Subscribe to the show in Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or anywhere else you find your favorite podcasts!
Dr. Sara Thorndike

Penn State CBO Dr. Sara Thorndike on the Importance of Trust & the Power of People Skills

Dr. Sara Thorndike is the Senior Vice President for Finance and Business Treasurer at The Pennsylvania State University in University Park, Pennsylvania. In this episode, Thorndike joins our host Donna Schiele to talk about keeping the pulse on the needs of your team, finding ways to create work/life balance, and why people skills may outweigh the technical skills in this role.


“Understanding that you have to know how to collaborate and partner and feel comfortable building trust & negotiating. Building that team. Those are the skills that are important for a CBO to cultivate because it’s about partnerships,” she says.

Join us for a conversation with Dr. Sara Thorndike as she talks about the importance of diversity, equity, & inclusion; the importance of trust in relationship building; and the power of mentorship.

Explore Issues Shaping the Business of Higher Education.
Hear colleagues, experts, and industry leaders explore issues, provide best practices, offer solutions to new questions that may not have been asked before, and think through how recent developments will shape their institutions in the months and years ahead.