Some Parker teachers display their worldview through colorful classroom posters or subtle desk-displays. The Associate Director of Alumni Engagement and new Upper School Dean of Student Life wears his proudly on his denim vest, in the form of a circular Oprah pin. Lit by long statement windows with a courtyard view, Bruno makes it instantly clear what matters to him before opening his mouth. After Chris Bielizna’s three year tenure, Bruno has taken over the dean position and set up camp in his newly constructed office. 

Two framed pictures of Oprah, one of them signed, are displayed on Bruno’s desk. His open phone reveals an Oprah screensaver. The Oprah paraphernalia and a planter box are the only signs that the office is Bruno’s, since he’s only had his newly constructed third-floor office since September 10.

“This job, and I say this all the time, is not about me,” Bruno said. “This job is about the students. It is about being an advocate for the students, it is about removing barriers for the students, it is about making students feel safe and comfortable and welcome.”

According to Bruno, his main goals for the year are to “create a strong structure so that clubs and organizations will thrive and grow, form relationships, advocate for students, challenge students, collaborate with faculty and learn everyone’s name.”

Bruno came to the position from what he calls the “west side of Clark street,” where he worked in Alumni Engagement for almost six years. “It was something a little different because I wasn’t working directly with students,” Bruno said, noting that he interacted occasionally with Parker students through retreats, Career Day, and Morning Ex.

After college and graduate school, Bruno worked in student services at DePaul for 13 years part-time and for five years full time before moving to Parker’s Alumni Relations team. In the DePaul Division of Student Affairs, he worked on student orientations, budget management, and social and academic programming. The direct student contact and interaction he got there were missing from his work in the Alumni office. “When this became available, I knew I had to jump at the chance to see what it looks like from the inside to serve students.”

Bruno is still working part-time in development finishing up projects and has been balancing the two jobs since Bielizna’s exit in June. Faculty were notified of the transition  a few weeks after graduation by Head of Upper School Justin Brandon. The email said Bielizna was “no longer working for the school” and asked faculty join Brandon “in wishing Chris all the very best in his future endeavors.” The rest of the email included biography and background on Bruno.

Upper School History Teacher and fellow Student Government Faculty Advisor Jeanne Barr has seen three deans before Bruno. “You know, Bielizna tried really, really hard,” Barr said. “I think you get torn, pulled in a lot of directions. And navigating that is tricky.”

“Mr. Bruno is a little more social than Mr. Bielizna was,” sophomore Ava Utigard, member of Bruno’s sophomore retreat activity group, said. “He’s more willing to talk to the students and get on the same level with them.”

 Even though he came in five days after students and left shortly after for the sophomore retreat, Bruno didn’t enter quietly. His orientation introduction video previewed a Hamilton ticket raffle. While his entrance came with gifts and donut holes, Bruno says he’s prepared for the job to be more than just fun. 

“Sometimes it’s about saying no and being the person who needs to put a stop to something or needs to figure out a way with students about how to go about doing something in a different direction,” Bruno said.

Last year, the administration came under fire for their handling of disciplinary actions. “My personal policy is to be very transparent, and I think consistency is the key,” Bruno said. “Sometimes things are very much a case-by-case basis, and sometimes you really need to look at the specifics of what it is you’re dealing with. The decision made sometimes might not be the popular decision, but it is the right decision.”

Barr thinks Bruno is well positioned for discipline after working with college students and using outreach skills in the alumni office. “He’s an inside guy, which brings with it all of the institutional memory and interconnections that he already has,” Barr said.

While Bruno plans to stand by disciplinary choices, he wants students to learn from their conversations with him.“My philosophy is, every single thing that happens, let it happen for you and not to you,” Bruno said. “When they happen to us, we’re in a bad space, we play the victim, woe is me, but when they happen for us, we are the bigger person in that situation. We allow ourselves to learn from our mistakes and we use that to grow and do better moving forward.”

Bruno said he learned this from Oprah Winfrey, the subject of his pins and photo frames. “I think she is the ultimate example of how to use your life, how to use your life to overcome, how to use your life to give back,” Bruno said. “I think people see her, they hear her name, they instantly think billionaire, and that is what she is. Most people don’t know that she came from nothing, was raised in extremely poor conditions, and had a very rough upbringing. But she used her life to overcome that.”

To Bruno, Oprah represents giving back. “Any of us can give back and we should be giving back,” Bruno said. “Giving back is just opening the door or smiling at somebody or saying good morning. Obviously, not all of us have the capacity to give people cars.”

In many ways, giving back is one of the central facets of Bruno’s professional and personal life. His work in Alumni Engagement helped former students give back to Parker though time, talent or money. “That is the goal because that is what makes Parker grow and that is what allows us to do the great things that we’re able to do,” Bruno said. 

As Dean, Bruno is ready to make giving back more personal. “I am here to give back to students,” Bruno said. Even his path to student services centers on giving back. From high school at Holy Cross through graduate school at Lewis University, Bruno said he had an “extraordinary student experience” he wants to pass that forward through his work in education.

 Bruno never wanted to be a teacher, though he did teach a Peer Education Theory and Practice class at DePaul, but he knew he wanted to be involved with students.“I loved school so much that I did not like Fridays, because that meant that I couldn’t be at school on Saturday and Sunday,” Bruno said. “Mondays have always been my favorite day of the week.” 

School wasn’t always a positive for Bruno. At his all-boys catholic high school, being a gay man meant he didn’t fit into his school’s heteronormative culture. Across the street was a safe haven at the all-girls high school, where he took orchestra, band, and voice. Despite his extracurriculars, the overall environment was very different from Parker. “There was no student voice,” Bruno said. “Students were not speaking up in class and sharing their opinion.”

This is a part of Bruno’s impression of Parker students. “A very strong sense of self, not afraid to voice their opinion, which I think sometimes there is a place for that and sometimes we need to listen more,” Bruno said.

Bruno also said Parker students celebrated individuality, something that’s important to him too. “I think just me being who I am, hopefully, that empowers a student to be who they are,” Bruno said. “I think the greatest gift you can give another human being is to make someone feel so comfortable in their own skin they want to become a bigger version of who they are.”

Utigard noticed this during the retreat. “He was a pretty strong leader,” Utigard said. “He made us feel comfortable when we were doing some of the scarier things and he participated.” 

The outdoors are not Bruno’s typical setting. He prefers big cities like New York, where he regularly sees theater. Bruno took voice lessons for 13 years, starting in the third grade, and played the French Horn for four. “I love that art removes you from your current reality and transports you to a time and a place that is not the current,” Bruno said. “I love that it that it teaches you something about yourself and who you are.” Bruno has been to New York City 38 times in the past 10 years and catalogs mementos from all his visits, including hotel key cards, playbills, and train tickets. 

“I’m very protective of my memories,” Bruno said. “I do not like clutter. I save a lot of things, but everything is cataloged. I save every hotel key card I’ve ever stayed in. I know you’re probably supposed to give those back. I’ve got them.”

This organized sentimentality matches Bruno’s world view. When he identifies something that matters to him, whether it be Oprah or student services, he holds onto it with passion and expresses it. “If you are not happy with who you are, Bruno said, “and are not living the truest expression of yourself, all different facets of your life will suffer from that.”