May 9, 2024 • 13 mins
Dr. Mark Lombardi is the 10th President of Maryville University and has served in this role since 2007. During Dr. Lombardi’s tenure, enrollment at Maryville University has more than tripled from 3,200 students to well over 10,000, hailing from 50 states and 52 countries. In 2023, the Chronicle of Higher Education named Maryville the 3rd fastest-growing private university in the nation. Under Dr. Lombardi's leadership, Maryville University has become a premier educational institution recognized by Forbes, Fortune and US News. Apple has recognized Maryville an unprecedented three times as a distinguished university for innovation. Dr. Lombardi is called upon numerous times locally and nationally to address Maryville University’s significant advances in educational access and innovation and to speak on the future state of higher education.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Hello and welcome. Okay, yourname where you need that title and the
company name. My name is doctorMark Lombardi, and I am President of
Maryville University. That's a big job. It can be pretty big. Off
you're coming off of some graduations.We do. We've got six actually that
we've had. We've got so bigwe had to split them up. Wow.
(00:24):
So we've been we've graduated and undergraduate. We have over twenty four hundred
graduates, so it's quite a few. We've got ten thousand students spread out
fifty states, in fifty two countries, so we're everywhere. As they say,
I love that, but started righthere, started here over one hundred
and fifty years ago on the southside of Saint Louis, small school Catholic
(00:49):
set up to educate women at atime when educating women was a radical concept.
Unfortunately, and have evolved and grown. Now we're out in West County
for the last sixty years, andso we like to say we've been here
for one hundred and fifty and we'relooking forward to the next one hundred and
fifty at least least a couple hundredmore. So that's a long time.
(01:10):
And so how many Saint Louis peopleright now, do you employ? Well,
we have about one hundred and sixtyfull time faculty, we have about
six hundred part time faculty, andthen we've got another three hundred and fifty
to four hundred staff members. Manyof them live here in the Saint Louis
area if you live in Illinois.Less so now that they've legalized marijuana here
(01:33):
in Missouri, but a few.And so we've got a huge array of
people living, working, thriving inthe Saint Louis community. I love that.
I love that it started here.My grandmother was a suffragette. She
went to jail for the right tovote, So I did not know the
history amazing the university, that's soyeah. The Society of the Sacred Heart
(01:53):
that founded the school. They werepioneers in educating women in the nineteenth century,
including also pioneering in setting up whatthen were schools that were in secret
to educate and to teach slaves howto read and write, obviously prior to
the Civil War, particularly in Louisiana. So they have a long and rich
(02:14):
history of really reaching out to underrepresentedgroups and empowering them with education. That's
fantastic. We need those in politics, we sure do, but hey,
that's a whole other thing. Sohow would you say what you do and
what you guys do at Maryvale,how would you say that that helps drive
(02:38):
our local economy. Well, theimpact on the economy we've calculated is north
of seventy five million every year.But more than that, we educate a
huge array of people in health professions, nursing, ptot in, criminology,
and teaching. So we're employing whatI would call or educating and then putting
(03:00):
out there in the workforce. Kindof the backbone of any economy. These
people that are day in and dayout providing outstanding services to the community across
across the area. I mean,you can't really go to a school in
the city of Saint Louis in thecounty area without finding teachers, principals,
(03:20):
superintendents who went to Maryville. Thesame is true in healthcare. In fact,
I defy you any hospital. Unfortunately, if you have to go in
the next few weeks, if youask any of the nurses and others work
in there where you go to school, invariably they're going to say Maryville.
So we're very proud of the factthat we're educating people who are really forming
the backbone of the economy, includinga lot of people in small business and
(03:44):
doing amazing things. So it's alwaysexciting when you know that education can have
that impact as they as we've learned, essentials is what you're doing. You're
creating a lot of essentials. Arethat is providing jobs that are so good
for the community. I love that. Everything about that is great. So
there's so many you glossed over thatseventy five million. By the way,
(04:09):
this is kind of like what alot. It is fantastic. Be proud
of that, between the students andthe employees and all the things that we
bring to the community, including theSaint Louis Speaker Series and the Museual Awards
and a number of other things thatwe sponsor and support in partnership with entities,
including like the Saint Louis Sports Commissionis one example. We're also creating
(04:30):
an environment of intellectual debate, ofengagement, of entertainment, and all of
that is bringing great benefit to thelocal economy across the board. I love
that, and I love the wholeentertainment part of it. I gotta get
involved with that one what is yourmission statement? Our mission is pretty simple.
