Dr. Michelle Payne serves as Vice Provost for Academic Leadership and Faculty Affairs at Boise State University. As Vice Provost she is responsible for coordinating programs and services in Academic Affairs that support the career development of faculty and the growth of effective academic leaders. She works with partners across Boise State and Idaho to provide leadership development programs for Academic Affairs; support faculty shared governance processes and policies; facilitate healthy department cultures; manage faculty personnel processes; and contribute to Boise State’s strategic goal to foster thriving communities. Dr. Payne facilitates Boise State’s biweekly New Academic Leaders Program, manages programming for regular meetings of the Academic Leadership Council (department chairs, deans, and associate deans), and is a member of the planning team for the inaugural Idaho Academic Leadership Academy, which is funded by the Idaho State Board of Education. Dr. Payne is a Professor of Writing Studies and has a Ph.D. in English, Composition, and Literature from the University of New Hampshire, an M.A. in Composition and Rhetoric from Florida State University, and a B.A. in English Literature, with a minor in Creative Writing, from Miami University in Ohio. Prior to serving as Vice Provost, Dr. Payne served as chair […]
In the current environment, change is no longer an infrequent ‘initiative’ that needs managing—it is all around us, it is constant, and it is not going away. But this does not mean that leaders should give up their autonomy: In too many cases, we experience change as happening to us (reactive stance) instead of proactively shaping the change we want to see, and the pace at which we want it to occur. Join us online to learn how you can take a more proactive approach to change management. Through a combination of instruction, case studies, and group discussion, you’ll gain practical tools for convening others and accelerating progress on your change effort, even against the backdrop of meetings and committees that characterize decision-making in higher education. Specifically, you’ll learn how to: Assess your own influence and authority Identify and persuade your critics Discern when and where to spend relational capital Maintain focus on the bigger-picture goal
You know it’s important to put your employer partners in front of your diverse students. But events that reach the most students, such as panels and info sessions, may not resonate with your students as they have in the past. Join us online to hear how UNC Charlotte has created a targeted approach to matching employers with diverse students – one focused on sustainability and quality, not quantity. You will learn how UNC Charlotte: Created and uses a survey to assess their employer partners’ needs, so they can match students with intention Retooled an existing program (Career Treks), which brings students to employers so the students can witness the work involved, and as a result, better meets the needs of its diverse students and employer partners while also managing its own resources effectively Built a referral system with the student diversity groups on campus to make finding diverse students on campus quicker and easier for employers
As a frontline fundraiser, you have likely honed your “fundraising voice” over time. You have learned to embody crucial tenets such as integrity, listening, and humility in ways that feel authentic and purposeful. As you continue adapting to a virtual workflow, have you considered whether your fundraising voice is deeply rooted in handshakes or face-to-face meetings? Have you felt less “yourself” while fundraising virtually? Join us online for an in-depth virtual training where our experts will help you adapt your fundraising practices to the online environment and become more successful. Our panel will help you determine key tenets of your own unique voice as a frontline fundraiser. Through small group roleplays, you will learn how to leverage these characteristics, and you’ll leave the training with clear next steps for fundraising more authentically in a virtual world.
This webcast will show you how you can use a Net Promoter® question on your alumni surveys to determine which investments bring your alumni closer to and more connected with your university. By adding one question to your existing alumni surveys, you can: Move beyond measuring engagement by attendance Resource programming that meets the needs of both your alumni and university Focus efforts on the segments of your alumni population that are “promoters” Make a distinction between satisfied and intensely loyal alumni Identify the elements of your programs that really matter Our expert instructor, Jennifer Lynham Cunningham, will demonstrate how she was able to incorporate a Net Promoter® question on her institution’s post-event and alumni attitudinal surveys. Jennifer will also share how to collect and analyze this data with easy-to-use and inexpensive tools.
