On July 1, 2014, Rebecca Bergman officially took office as Gustavus Adolphus College’s 17th president.
After growing up in the New England area, Bergman attended Princeton University and received her B.S. in chemical engineering with interest in the biomedical engineering field. This led her to a 26-year career at Medtronic, a medical technology company.
Bergman joined Medtronic in 1987 as a senior biomedical engineer. Within Medtronic, she worked in the discovery portion of the corporate setting, allowing her to study business but also work with research, innovation and discovery. Similarly to a position in academics, Bergman work with research scientists and engineers who were on the edge of building new gadgets for the human body.
While at Medtronic, Bergman received the title of a Technical Fellow, an award for employees for their leadership and technological contributions. Additionally, Bergman has been recognized as a Fellow of the American Institute for Medical and Biological Engineering (AIMBE) and is an elected member of the National Academy of Engineering.
She also serves on two academic boards of trustees, St. Catherine University and Gustavus Adolphus College, and on the board of directors at Sigma Aldridge Corporation.
After over two decades in the business world, Bergman made the unexpected shift into college academic leadership. While a college presidency was never the plan, Bergman was always very involved with academics with a real passion for education, mentoring and mission driven organizations.
“I anticipated that I would stay involved with academics, but I never pictured myself pulling out of Medtronic and doing something completely different,” Bergman said.
However, after she received the initial phone call, Bergman realized that she was being called to begin a new chapter of her academic and professional career.
Bergman entered Gustavus as its first woman president in the 152-year history of the college. However, as a woman engineer in a technological company, she was used to being the only woman in the room.
“I hope someday that [being the first female] won’t be part of the headline, it will just be another part of the news,” Bergman said. As a female in position of power, she strives “to be a great role model for the next generation of women or any other underrepresented group of people aspiring to leadership positions.”
Some of the smaller day-to-day responsibilities of the president include attending campus events, staying up to date with campus goings-on, continuously corresponding with individuals and organizations both internally and externally, and maintaining relationships with the city of St. Peter and Mankato. Bergman especially enjoys interacting with the students in her day to day activities. Each day brings new opportunities to remain involved on campus.
On the larger scale, Bergman acts as the public face of the college. She is responsible for a lot of the college’s fundraising efforts. A crucial part of the presidency includes balancing the urgent, important with the long -term, less important.
By far, though, her favorite part of presidency is interacting with the students and watching them live out the mission of the college. “Our students are inspiring, idealistic, hard working, involved, and engaged,” Bergman said.
Looking forward, President Bergman will continue to work to make Gustavus an even better home for us all.