It's we believe that we're the innovativeleader in higher education, which is
(04:56):
going to create a revolution of studentlearning. And the ultimate go is to
provide access and opportunity for everyone.We believe that everybody should have the access
and the opportunity to get a collegiateeducation, and it shouldn't be dictated by
zip code, race, gender,or cost. It's one of the reasons
why we've kept our cost. We'vefrozen tuition in the last six years.
(05:16):
It's actually reduced it in twenty twenty, and we have committed to never increasing
tuition again, and over time wehope to lower it again. Can you
get into politics, because boy,this is so so necessary. Thank you
for doing that. Well, it'simportant. I mean, the cost of
higher ed I've been in high dforty years has skyrocketed, and frankly,
(05:42):
it's wrong. It doesn't need tobe at that cost. You can get
a very top quality education at acost that is reasonable for most families to
be able to afford. Yeah,I know, I'm still paying off whatever
I could to help out by kidsand they've got bills, you know,
and it just seems so wrong tohave to do that and scramble. And
(06:02):
I think this what you're doing isamazing. A lot of people talk about
the fact that a college education isimportant, and it's very valuable, and
it means a significant amount of revenuein jobs going forward, But the cost
of it shouldn't be any different than, for example, if you were buying
a new car and you had tofinance it over three or four or five
(06:23):
years a reasonable car payment. That'spretty much what a college education should be.
It shouldn't be more than that,Amen, I totally agree with you
on that. One shouldn't be havingto pay for the rest of your life.
That's right. I don't know,do you. Well, you already
talked about all your philanthropic causes,but is there any more in specific?
Maybe new ones you're adding? Well, we partner with Boys Club, Girls
(06:46):
Club, We partner with Girls Inc. We partner with probably at least thirty
community organizations throughout Saint Louis that aredoing work in a variety of different areas,
whether it's healthcareather, it's young peopleempowerment, whether it's in the case
of Lydia's House, for example.We provide an extensive amount of support to
(07:09):
all a variety of agencies. Andwe do it with the idea that our
job is not as an Some educationalinstitutions want to tell communities how they should
do things. We don't believe inthat. We believe communities know what the
issues and the problems are and thechallenges. Our job is to really support
and help them, not tell themhow they should do things, but rather,
(07:30):
let's band together. So our studentsare faculty, our staff, administration
board. We get together and weprovide literally thousands of volunteer hours in these
agencies, resources, money, andalso for example our cybersecurity program, which
is a great academic program. Wewill get old computers, we'll refurbish them,
(07:54):
put them together, and then donatethem to school districts and groups all
over the community. And that's oneexample of how they're engaged. So we're
very proud of that we're making adifference in community organizations across Saint Louis.
And I love this. I lovethe connectedness, I love the diversity.
And you know, I've I'm atransplant here but been here for gosh almost
(08:18):
twenty years. And Maryville I alwaysthought of as because I have friends that
went they're nursing. I always thinkof a nursing cybersecurity. That's huge,
huge cybersecurity. We're involved in computerscience. We've got a program that's growing
fast, and artificial intelligence. We'vegot programs in all the other health professions.
(08:39):
Of course, we have, frankly, one of the best sports business
management programs in the United States thatrawling's named. It's called the Ralling Sports
Business Management Program. We've got programsacross a wide array of areas. So
that's one of the reasons why we'vegrown where we were named the third fastest
growing private universe in the country lastyear. Congrat that's a big thing.
(09:03):
It's great. We've been on thatlist a few years in a row,
and it's one of the reasons whywe're drawing students from all over the country.
I love seeing that. I lovewhat you're doing in the community,
and I'm so happy to hear goodnews and good things in Saint Louis.
Well, you know, there's beena lot of bad news about universities and
colleges in Saint Louis and nationally thelast few weeks and months, and hopefully,
(09:26):
and I know we are, we'rebucking that trend. Thank you for
doing that. And if somebody wantsinformation website, whether it's somebody wants to
be a student, somebody who wantsmore information wants to help, where do
they go, what do they dowell? Maryville dot edu is always a
great place to start. But wehave a significant social media presence out there,
(09:48):
and our executive director of marketing knowsmore about that than me, which
is good because they got to keepme off social media because I'm liable to
say something do something that they're goingto have to explain later. But no,
we've got a great social media presence. But Maryville dot edu is the
place to start, and I wouldencourage anyone who's interested in finding out about
(10:11):
Maryville to just sort of explore,you know, our Twitter accounts and all
our other social media accounts because thevolume of things that are going on our
esports we just want another national championshipin esports are eighth in twelve years.
