Kruckenberg’s Multiple Roles

KRUCKENBERG FILLS MULTIPLE ROLES AT TABOR

by Kylie Davis

Erica Kruckenberg, affectionately known as “Mama K,” wears many hats at Tabor.

As director of Student Success and self-proclaimed “herder of cats,” Kruckenberg oversees a myriad of responsibilities, including freshman orientation, tutoring, advising, academic accommodations and academic probation.

“My favorite part of the job is getting to know my students, and having my students teach me what the old lady doesn’t know, which could be anything from new vocabulary to music that I otherwise wouldn’t have listened to,” she said. “My students teach me in return and I really enjoy that.”

Before coming to Tabor, Kruckenberg earned a degree in international business and global studies from Bethany College. She then served in the Peace Corp, bought and sold Pizza Hut franchises, and ran the business side of a missile manufacturing company.

Then, Kruckenberg tragically lost her father.

“That made me stop and take inventory of life, and I wanted to do something to give back,” she said.

After completing an alternative certification, she taught kindergarten through second grade and earned her master’s in Higher Education Leadership at Texas A&M to become a high school principal in Texas.

She and her family returned to Lindsborg, Kansas, where she taught business and served as alumni director at Bethany. After working as a caseworker for Kansas Mental Health and a 911 dispatcher, she decided to return to education and Tabor hired her.

“I really am a poster child for why a liberal arts education is so important,” Kruckenberg said. “Bethany has a liberal arts program similar to Tabor’s, and without that exposure to those different classes, I couldn’t have done all the things I did.”

Kruckenberg also teaches elementary statistics and macroeconomics at Tabor, along with a math class in the Elevate program.

“I am a complete nerd, and I love statistics,” she said. “I take a different approach to statistics than normal math professors because I just want to make sure (students) understand every piece of it.”