Genaro Balcazar, recently named a Notable Latino Leader by “Crain’s Chicago Business,” says the honor isn’t about him – that it’s about a lot of other people.
“It’s a collective effort,” said Balcazar, chief operating officer and senior vice president of Dominican University in River Forest. “It’s tireless work we do. I have the privilege of working with some talented people who want to provide access to higher education.”
He added, “They are the ones at the forefront with the engagement with the students we serve. If there is any recognition, it goes to them.”
Make no mistake – Balcazar is a busy man who often works 18-hour days.
He directs the university’s enrollment management and marketing division, overseeing marketing communications, university admission and enrollment services, financial aid, athletics, campus experience and the Stars Connect student services office. He also oversees the new Office of Hispanic-serving Initiatives, along with the university’s strategic plan priorities.
That’s not all. He serves on the boards of directors at the West Cook YMCA and Cristo Rey Jesuit high school, both university partners.
That’s why Balcazar, who is Mexican-American, was nominated as a Notable Latino leader by Dominican University president Dr. Glena G. Temple.
In a news release, Temple noted that “under Genaro’s leadership, we have enhanced our enrollment management systems and developed more targeted communication. His ability to think strategically, create a vision for prospect management and student recruitment, and build a team of experienced enrollment management professionals has led to our record-breaking enrollment trends.”
Record-breaking enrollment numbers include a shade under 700 new first-year students this fall. It was the third year in a row with its largest freshman class.
For any executive, Balcazar said, the key to being efficient and managing multiple responsibilities is not only delegation to his team. There’s something more important, which can be applied to any like position at any business throughout Oak Park and River Forest.
“Part of it is knowing what not to do,” said Balcazar, who lives with his wife, Gloria, and two sons, Avery and Adrian, Orland Park.
“It’s not overwhelming the team with 25 different things, but the five or 10 things we want to move forward.”
No doubt that the headwinds in higher education in America may be unprecedented.
Challenges, he said, include leadership turnover, increasing costs just to keep the doors open, and government support of student subsidies. Competition with other institutions. And the list goes on and on.
“We’re fortunate in that we are growing, in the face of everything that’s going on,” Balcazar said. “It’s hard work, and it’s chaotic sometimes, but we’re focused on taking it semester by semester and student by student.”
To lead a team to complete that objective takes vision. To that end, Balcazar’s vision not only looks forward, but harks back to the university’s 125-year history.
“We’ve served children of immigrants from the beginning,” he said. “The school was created to serve the children of then-immigrants from Europe. We’ve continued to work on that mission.
“Nowadays, it’s a different population of immigrants. Anything we do is with the student in mind. We fly very close to the flame of the mission, and every effort that we undertake is from the student lens.”
To wit, what does Dominican University look like by the end of this decade?
One area of growth will be to embed the university into key communities throughout Chicagoland. It has already done that with its campus in the city’s Pilsen community.
“It’s going where they are,” he said. “We’re going to engage with the students and the communities they live in.
“We are here to provide students community, and how to best create opportunities for themselves.”
