The room where no one has to pretend they know everything.
As he moved up, the circle got smaller and the weight got heavier. In WIBE, Robert Crossler found a room that met him with support, not judgment.
He set out to teach. The rest he grew into.
Robert E. Crossler did not plan to be an administrator. He started his doctoral program in 2005 with one goal, to impact students in the classroom. Along the way, he fell for research too.
He landed at Washington State University in 2016, stepped into leadership as an associate department chair in 2019, and took over as department chair on April 1, 2020. No joke. That was the week everyone was sent home for the pandemic. Six years later, on January 1, 2026, he became Senior Associate Dean for Academic Affairs. He calls it an unpredictable roller coaster. A pandemic, a fast-changing higher ed landscape, the rise of AI. Unexpected, but a fun challenge.
Ask him the hardest part of the job, and he does not hesitate.
Loneliness. As you move up the administration stack, the circle gets smaller. When he first stepped into leadership, he lost a few friendships. He was still in the trenches with his faculty then.
As Senior Associate Dean, more of his days are spent on problems he cannot share openly. Decisions that stay with him. He found himself processing alone, carrying weight he could not set down.
His dean invited him. He showed up from vacation.
Deborah Compeau, his dean, had been part of WIBE for years. Last summer, she invited him to a conference. He was on vacation in Ohio at the time. He showed up anyway, and started listening.
It gave him something his own building could not. A view from outside the fishbowl. Proof that he was not alone, and that leaders everywhere were wrestling with the same things he was.
He named his biggest win. It was not a project.
Rob became one of the most active members of his Executive Circle, the small peer group we used to call the Inner Circle. It put him in a room with people who had faced what he was facing, or were in the thick of it too. People who would listen, and offer a perspective that was not buried in his day-to-day weeds. He found that helping others often helped him.
Rob internalizes a lot. He does not like to let people down. So when asked for his biggest win, he named his life. He is not letting the job destroy him. He is a better partner when he gets home. And he has learned to make the hard calls in a way that keeps everyone's dignity intact.
Two things he did not expect.
First, the room was not all women, even back when women was still in the name. Second, how completely everyone accepted each other. No judgment. Just a steady spirit of support. We've all been there.
WIBE is the place where leaders want to help leaders.
ROBERT E. CROSSLER, SENIOR ASSOCIATE DEAN, CARSON COLLEGE OF BUSINESS, WASHINGTON STATE UNIVERSITYYour next chapter starts in the room.
Every member story began with one decision to stop doing it alone. Yours can too.
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