While Anna Porcaro was never an adult or online learner, she’s always had a passion for providing the best possible resources and educational tools for adult and online students. It’s a calling that still resonates with her, even as her time at Wichita State comes to a close.

Porcaro, who joined WSU in 2010 as an instructional designer and has since served as executive director of Online and Adult Learning, recently celebrated her departure from WSU with friends, family, students and colleagues. 

Porcaro will accept a new role, still within the world of adult learning, with the Kansas Leadership Center as the new senior director of monitoring and evaluation. 

As the executive director of Online and Adult Learning, Porcaro has overseen a number of departments, including OneStop Student Services and the Office of Online Learning, both of which she helped develop. 

“(Since OneStop) and since we’ve been doing online learning, we’ve been kind of fighting on behalf of the adult learners,” Porcaro said. “Every single meeting I go to, (I ask) ‘What about the adult and online learners?'”

One of her greatest missions has been helping higher education faculty and staff engage in digital transformations to better accommodate the needs of online and adult students.

“It really comes down to we will help wherever we can, and if we can’t help a student, then we will connect them with who can help,” Porcaro said.

Porcaro said that online and adult learning students often face greater challenges when it comes to having time and access to education, especially with all of the extra commitments they may have outside of university.

“Online and adult students are using those pathways … because their lives are complicated,” Porcaro said. “What we do in adult learning really helps those students who have dependence, full-time jobs, (or) a community that they’re involved in, and they just cannot come here. 

“For the last 10 years, I’ve been working really hard to help them to get an education when and where they need it.”

As a new director for the Kansas Leadership Center, Porcaro will educate others in new ways through designing, executing, and providing support for tactical leadership strategies and teams. She said that her time at WSU has well-equipped her with the necessary insights to continue providing accessible, student-friendly education.

“I’m bringing an understanding of all people in technology and teaching (from WSU),” Porcaro said. “And the ability to look at a big system and understand how things work and what gaps might exist for people.”

Brett Bruner, assistant vice president of Student Success and Persistence, will take over as the interim director in Porcaro’s place. 

Porcaro leaves behind a 13-year legacy as an advocate for online and adult students, but even with her new role with the Kansas Leadership Center, Porcaro will always consider herself to be primarily an aid for education.

“It’s educating adults with a particular frame of mind,” Porcaro said. “It’s going to be a wonderful next chapter in my life.”