In addition to the personal fulfillment that her career has provided her, Gard is proud of the measurable accomplishments that both colleges have achieved during her tenure.

In 2017, Housatonic was awarded the Aspen Prize for community-college excellence and was ranked by the Aspen Institute as one of the nation’s top 150 community colleges.

“I would love everybody to spend some visiting a community college,” Gard says. “They are going to see a microcosm in the classrooms and hallways. It is the most amazing thing to see.”

Housatonic has also become renowned throughout the Connecticut business community for its Advanced Manufacturing Technology Center, which trains and places students into a broad spectrum of manufacturing jobs after graduation.

Balance career and life

As a woman in a prominent public leadership role, Gard strongly encourages the women that she mentors to pursue a career in a field they are passionate about. She also advises them to find a balance between their career and personal life.

“You have to put your family first,” she says. “I’m not going to say you can have it all, but you can have it. You have to be at peace with your arrangement.”

Gard herself has taken great strides to follow her own advice in maintaining a balance in her work and family life. However, she takes pleasure in immersing herself in an array of volunteer activities that closely align with her career.

Gard has been a driving force for the Southern Connecticut Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). She served as its president from 2007 to 2009, and assumed that responsibility again in 2016. During that time, she spearheaded the effort to consolidate the state’s two PRSA chapters into one organization while rebuilding the group’s presence in Connecticut.

As a result of her work, the Greater Connecticut Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (as the consolidated chapter is now known) honored Gard with its Practitioner of the Year award for 2018.

In her “spare” time, Gard is a professional soprano and voice teacher and also serves as a cantor at St. Thomas More, Yale’s Catholic chapel. She also serves on the board of directors of the Elm Shakespeare Co. and is a former member of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Connecticut Virtuosi boards of directors.

Despite her success and stature in the community, Gard remains circumspect with regard to her achievements and personal accomplishments. 

“No matter what I’m doing, I throw myself into the things that I love wholeheartedly,” Gard said. “It is one of those jobs where you know you’re making a difference.” 

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