GCE Bids Farewell to Longtime Dean, Friend and Mentor
By: Gregg Scully Wednesday, November 9, 2022 01:13 PM
The final days of June marked the end of the accomplished and impactful 24-year career of Jane Hudak at Muhlenberg College. Hudak spent her entire tenure at the College dedicated to helping adult students achieve their personal, academic and professional goals. Hudak’s counsel, always delivered with care, support and honesty-and a healthy dose of laughter and good cheer — was always rooted in her desire for all students to understand their worth and realize their potential.
Like many adult students she worked with, Hudak’s college career did not have the usual start. Upon graduating high school, Hudak entered full-time work rather than college. Eventually, she enrolled at Northampton Community College and then Kutztown University, earning a bachelor’s in Political Science and a master’s degree in
Student Affairs in Higher Education.
Hudak began her employment at Muhlenberg as an academic advisor and was later promoted to Assistant, Associate and then Dean of The Wescoe School (now the School of
Continuing Studies). While each successive job brought more administrative duties, which Hudak embraced with her determined work ethic and commitment to her own lifelong learning, Hudak was always an advisor first. An excellent listener, she loved hearing people’s stories and encouraging them to bring to life chapters yet unwritten.
As beloved as Hudak was by students, she was equally admired and appreciated by her colleagues. Hudak was deeply involved in the Muhlenberg and Lehigh Valley communities with an apparent inability or unwillingness to say no to any worthy pursuit. Though secretly an introvert by nature, Hudak’s gregariousness and good nature made her the first to meet and welcome others, roll up her sleeves alongside them, and get down to work.
And work she did. Hudak’s accomplishments were far-reaching, her retirement was well-earned, and her absence will be felt by many. But because of Hudak’s genuine investment in her advisees and co-workers, others are well-prepared to carry on her excellent work inside and beyond Muhlenberg’s red doors.
About the Muhlenberg College School of Continuing Studies
For more than 100 years, Muhlenberg College’s School of Continuing Studies has provided lifelong learners the opportunity to continue and enhance their education in ways that recognize their experience, maturity, motivation, life circumstances and capacity for independent scholarship. Through a rich variety of certificates and baccalaureate degrees, the School of Continuing Studies aligns a rigorous, high-quality and student-centric curriculum with the needs and trends of our regional economy.
