Teaching and administering are very closely related, both require patience and the ability to manage people's expectations. Also, teachers and administrators both need to be political when needed, and massage egos when necessary. (I do both very well, by the way.)
In May of 2005, I joined the Center for Digital Imaging Arts as the founding program director of the Graphic and Interactive program. In addition to developing the building blocks of the curriculum, I built up a faculty base. As noted above, I served a dual role as administrator and teacher, which was sometimes a bit of a tightrope act.
Over the period of my tenure, the administrative tasks scaled rapidly. At the beginning of the program there were 12 students in the full-time program and 10 students attending part-time. There were 3 or 4 contract faculty (my wing men and women).
Before I left CDIA, the program had grown to nearly 100 students between the part-time and full-time classes. I also had gained an associate director, approximately 12 instructors and 4 teaching assistants.
You’ve heard of the Bugatti Veyron -- one of the world’s fastest cars. It goes from 0-60 in 2.5 seconds. … Just like me.