On April 24th, the 4th Annual ECU Alumni Lectures celebrated our fifth and FINAL speaker – Dr. Cynthia Bellacero! Dr. Bellacero is a 2004 (M.A) and 2001 (B.A.) graduate who received her masters and undergraduate degrees from East Carolina University. She later received her doctorate from Florida State University. Dr. Bellacero’s concentration in anthropology is Prehistoric Archaeology. Currently, Dr. Bellacero is the Department Chair for Social Sciences at Craven Community College. The title of her talk was, “From Archaeology to Administration: It Can Happen to You.”
As a reminder, the purpose of ECU Anthropology Alumni Lecture series is designed for former ECU anthropology students to share their expertise and experiences to current anthropology students who are preparing to graduate or who are anticipating to graduate in the next few years. We hope this lecture series creates more of a constructive, practical dialogue between recent ECU anthropology graduates with current ECU anthropology majors.
Dr. Bellacero’s lecture was informative, indepth, and enlightening as she shared her experiences in becoming a top administrator at a local community college in North Carolina. Yet before she became the Chairperson of Social Sciences at Craven Community College, Dr. Bellacero stated that when she graduated from ECU with her bachelor’s degree, there were a number of business companies interested in her because of her skills as an anthropology major. Those skills are communication skills, organization skills and the ability to work with diverse audiences. Nonetheless, Dr. Bellacero completed her masters work at ECU and then completed her doctorate work at Florida State University.
With her doctorate completed, Dr. Bellacero taught anthropology classes for several years. After these years of teaching anthropology classes, Dr. Bellacero decided to apply for the Chairperson position at Craven Community College and was selected to be the Chair.
Now as Chairperson for Social Sciences, Dr. Bellacero stated she has numerous responsiblilities and activities which include assessment of faculty, working with all types of student issues, writing grants for the college, developing collaborative initiatives with other academic institutions, coordinating yearly student abroad trips (Peru, Ireland), and planning all types of global initiatives for the college.
Finally, one of the key skills that Dr. Bellacero emphasized as her role as Chair was “Learning to Create Order.”. Creating order is a skill and strategy that all administrators and leaders must do well if they decide to make it their career. After questions from the audience (students and faculty), it was obvious that Dr. Bellacero is an outstanding administrator and leader who just so happens has an anthropological training. Thus, the title of her talk, “From Archaeology to Administration: It Can Happen to You,” was most fitting to our Anthropology Alumni lecture series and the final lecture for the year!