Interview with the Director of Research & Strategic Planning

Because my concentration within my advertising major is brand strategy and research, I decided to speak with Salus University’s Director of Research & Strategic Planning, Gregory Benjamin, to get some insight into what his position entails and if it’s something I would be interested in pursuing. When I walked into his office, he happily greeted me and asked me what my major is and where I go to school. He then talked about his background; he majored in biochemistry to which he later found out that the medical field was not the direction he wanted to go in. After taking a year off, knowing that the medical field was an occupation that he felt pressured to go in since both his siblings went into the medical field, he later found that he enjoyed doing research.

As the Director of Research & Strategic Planning, Gregory does both quantitative and qualitative research. He executes surveys and compares the university’s data with other institutions in the Philadelphia area as well as within the northeastern region and other regions of the country. Gregory reports his findings directly to the university’s president, associate provost, and other faculty members. On a daily basis, he spends his time doing research on the university’s amount of resources (such as books, computers, and lab equipment) and strategies that make other institutions’ programs successful as well as ways that Salus can improve its curriculum.

To conclude our discussion, Gregory gave an overview of his journey in finding a career that interested him. Unlike his siblings, who had a straight path toward their career, it took some trial and error for him to find the career that fit him best. Looking back, Gregory said that he learned “to go with the flow” and that the process it took him to land in the position he’s in now is more important than taking the direct path to a job that pays well, but is not what he enjoys.