New Dean on the Job at Tarleton Fort Worth

Tarleton State University has been part of Fort Worth for 45 years.

There were eight students when it opened in 1978 on West Myrtle Street. From there, it moved to the Richard C. Schaffer Building on Enderly Place in the '90s and expanded to the Hickman Building on Camp Bowie Boulevard in 2006.

It finally put down permanent roots in 2019 with a new 80-acre campus along Chisholm Trail Parkway in southwest Fort Worth.

Now in 2023, the campus steps into another new chapter.

On Monday, March 20, Rachael Capua takes over as the new dean of Tarleton Fort Worth. Officially, she is Vice President for External Operations and Dean of Tarleton Fort Worth.

"It's an honor. An honor. I am a community college graduate and former transfer student. A second-generation Mexican-American and just feel so strongly and passionately about the work we're doing here," said Rachael Capua who was hired following a nationwide search.

Capua holds four degrees pursued with intention and persistence: an Associate of Arts from Collin College, a Bachelor of Science from Texas Christian University, a Master of Education from the University of Oklahoma and in 2019, a Doctor of Education degree from Southern Methodist University.

She's worked with transfer students at TCU, in the Office of The Chancellor at Tarrant County College, and most recently, with the educational nonprofit Tarrant To and Through (T3).

"I feel like every position professionally has prepared me for this next step," she said. Her multiple degrees and her ascension to the dean's office are significant moments.

She's the granddaughter of a man who has a fourth-grade education yet even so, "instilled this sense of what education does for you. It allows access and a seat at the table where you may not have otherwise. At the end of the day, it's afforded me opportunity," she said. "And someone who is second-generation Mexican-American, it means so much to me that I can hopefully be a voice and have this opportunity to share with others that they can do it, too."

That grandfather was on her mother's side, a single mom who raised two girls and owned her own business.

Capua is raising two girls with husband Carlo. The girls are foster children whose adoption will soon be finalized.
She worried her career move would be disruptive for their young daughters but her husband had no doubt they could work it out.

"I had reservations. 'Could we make all this work? Could we manage a position like this with two girls at the same time, something new, right?' And, he assured me, marriage is about meeting each other where we are professionally and personally and that we can do this and we can do it together," she said.

Together is how she'll approach her new role, listening to and working with students, faculty and staff in Fort Worth and almost a half-dozen outreach campuses.

She will be responsible for the university's Online Campus and outreach centers at McLennan Community College in Waco, Navarro College in Midlothian and A&M-RELLIS in Bryan.

And as dean, she'll define Tarleton's role as part of the new Texas A&M University System research and innovation center downtown (A&M-Fort Worth), she'll work to expand upper-level classes on the fifth floor of Tarrant County College's Trinity West Fork Building, continuing a long-standing commitment by both schools to provide affordable, accessible education for students who want more than an associate degree.

"I feel really strongly that it's gonna be important to lead with action and lead with empathy," she said. "I think at the end of the day, it's waking up with the mission to support them, so they can fulfill their dreams and reach aspirations of what they want," she said.

First impressions are favorable.

"I think she's great. She's nice. She has a plan. She seems like she really wants to do for the students, faculty and staff," said graduate student Jamyce Marshall

Capua will also oversee Tarleton's ambitious plan to open a second building next year. The $66 million project will add more labs and classrooms in anticipation of more students. A population of 2,200 is expected to almost triple by 2030.

A bigger footprint and greater visibility fall in line with Capua's vision, a campus where students can "dream big and do big --- a place where they feel supported, seen, and encouraged to go the distance, to persist and complete."