Deep in the Galactically Underrated File sits Adelphi University, a 125-year-old private institution that is routinely overlooked on an Island heavy with world-class universities and laboratories – though not by U.S. News & World Report, which ranks Adelphi a top college for veterans, nursing students, career guidance, social mobility and other key categories that define the nation’s best schools.

Keeping Adelphi, it’s roughly 8,000 students and its impressive academic staff ticking is Dr. Christine Riordan, an internationally acclaimed leadership-development expert who in 2015 became the first woman to serve as the Garden City-based university’s president. A former University of Kentucky provost, one-time University of Denver Business School dean and enormous proponent of diversity, Christine brings lengthy experience to the job, and a savvy that served the school well during the COVID crunch.

In today’s conversation, the president joins Spark host Gregory Zeller to discuss Adelphi’s post-pandemic renaissance, including new programs, new student-housing plans and a host of COVID-era pivots and lessons that will help Adelphi grow now and in the future.