With 28 years in the FBI, including a two-year stint at the White House and having been assigned to Watergate, instructor Joseph Gosseaux has a more experienced past than most teachers.
In fact, he helped create the criminal justice program at Neumann University. After retiring from the FBI, he began teaching criminal justice courses part time at St. Joseph’s University. With a will to turn it into a full time position, he contacted Neumann’s Dean of Arts and Sciences, presented her with a program, and began teaching a few courses to “test the waters.” This was in 2000 and by Spring 2001, the program was so popular, that it was expanded into a major.
“It became a full major and we’ve never looked back. Today there are more than 200 students enrolled in the major and it continues to grow,” he said.
But helping build a college program from the ground up (though he was quick to credit others at the University for their help), wasn’t Gosseaux’s first experience with making things happen. After deciding he wanted to join the FBI at the age of 19, he earned a degree and taught high school until he was old enough to join.
“I met people and went places that I would have never been otherwise,” he said. “Not many people can say they were at Watergate or that they were a liaison to the U.S. Secret Service at the White House. I’m very lucky.”
Sharing those experiences is also a high point, Gosseaux said.
“Students are here to learn and I can give them the knowledge they will need to succeed.”