“It was the perfect time to go back because most of the classes I took, I was able to take from home,” Bissoni said. “I didn’t have to (earn my degree) for my job, but I felt like I should do it to show my three children that you need to finish what you start. I always wanted to finish.”
He didn’t know it then, but four years later on May 11, Bissoni would go on to earn his degree alongside his daughter and share the commencement stage with her. He graduated summa cum laude.
“Sharing the graduation stage with her was amazing,” Bissoni said. “We were standing in line, and she looked up at me and said ‘Dad, I am so proud of you.’ To be able to share that with her and say, ‘I’m so proud of you, too,’ was a surreal experience.”
Not only did Bissoni share graduation day with Regan, but they also had the opportunity to take classes together – writing and poetry.
“I enjoyed playing the dad role in every classroom,” he said. “Even in the classes that I didn’t have with my own children, you walk in and can feel like the oldest guy in the room, and I never felt like that. I felt like the dad in the room, where students would all bounce ideas off of me and I really enjoyed that.”
Bissoni began working for the Office of the State Comptroller in June 1988, first as a programmer and later went on to climb the ladder in the Active & Pension Payroll Services Division. Now as the Statewide Director for that same division, Bissoni oversees the pay of 175,000 active employees and retirees.
“Higher education really polished and reinforced everything I have learned over the years,” he said.
During his time at Central, Bissoni was exposed to new software and technology that aided him in core areas of his job function. He is currently overseeing efforts to consolidate the Executive Branch’s payroll and move those payroll functions into the Office of the State Comptroller.
“Part of that process has been sending out surveys and learning how to write, formulate, and study those surveys effectively,” he said. “The university really gave me a path to that. That is one area where going to Central really helped me in my career.”
Bissoni said he also gained valuable communication strategies that he has used when hiring new employees.
“The university polished a lot of the skills that I had that needed to be polished,” he said.
While Bissoni said that he will miss all of the professors at Central, the university will always be his home. Bissoni and his daughter Regan join a long line of family members who have graduated from Central – his wife; son, Gavin; brother; sister-in-law; mother-in-law; and both of his brothers-in-law have all graduated from the university.
His youngest daughter, Grace, is currently a sophomore at Central.
And when Grace walks across the graduation stage three years from now, Bissoni, Regan, and his Blue Devils family will all be there cheering her on at the place they call home.