We're kind of the Alabama of esportswhen it comes to that, or athletics
(10:33):
or in other academic areas. Whatwe're doing is amazing. So get on
social media, you'll find us.And there's a lot of people I'm adding
this because our listeners at the stationsI work at are all ages. There
are plenty of listeners who are kids, are grown up and they want to
go back to school. Yeah doyou how is that for your MARYA our
(10:58):
adult online program is one of thebest in the country for working adults to
skill up for people, as you'rereferencing, and want to go back to
school, maybe finish a degree,or maybe just go back for their own
edification, whatever that may be.And also we've got another program called Maryville
Works specifically, maybe not for adegree, but we work with now over
(11:22):
eighteen companies with literally over two thousandemployees who are trying to skill up and
whatever the profession it is. Itcould be cybersecurity, data analytics, whatever
it might be, and they're tryingto skill up, improve and maintain that
job they've got and move forward.So there are a number of opportunities for
(11:43):
anybody, no matter what they mightbe interested in. I know, probably
when I retire, I'll probably goback and learn Italian or something like that.
Oh yeah, if I could,I would be a student all my
life because I love to learn.But you know, not everybody could do
that. But you know, evenpeople that want to make a career change.
Deletly pandemics saw a lot of peopledo it. I don't want to
do this anymore. You know what, any age, that's right, any
(12:05):
age. Well, the numbers,the numbers nationally and locally on people who
are doing exactly what you said decidingto make a career change have gone up
about twenty six percent just in thespan of a couple of years. And
I don't think that trend's going toend. I think people are going to
be doing that more and more often, and they can, and it's facilitated
(12:26):
by online learning and a variety ofother things, and that allows people to
do that. So instead of sittingthere thinking, well, I'm going to
have to drive somewhere on a Tuesdayor Thursday night in the bad weather to
take a course to learn this,you can do it online with us and
get a great education. That's fantastic. It's towards a monch. I always
say, make a life, nota living. There you go, Thank
(12:48):
you so much, appreciate your time, Thank you appreciate it. You have
done this before, haven't you,Oh a few times? Oh that was
fantastic, that was perfect. Idon't even have to edit
Hello and welcome. Okay, yourname where you need that title and the
company name. My name is doctorMark Lombardi, and I am President of
Maryville University. That's a big job. It can be pretty big. Off
you're coming off of some graduations.We do. We've got six actually that
we've had. We've got so bigwe had to split them up. Wow.
(00:24):
So we've been we've graduated and undergraduate. We have over twenty four hundred
graduates, so it's quite a few. We've got ten thousand students spread out
fifty states, in fifty two countries, so we're everywhere. As they say,
I love that, but started righthere, started here over one hundred
and fifty years ago on the southside of Saint Louis, small school Catholic
(00:49):
set up to educate women at atime when educating women was a radical concept.
Unfortunately, and have evolved and grown. Now we're out in West County
for the last sixty years, andso we like to say we've been here
for one hundred and fifty and we'relooking forward to the next one hundred and
fifty at least least a couple hundredmore. So that's a long time.
(01:10):
And so how many Saint Louis peopleright now, do you employ? Well,
we have about one hundred and sixtyfull time faculty, we have about
six hundred part time faculty, andthen we've got another three hundred and fifty
to four hundred staff members. Manyof them live here in the Saint Louis
area if you live in Illinois.Less so now that they've legalized marijuana here
(01:33):
in Missouri, but a few.And so we've got a huge array of
people living, working, thriving inthe Saint Louis community. I love that.
