Sailing out of retirement, Dr. Nancy Hartley is ready to get back into the realm of higher education; only this time, she’s also traveling the world.
Hartley is serving as Spring 2018’s academic dean. In her role, she oversees all academic staff and faculty 
and helps resolve student issues related to academics. This will be Hartley’s first voyage and she is thrilled to be a part of Semester at Sea.
“I want students to study hard and get involved in lots of activities,” Hartley said. “This is going to be such a meaningful and transformational experience for them.”
Hartley brings many years of leadership and management experience to this role. She started her career working with disadvantaged populations as a social worker, which led her to create education programs for students who had dropped out of high school.
After her doctoral fellowship from the U.S. Department of Education, she spent the last 30-plus-years of her career in higher education. Most of that time she was at Colorado State University, where she served as the Dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences for 13 years.
“I am very excited as I see this voyage as a wonderful opportunity to create a dynamic living, learning 
community,” Hartley said.
Hartley has been in charge of hiring faculty and overseeing the academic plan for the voyage, and she is looking forward to seeing what students learn from the Global Studies course. Global Studies is the core course dedicated to cultural competency that all students are required to take on the ship.
“I hope that students will take what they have learned in Global Studies into port and become well-informed travelers, not tourists,” she said.
Besides making sure all classes are running smoothly, she is committed to helping make the ship a tight-knit community; one where everyone is looking out for one another.
“I want there to be honesty and openness in our community all the time,” she said. “I want to continue to make our village a better place.”
