Staff spotlight: Dan Park
The Virginia Commonwealth University School of Social Work is lucky to have truly supportive faculty and staff who are invested in the school, its students and each other. The school strives to create an environment that promotes success, human health and transforms lives. Dan Park is the Financial Administrator with the school and without him we would truly be lost. Get to know a little about Dan.
Before you were with the School of Social Work where were you?
I worked for several Commonwealth of Virginia departments and agencies from 1985 to 1997. Before coming to VCU I was the budget analyst for the Governor’s Employee’s Training Department where I handled the budgets for 15 aging centers located across the state. I made the transition to the School of Social Work during Governor Gilmore’s downsizing/elimination of Virginia’s departments and agencies.
You were originally studying vocal performance. How did you make the transition to finances?
From 1976 to 1978 I studied vocal performance on scholarship at Centenary College of Louisiana in Shreveport, Louisiana. After my first year, I was given the big speech by my vocal professor during my weekly lesson at 5:30am. Professor Andress said, “We think you have what it takes to make a career in vocal performance, but you have to give up everything.” I must have given the wrong response because a year later I was “weeded” out of the program. I went back to school in the summer of 1981 after travelling around the nation working various jobs and seeing what was going on. In 1982 I went back to school in Dryden, New York, and by 1985 received an Associate in Social Sciences degree and a Bachelor of Science in Community Recreation. I began working at the Department of Game and Inland Fisheries in the summer of 1985 working on resources management projects. One thing led to another and in a short period of time I was working in the agency’s financial management office. I have never looked back.
What was the most interesting thing you did during that window of time?
I worked on various oil rigs in the Gulf of Mexico and the Louisiana Intercoastal Canal System as a roustabout and roughneck doing hitches for about 7 months. One of those oil rigs was in the Gulf about 100 miles off shore. I did that hitch with my twin brother, Dave. It so happened that a co-worker saw us looking north one afternoon and mentioned that the only way we could get to dry land was either be Jesus and walk across the water or get there by helicopter. Those Cajuns were special people! Dave and I had a short conversation about Jesus and helicopters. That conversation will still stay private. I remember I could look down about 80 feet at the surface of the water and see barracudas and sharks swimming around. I almost fell off the rig later on during the hitch. I was swinging this 10 lb. sledge to knock off a tender boat hose from its coupling. Nobody knew that the welders had cut through a portion of the restraining gate and when I leaned on it, it gave away. Someone grabbed me just before I went over. The sledge is still at the bottom of the Gulf. It was dangerous work. I think my brother and I had a moment of truth when we witnessed from separate rigs a well come in and blowup. Two men died. The oddest job? I was a dog enumerator in Tompkins County, New York. I still laugh when I think about that one.
What did you do after all of this travelling?
I went to back school! I was working the graveyard shift as a closer for a food processing plant in Freeville, NY. It just so happened that I ran into my twin brother again, and he told me about the community college up the road. I went up to the school, filled out the paperwork and started classes for the summer semester at Tompkins Courtland Community College. My plan was to pursue a Bachelor of Science Degree in Community Recreation. However my transcripts mishandled, and I got a rejection letter from State University of New York at Cortland. As fate would have it while I was thinking that my academic plans had become a crash site, I received a call from my mom. At that time my mom, Mary Lou Park, Ph.D. was an adjunct professor teaching Vocational Health Sciences at the VCU School of Education. She asked about things and I let her know about my rejection letter and she says, “Well why not VCU? I’m here, your brother is here, why not you?” So I ask if they had a community recreation program and she said, “Of course they do. One of the best in the nation!” I said why not. She said, “Great! We have half the paperwork filled out already.” I could hear my brother in the background laughing . Mothers know everything.
So how long have you been at VCU?
I came here in the summer of 1983 and received my Bachelor of Science degree in Community Recreation in 1985 and Master of Public Administration in 1991. I have been employed at Social Work for 17 years.
Do you remember any of your professors from the Master of Public Administration Program?
Oh yeah, Dr. Bill Heiss, Chair, Dr. Lee Grosnick, Dr. Alimard, Dr. Marcia Wickers, Dr. Cynthia Cave and Dr. “Blu” Woolridge. In fact, Blu is still teaching, and my wife, Candice is taking a class from him this semester.
What does a general workday look like for you?
It depends on the day, but mostly it’s about running reports and analyzing the School of Social Work’s permanent and current fund budgets. I need to have versatility and flexibility. I can be notarizing a document one moment, asking a student wandering the halls if need help another and then approving travel, journals vouchers, purchase orders, etc. the next. It may seem like all I do is just related to dollars and cents, but I have to provide excellent customer service no matter what the task or whether it’s for administration, faculty, staff or students.
What do you enjoy doing in your free time?
I like to jump in the car with my wife and just drive. It’s kind of like tossing a coin. The most recent place we went to was Carter Mountain to pick peaches. Prior to that we jumped in the car and went up to Culpepper, Virginia. We saw their downtown revitalization project. The boutiques were charming and the food delicious. The training station was like looking back in time. We also saw how old government buildings had been renovated and used for shelters. Culpeper looked like a community that was on the up-and-up.
What’s your most memorable work moment?
I don’t know if it’s a moment. I participated in the 2010 Grace Harris Leadership Development Program. The team that I served with had its project used as the model for all future classes. All team projects must now be tied to VCU’s Quest for distinction.
Categories Faculty and staff