I love that it started here.My grandmother was a suffragette. She
went to jail for the right tovote, So I did not know the
history amazing the university, that's soyeah. The Society of the Sacred Heart
(01:53):
that founded the school. They werepioneers in educating women in the nineteenth century,
including also pioneering in setting up whatthen were schools that were in secret
to educate and to teach slaves howto read and write, obviously prior to
the Civil War, particularly in Louisiana. So they have a long and rich
(02:14):
history of really reaching out to underrepresentedgroups and empowering them with education. That's
fantastic. We need those in politics, we sure do, but hey,
that's a whole other thing. Sohow would you say what you do and
what you guys do at Maryvale,how would you say that that helps drive
(02:38):
our local economy. Well, theimpact on the economy we've calculated is north
of seventy five million every year.But more than that, we educate a
huge array of people in health professions, nursing, ptot in, criminology,
and teaching. So we're employing whatI would call or educating and then putting
(03:00):
out there in the workforce. Kindof the backbone of any economy. These
people that are day in and dayout providing outstanding services to the community across
across the area. I mean,you can't really go to a school in
the city of Saint Louis in thecounty area without finding teachers, principals,
(03:20):
superintendents who went to Maryville. Thesame is true in healthcare. In fact,
I defy you any hospital. Unfortunately, if you have to go in
the next few weeks, if youask any of the nurses and others work
in there where you go to school, invariably they're going to say Maryville.
So we're very proud of the factthat we're educating people who are really forming
the backbone of the economy, includinga lot of people in small business and
(03:44):
doing amazing things. So it's alwaysexciting when you know that education can have
that impact as they as we've learned, essentials is what you're doing. You're
creating a lot of essentials. Arethat is providing jobs that are so good
for the community. I love that. Everything about that is great. So
there's so many you glossed over thatseventy five million. By the way,
(04:09):
this is kind of like what alot. It is fantastic. Be proud
of that, between the students andthe employees and all the things that we
bring to the community, including theSaint Louis Speaker Series and the Museual Awards
and a number of other things thatwe sponsor and support in partnership with entities,
including like the Saint Louis Sports Commissionis one example. We're also creating
(04:30):
an environment of intellectual debate, ofengagement, of entertainment, and all of
that is bringing great benefit to thelocal economy across the board. I love
that, and I love the wholeentertainment part of it. I gotta get
involved with that one what is yourmission statement? Our mission is pretty simple.
It's we believe that we're the innovativeleader in higher education, which is
(04:56):
going to create a revolution of studentlearning. And the ultimate go is to
provide access and opportunity for everyone.We believe that everybody should have the access
and the opportunity to get a collegiateeducation, and it shouldn't be dictated by
zip code, race, gender,or cost. It's one of the reasons
why we've kept our cost. We'vefrozen tuition in the last six years.
(05:16):
It's actually reduced it in twenty twenty, and we have committed to never increasing
tuition again, and over time wehope to lower it again. Can you
get into politics, because boy,this is so so necessary. Thank you
for doing that. Well, it'simportant. I mean, the cost of
higher ed I've been in high dforty years has skyrocketed, and frankly,
(05:42):
it's wrong. It doesn't need tobe at that cost. You can get
a very top quality education at acost that is reasonable for most families to
be able to afford. Yeah,I know, I'm still paying off whatever
I could to help out by kidsand they've got bills, you know,
and it just seems so wrong tohave to do that and scramble. And
(06:02):
I think this what you're doing isamazing. A lot of people talk about
the fact that a college education isimportant, and it's very valuable, and
it means a significant amount of revenuein jobs going forward, But the cost
of it shouldn't be any different than, for example, if you were buying
a new car and you had tofinance it over three or four or five
(06:23):
years a reasonable car payment. That'spretty much what a college education should be.
It shouldn't be more than that,Amen, I totally agree with you
on that. One shouldn't be havingto pay for the rest of your life.
That's right. I don't know,do you. Well, you already
talked about all your philanthropic causes,but is there any more in specific?
Maybe new ones you're adding? Well, we partner with Boys Club, Girls
(06:46):
Club, We partner with Girls Inc. We partner with probably at least thirty
community organizations throughout Saint Louis that aredoing work in a variety of different areas,
whether it's healthcareather, it's young peopleempowerment, whether it's in the case
of Lydia's House, for example.We provide an extensive amount of support to
(07:09):
all a variety of agencies. Andwe do it with the idea that our
job is not as an Some educationalinstitutions want to tell communities how they should
do things. We don't believe inthat. We believe communities know what the
issues and the problems are and thechallenges. Our job is to really support
and help them, not tell themhow they should do things, but rather,
(07:30):
let's band together. So our studentsare faculty, our staff, administration
board. We get together and weprovide literally thousands of volunteer hours in these
agencies, resources, money, andalso for example our cybersecurity program, which
is a great academic program. Wewill get old computers, we'll refurbish them,
(07:54):
put them together, and then donatethem to school districts and groups all
over the community. And that's oneexample of how they're engaged. So we're
very proud of that we're making adifference in community organizations across Saint Louis.
