| January 19, 2011 | Vol 12. No. 8 |
The NetGazette features profiles of new and current faculty, staff and administrators. If you have an idea for a Canisius profile, please send an E-mail to Kristin Etu '91, NetGazette editor, at etuk@canisius.edu.
Patricia C. Strobele, administrative associate, Department of Communication Studies
Patricia C. Strobele, administrative associate for communication studies, can effectively juggle multiple priorities. And it’s a good thing.
The Department of Communication Studies is a busy place, especially with the addition of a new major in fall 2010 (journalism) and a full-time professor (Assistant Professor of Communication Studies Rob Kaiser, MFA). In her current responsibilities, Strobele provides administrative support to the department’s faculty and students. She supervises students who work in the office and manages the departmental budget.
“I really love to work with students in such a multi-faceted way and want to assist them in achieving their future goals,” says Strobele, who came to Canisius in 2003 part-time with the Department of Events Management. “Because they have so many responsibilities in our office, I write letters of recommendation for them after they graduate.”
After several years in the Department of Fine Arts, Strobele moved to the Department of Communication Studies in the summer of 2008, when she needed full-time work.
“Unfortunately I lost my husband, Steve Moziak, to cancer in the summer of 2008,” she says, “So this job came at the right time for my family.”
Strobele has two children, 22 year-old Michael, a carpenter, and 19 year-old Tarah ’14, a student in the college’s five-year MBA program.
Before coming to Canisius, Strobele worked for eight years in operating room reception and in the pediatric intensive care nursery for Women and Children’s Hospital.
Another priority she juggles is her studies. Strobele, a religious studies major, has taken several studio art classes at the college, including a drawing and painting class taught by Christine M. Walsh, associate professor and director of studio art.
“I actually found a whole new perspective on the world,” Strobele says. “It took me nearly 10 hours to draw a fern in my back yard, and I now stop and marvel at uprooted trees in Forest Lawn Cemetery during my regular walks with a close friend.”
Strobele, a resident of Buffalo’s Broadway-Fillmore neighborhood, says she hopes to someday pursue a career in social work, particularly with young people.
"I have always been the neighborhood ‘Mom,’" recalls Strobele. "During the October Storm, if kids had nowhere to go or needed something to do, I organized productive projects for them."
In her spare time, Strobele also likes to knit, crochet and craft art glass. She is currently at work on a new glass piece based on Frank Lloyd Wright’s “Tree of Life.”