Just two weeks after she was named interim chancellor of App State, Heather Norris decided to kick off her leadership position by throwing a pizza party for the entire student body.
Sanford Mall was crowded with students waiting in line for free pizza, with a particularly long line formed by those waiting to receive balloon animals.
Norris was officially named chancellor of App State effective March 1. She said during her first month as chancellor, she focused on reestablishing relationships, boosting morale with the App State community and reaching out to community partners to have productive conversations with them.
This latest achievement in Norris’ career was a long time in the making. According to her App State biography, Norris started working for App State in 2003 as an assistant professor in the Walker College of Business’ Department of Finance, Banking and Insurance. She served as the assistant dean for undergraduate programs, associate dean for undergraduate programs and administration, senior associate dean, acting dean and interim dean from 2005-15.
In 2016, she was appointed dean of the Walker College of Business and was appointed interim provost and executive vice chancellor in February 2020 and “assumed full responsibilities” in May 2021, according to her online biography.
What some might not know, Norris said, is it took her around a month to say “yes” to her first job as an academic administrator. Today, Norris said she would tell her younger self to take calculated risks, always think about the future and “be confident and bold.
She would describe her leadership style as a servant leader, taking care to help others around her achieve success. She said she strives to ensure students, faculty and staff have support and the required resources to achieve their goals and success, all while allowing for the opportunity for personal connections within the university. Norris said this creates a sense of community, whether that entails walking around campus or eating meals with her leadership team in the dining hall.
She believes many people are surprised to learn that over 21,000 students attend App State. She said this may be due to the culture and commitment to care from faculty members who work one-on-one with students.
“It’s one of the things that brought me here, and keeps me here,” she said.
This responsibility, however, does not come without challenges. When Hurricane Helene struck Boone in late September, Norris, who was serving as interim chancellor, described the storm as a “crisis of epic proportions.”
“We had to get creative with that, but we persevered,” she said. “We made sure we were pushing out information and receiving information.”
By having emergency preparedness exercises set in place, App State, under Norris’ leadership, was able to offer resources to the community by continuing to house students in residence halls, provide free meals to students and the community in the dining hall and open their doors to the American Red Cross and offer resources to students through the Disaster Resource Hub.
“We learned a lot through caring about our community and having conversations,” she said.
As for her plans regarding App State’s future, Norris said she remains committed to offering both academic and programs outside of the classroom that allow students to achieve success. She said programs such as the Hickory campus and Project Kitty Hawk are helping provide high-quality education to North Carolinians.
“For me, it just goes back to student success. You probably will hear me say that a lot, because that really is at the core of why I do what I do each and every day,” Norris said. “It’s why I first wanted to go into higher education, because I care about students and their success.”
As provost, Norris said she worked with JJ Brown, the vice chancellor of student affairs, to establish a student advisory committee, made up of students from different academic colleges. She said this allows her to better connect with the student body.
Norris ended her first semester as chancellor the same way she started her first semester as interim: by throwing a pizza party on April 28.
“I want to do a lot of that celebrating with you, but I also want to hear, ‘What are the things we can improve? How can we help more, what can we do better?’” she said. “So I appreciate the open dialogue and the opportunities to have those conversations through those student leaders and those groups.”