And I love this. I lovethe connectedness, I love the diversity.
And you know, I've I'm atransplant here but been here for gosh almost
(08:18):
twenty years. And Maryville I alwaysthought of as because I have friends that
went they're nursing. I always thinkof a nursing cybersecurity. That's huge,
huge cybersecurity. We're involved in computerscience. We've got a program that's growing
fast, and artificial intelligence. We'vegot programs in all the other health professions.
(08:39):
Of course, we have, frankly, one of the best sports business
management programs in the United States thatrawling's named. It's called the Ralling Sports
Business Management Program. We've got programsacross a wide array of areas. So
that's one of the reasons why we'vegrown where we were named the third fastest
growing private universe in the country lastyear. Congrat that's a big thing.
(09:03):
It's great. We've been on thatlist a few years in a row,
and it's one of the reasons whywe're drawing students from all over the country.
I love seeing that. I lovewhat you're doing in the community,
and I'm so happy to hear goodnews and good things in Saint Louis.
Well, you know, there's beena lot of bad news about universities and
colleges in Saint Louis and nationally thelast few weeks and months, and hopefully,
(09:26):
and I know we are, we'rebucking that trend. Thank you for
doing that. And if somebody wantsinformation website, whether it's somebody wants to
be a student, somebody who wantsmore information wants to help, where do
they go, what do they dowell? Maryville dot edu is always a
great place to start. But wehave a significant social media presence out there,
(09:48):
and our executive director of marketing knowsmore about that than me, which
is good because they got to keepme off social media because I'm liable to
say something do something that they're goingto have to explain later. But no,
we've got a great social media presence. But Maryville dot edu is the
place to start, and I wouldencourage anyone who's interested in finding out about
(10:11):
Maryville to just sort of explore,you know, our Twitter accounts and all
our other social media accounts because thevolume of things that are going on our
esports we just want another national championshipin esports are eighth in twelve years.
We're kind of the Alabama of esportswhen it comes to that, or athletics
(10:33):
or in other academic areas. Whatwe're doing is amazing. So get on
social media, you'll find us.And there's a lot of people I'm adding
this because our listeners at the stationsI work at are all ages. There
are plenty of listeners who are kids, are grown up and they want to
go back to school. Yeah doyou how is that for your MARYA our
(10:58):
adult online program is one of thebest in the country for working adults to
skill up for people, as you'rereferencing, and want to go back to
school, maybe finish a degree,or maybe just go back for their own
edification, whatever that may be.And also we've got another program called Maryville
Works specifically, maybe not for adegree, but we work with now over
(11:22):
eighteen companies with literally over two thousandemployees who are trying to skill up and
whatever the profession it is. Itcould be cybersecurity, data analytics, whatever
it might be, and they're tryingto skill up, improve and maintain that
job they've got and move forward.So there are a number of opportunities for
(11:43):
anybody, no matter what they mightbe interested in. I know, probably
when I retire, I'll probably goback and learn Italian or something like that.
Oh yeah, if I could,I would be a student all my
life because I love to learn.But you know, not everybody could do
that. But you know, evenpeople that want to make a career change.
Deletly pandemics saw a lot of peopledo it. I don't want to
do this anymore. You know what, any age, that's right, any
(12:05):
age. Well, the numbers,the numbers nationally and locally on people who
are doing exactly what you said decidingto make a career change have gone up
about twenty six percent just in thespan of a couple of years. And
I don't think that trend's going toend. I think people are going to
be doing that more and more often, and they can, and it's facilitated
(12:26):
by online learning and a variety ofother things, and that allows people to
do that. So instead of sittingthere thinking, well, I'm going to
have to drive somewhere on a Tuesdayor Thursday night in the bad weather to
take a course to learn this,you can do it online with us and
get a great education. That's fantastic. It's towards a monch. I always
say, make a life, nota living. There you go, Thank
(12:48):
you so much, appreciate your time, Thank you appreciate it. You have
done this before, haven't you,Oh a few times? Oh that was
fantastic, that was perfect. Idon't even have to edit
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