A Woman with Many Missions
October 31, 2008 | 
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“I have never had an absolutely focused career plan,” UCCS Chancellor Pamela Shockley-Zalabak told CSR+. Pam’s story, however, indicates otherwise.
Life provided Pam many avenues where she could demonstrate her organizational talent. After graduating from Oklahoma State University, Stillwater, she spent five years in television production and journalism, working with social-action groups and private clients. Her business experience in Oklahoma provided a venue to develop her exceptional skill-building talent. At the age of 27, she literally took over and rescued from receivership the production company where she began her career. She maintains connections with this organization to the present day.
Communication building has framed Pam’s focus since the beginning of her career. Armed with a bachelor’s and a master’s degree from Oklahoma State University, her talent for organizing people and businesses allowed her to leave Oklahoma, travel extensively, and excel as a contract analyst and instructor within the U. S. inmate rehabilitation system. While she grew in her ability to “make a difference to those who needed it most,” her years in organizational development and teaching allowed her rapid entry into UCCS as a faculty member. 1976 began the year that virtually catapulted Pam into another phase of her organizational development skills, the arena of higher education.
“1976 was my lucky year,” Pam said. She learned of a teaching opening within UCCS, applied that same day, and was hired immediately. While teaching at UCCS, she earned her doctorate in organizational communication from the University of Colorado Boulder, 1980, became founding chair of the UCCS Communication Department, served as its department chair for 12 years, and went on to develop the UCCS organizational structure as Vice Chancellor of Student Success. Pam saw the need to initiate structural changes within the university early on.
“We weren’t getting student responses, so I worked to create a process that better supported our students,” Pam said.
She joined forces with now-Provost Peg Bacon and former Library Dean Leslie Manning With her team she co-wrote a Title III project that brought $2.5 million into the UCCS coffers over the following five years. With this funding initiative in place, Pam and team morphed the Title III grant into a model for Project Excel Centers that presently supports students throughout the UCCS campus. Among them, the language technology center, math learning center, oral communication center, science learning center, and writing center.
“We rolled this grant into the UCCS base,” Pam said.
The year 2001 brought additional changes to Pam’s role as UCCS campus leader. The resignation of then-Chancellor Linda Bunnell-Shade and the vacancy of two other high-level administrators allowed Pam to serve as Interim Chancellor. It was from this this point onward in her career that Pam accelerated her mission even more to develop organizational trust through development of undergraduate and graduate programs, sponsorships, and alumni–focused activities that have resulted in a multiplicity of programs whose outreach has brought significant positive change into the UCCS arena.
As UCCS Chancellor in 2002, Pam ‘s mantra, “Students today, Alumni Tomorrow,” found its way into program development that addresses interests, concerns, and needs of over 30,000 UCCS alumni. Her “Hard Hat Monthly,’ quarterly postcard mailings, and e-newsletter to 4,700 active alums keeps active communication alive between UCCS and those who have graduated from UCCS. Her teambuilding efforts across staff, faculty, and student lines have earned her a multiplicity of awards, including The University of Colorado Thomas Jefferson Award, President’s Award for Outstanding Service, Chancellors’ Award for Distinguished Faculty, the Colorado Speech Communication Association Distinguished Member Award, the 2003 Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce ATHENA Women in Business Award, and the 2005 Student Government Association Student Choice for Instructor of the Year Award.
Pam’s life work began with organization building, but her passion has multiplied a hundredfold through her writing. As someone who “can put research into an assessable form,” she has authored seven books, written over 100 refereed articles, and continues to teach one class a semester to students who have opted to develop their organizational knowledge with her as their mentor. She also serves as advisor to doctoral candidates in order to maintain her hands-on academic connection with those whose studies mesh with hers. Her plate is, indeed, full to the brim.
However, with only a one-semester sabbatical history to her credit over these last 30 years in the academy, Pam does plan to spend quality time travelling when the time becomes right. Among her long-distance picks are Machu Picchu, India, and the ruins of Petra, not necessarily in that order. When asked how she wishes to be remembered as a vital part of UCCS, she thought for a moment, smiled, and shared the following:
“I would like to be remembered as one who cared deeply, operated with integrity, and wanted the best for UCCS,” Pam told me. Pam Schockley-Zalaback has proven herself a staunch advocate in all three of the areas she described. More important, she has proven herself to be a servant leader of the highest caliber.
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