The fall semester of 2027 will mark Associate Dean Marie Moeller’s sixteenth year of service at the University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, and her first year as the College of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities (CASSH) Dean, succeeding current Dean Karl Kunkel.
Dr. Moeller was born and raised on her family’s farm in the small town of Spring Valley Minnesota.
“I used to lay in the grass on our farm and watch planes and wonder, ‘Where are those people going? What are they doing?’ I was always curious, but higher ed helped me learn ways to channel that curiosity, and I want that for everybody,” Dr. Moeller said. “All of the opportunities I’ve experienced have come through higher education, through learning, travel, inquiry and wondering ‘why?’ I think the opportunity to wonder why is so important for everyone to have.”
Dr. Moeller’s higher educational journey began at a small college in Iowa, where she was a student‑athlete and ultimately earned a bachelor’s degree in English. The path to that major, however, was anything but linear. She first declared business, then Spanish, then social work, before taking an English course that changed everything.
“I took an English class for my general education and fell in love with it. I came home and said that’s what I wanted to do. My mom was very excited, she’s a first‑grade teacher who’s very into literacy, and my dad was very disappointed and said, ‘You’ll never make any money.’ I’ve been fighting that stereotype my whole life. Now I’m very successful and doing things far outside the bounds of English, but I’m able to do that because of the way my liberal arts education trained me.”
After completing her bachelor’s degree, Moeller attended Illinois State University in Normal, Illinois, where she earned her master’s degree in education.
“My mom’s big joke about that was saying it’s the closest I’ll ever get to ‘normal,’” she laughed.
She then taught full‑time for two years to confirm her desire to work in higher education. After becoming even more certain of her career path Moeller returned to Illinois State University for her Ph.D and graduated in 2009. She then took a job in North Carolina for a year before coming to UWL in 2010.
Dr. Moeller’s journey at UWL started as an assistant professor in the English department. She then went on to be a professor in the English department where she taught a variety of 100 to 400 level English courses before beginning her administrative career in 2015.
During her time in the English department, she played a pivotal role in the creation and development of the professional technical writing minor. As a scholar, Dr. Moeller is invested in analyzing connections between technical communication, advocacy, non-profit organizations (NPOs) and medical rhetorics.
Throughout her time at UWL she took on numerous administrative positions including externally chairing global cultures and languages, interim chairing the art department, and, of course, Associate Dean of CASSH.
“I just took opportunities as they came because I am interested in things,” said Moeller.
Throughout her years as Associate Dean, Moeller has worked with three different deans, Julia Johnson, Kim Vogt and Karl Kunkel. Moeller speaks fondly of the mentorship each provided, “Each of them have given me a really great perspective on what it means to lead.”
Now the longest‑serving member of the CASSH office, Moeller feels ready to step into the deanship stating, “I think there comes a time in your life where you feel you’ve done everything you can do in this job. So I either need to step aside or step up, and I think higher ed needs courageous leaders right now and I think our people need courageous leaders right now and I’m hoping to be that for them.”
She further solidifies her preparedness for this role stating, “The skills that I have, what I bring to the job are the things that are needed. I’m super relationally based, I’m positive, I’m a problem solver and I’m creative.”
As she takes on the position of dean, Moeller emphasizes that to her success is rooted in service, not titles, “Success to me is when I help a professor solve a problem that’s going to make them a better teacher, or I help a student figure something out. That’s success to me, titles do not matter. You can be a leader and successful no matter where you’re at.”
Moeller’s main goals in her first year as dean are to build an identity within the CASSH department, increase community engagement, fundraising for student scholarships, raising money for departments, helping people be contributors and to, “just put people together and try to solve some of the problems that we have in my first year.”
One initiative she hopes to launch to propel these goals forward is to create a CASSH specific career fair where local job opportunities will be showcased as an opportunity for further community outreach and student networking.
She is also incredibly committed to staying connected with the student body through meeting with students from student orgs and student government and asking them what their experiences are like.
“I care a lot about the college; I care a lot about the people who are here and I care a lot about the students. When I say care, I really mean being intentional with the way that we engage with people, making sure that they understand that things are valued, that they are valued and that their voices are heard,” said Moeller.
As a whole the College of Arts, Social Sciences & Humanities helps students develop into global citizens prepared to solve the complex issues of the 21st century.
“For me the humanities, social sciences and arts answer what it means to live a life and really experience the richness of what it means to be a human being… If we look historically there has always been art, there has always been study of the human and it has always been important. That stuff is never going to go away,” said Moeller.
“My tag line is a major in CASSH prepares you for jobs that don’t even exist yet,” said Moeller.
She encourages students to choose paths that fulfill them rather than chasing a predetermined job title, stating, “Feeding oneself is super important, but so is your experience as you’re feeding yourself. I’ve watched people go to work and be miserable and when people choose things strictly because they think it’s going to make them money, they spend a lifetime in really difficult positions.”
Outside of her administrative role, Moeller enjoys the simple pleasures life offers, like taking care of plants, gardening, baking, watching movies and making jam.
“I really like the metaphor of growing things, I help people grow and I help plants grow,” she said.
Moeller has also been passionate about travel since childhood. She saved her babysitting money in high school to study abroad, studied abroad again in college and later lived and taught abroad for a semester.
“There’s a quote that I really like from Marcel Proust that says, ‘the true voyage is not in seeking new landscapes but in having new eyes.’ Travel makes me constantly look for differences in a place I’ve always been.”
