This semester, Cohort 9 QUEST alumnus Dr. Fox Troilo is making his return to the University of Maryland to be the newest BMGT/ENES190H instructor! He is co-teaching the QUEST introductory course with Dr. Ben Huffman. I had the opportunity to chat with him about his past experiences and life post-college, as well as his reason for returning.

Dr. Fox Troilo

1. What did you study during your time at the University of Maryland?
Ooh, I like this question because I get to approach it in a few different ways. I suppose to start, I received two undergraduate degrees from the Smith School of Business: one in Information Systems, and one in a field that I believe has been merged with other academic areas—Operations and Quality Management. The latter was almost like QUEST-the-Major given its focus on project/process management and design.

I also really tried to take advantage of the multitude of offerings across campus in other areas. I remember particularly enjoying a class on stage production from the theater department, especially the lesson on fight choreography.

Finally, I was really happy I dabbled in a few extracurricular activities outside my comfort zone including fencing, dodgeball, and sailing.

Point being, I really tried to consider the question: What can I try out while at UMD that I might not get the opportunity to experience later?

2. What made you interested in joining QUEST back in your undergrad?
I can distinctly remember receiving a QUEST flyer in my Ellicott Hall mailbox as a first-year student and asking my friends if any of them had heard about the program (they hadn’t). I recall being intrigued by the notion of redesigning a product and working in teams to solve problems.

My older brother Michael was at the University of Michigan doing grad school work and was a mentor to me growing up about all things academic. When I described the QUEST opportunity to him, he basically insisted I go for it because he could sense the potential benefits it would bring (he had a better intuition about such things than I at the time).

I honestly didn’t have any clue then just how influential the decision to apply would end up being, but I’m very happy I read that flyer.

3. I also know you were a student org president during your time in QUEST – which organization were you a part of and what was that like?
Oh boy, haha. I was in a lot of student groups including: QUEST Student Organization, Phi Chi Theta, Smith Ambassadors, Smith Newsletter, and SUSA. SUSA was particularly interesting because it was brand new, and we were finding our way as to what student government would look like in the Smith School.

As a piece of totally useless trivia, I actually served as the very first SUSA president and am “responsible” (or to blame?) for the name/acronym: “SUSA.” At the time there were a lot of “Dr. SUSA” jokes as a result, and honestly, I thought the name would change after I left, but I’m happy to see how it’s grown!

In terms of what they were like, I’ll simply say they were grand fun. Almost every night was some sort of social or professional event, and I loved being around fellow students who were passionate about similar interests. I would credit the event-planning component of these activities as something that also I really benefitted from (I still love planning parties and events!).

4. Where did you end up post-graduation?
Right after graduating, I took a job with Accenture doing generic Department of Defense consulting work (meaning: I did grunt work to support the consulting teams on government contracts). Nothing against that line of work, but I was never really passionate about it and only chose that job because I didn’t really know my options.

When I met my now-wife Jill, after only a few dates she wanted to have “a talk” with me. Basically, she could tell that I wasn’t really making the most out of my professional career, and the not-thinly-veiling message was: “Go make something of yourself, or this isn’t happening between us.”

Thanks VERY much to her encouragement, I thought about what I really loved and decided upon the industry of higher education. That was primarily driven by my positive experiences at the University of Maryland and particularly Smith/QUEST. I bounced around a little bit with some odd jobs (including Georgetown’s McDonough School of Business for a while) and eventually went back to grad school.

I first started at Vanderbilt University where I received a Masters of Higher Education Administration. I had some great professors there who nudged me toward continuing my learning, and thus I ended up next at Indiana University Bloomington.

While at IU, I received my Ph.D. in a joint venture between the School of Education and the Kelley School of Business. My research focused on the notion of approaching a college or university as a production center that creates both knowledge and students. From that premise, I explored the question of optimization: What should those institutions invest in (resource-wise) in order to graduate the most students while also empowering faculty to conduct research and publish? It was a fabulous experience.

After that, I joined Hanover Research as a higher education consultant and have been there for almost ten years.

5. What would you say is your main reason for returning to UMD?
This may sound a little corny or cliche, but UMD (and QUEST specifically) had such a wonderfully profound impact on my life, both personally and professionally. And it was thanks to the Dr. Bardossy’s, Professor Ashley’s (who was my professor!), Dr. Huffman’s, Emily’s, and Jess’s of my time. Those people helped me so immensely and so positively, I’ve always wanted to come back and give back, to the program that really set me up for success more so than almost any other experience in my life.

In fact, when I left QUEST, I (rather brazenly) said that someday I would return to teach 190H. Not in a million years did I think it would actually happen. So, I’m not being hyperbolic when I say that coming back is both one of the biggest honors of my life as well as being a literal dream come true.

I should note that I have to once again credit my wife Jill—who did not go through QUEST nor was a UMD student, but I still only met because of QUEST due to other friendships formed—who told me she was going to force me to apply when the call came out for new professors.

Dr. Troilo (top, second from right) and friends during his time at UMD

The QUEST community is magical and has the ability to bring out the best in all of us, and Dr. Troilo is no exception to that. To those of you who’d like to connect with him, even to just chat, he is always open to visitors during his office hours or you can reach out at ftroilo@umd.edu. We at QUESTPress are super enthusiastic about Dr. Troilo coming back to the QUEST family and cannot wait to see what he has in store for us this semester!