READ THE WHOLE SERIES:Developing a High-Performing and Productive Advising Department In this series, “Developing a High-Performing and Productive Advising Department,” I’ve discussed strategies for identifying, assessing, and meeting student, staff, and advisors’ needs. Now I will discuss strategies for positively impacting departmental, college, and university-wide systems and contributing to the effective implementation of change. Be a Voice in Decision Making Institutions vary as to how they deliver academic advising and where the function resides. Sometimes it is housed in student affairs, sometimes in academic affairs within colleges and departments, and other times there is a cross-over or shared responsibility between academic and student affairs. No matter where advising is situated, academic advising is just one small part of a larger unit. If advising is housed within student affairs, there is a challenge contributing to academic decision-making, as the role of the advising department is often thought to be limited to implementing and communicating academic decisions to students. Even when the academic advising unit is located within academic affairs, there is a risk of being considered a limited support service role and thus being excluded from decision-making and change implementation. Let’s examine the implementation of a new curriculum as an example. Typically, […]
Service excellence requires an ethic of care and cultural sensitivity that recognizes students’ strengths and unique backgrounds to allow you to meet them where they are. Combining these two approaches into a culturally responsive customer service initiative allows an institution to provide holistic support throughout students’ academic journey, which in turn has a direct impact on retention, persistence, and overall student success. Leading this training are our subject matter experts, Dr. Jessica Lauritsen from Hennepin Technical College and Ivan Lui from The Brooklyn Bridge Alliance for Youth (BBA), who are experienced in successfully implementing a culturally responsive customer service initiative to increase student completion and persistence. Here, they will share their learnings and practical tips for how you can get started with: Understanding initial research on your institution’s student persistence and completion. Assessing the readiness of your institution and its leadership capacity for such an initiative. Using a “serving students” lens to reframe the conversation around intercultural development and cultural competency. Building a sustainable service excellence and retention initiative.
Michelle has been in fundraising for nearly 2 decades, having worked with donors of all types—from annual fund donors to third-party volunteers, principal gift donors, and corporations and foundations. From start-up non-profits in Tanzania, to complex institutions of higher learning in Canada, Michelle takes great pride in her passion for philanthropy and her drive to make a tangible impact in our communities and the world. Michelle is a strategic thinker with a track-record of turning vision into reality. She is an intuitive leader who identifies threads of opportunity across organizations and pulls them together to create organizational partnerships that drive results. She thinks big and inspires her colleagues to do the same. Her enthusiasm is contagious, and she uses that enthusiasm to create cultures of learning, innovation, and empowerment within the teams she leads. Michelle ultimately lives by the Dan Rockwell quote, “Fitting in is unsophisticated self-sabotage, but effectively standing out requires finesse,” and she aspires to see the fundraising profession modernize to better meet the needs of donors and the communities served through philanthropy.
Chairs occupy an essential position on our campuses, sitting at the intersection point that connects our faculty to institutional strategy, context, and culture. They also make some of the most impactful decisions that shape the university, overseeing decisions related to hiring, promotion, and curriculum. Yet for most institutions, the support and training available to chairs is minimal. Most of the training provided to chairs is limited to topics like how to work with HR, budgeting, and promotion & tenure. But what truly separates effective chairs from ineffective chairs are their leadership skills, such as: Academic Impressions has been trusted to effectively train department chairs across the U.S. and Canada for over ten years. In this free webcast, we’ll discuss the keys to our success, what works and what doesn’t, and create a space for others to share their best practices. If you need to start or enhance chair development at your own institution, we invite you to join us for this program.
The news is filled with accounts of extended pay freezes and tightened departmental budgets. More than ever, it is crucial to identify creative, meaningful, and low-cost ways to reward and retain high-performing faculty. Mary Coussons-Read, professor of psychology and acting chair of the department of physics at the University of Colorado Denver, reviews low-cost practices that can make a difference. Rethink Performance Rewards “Don’t get so caught up in the trees that you don’t see the forest,” Coussons-Read warns. “The forest is the need to help your faculty feel good about the work they do. There are many trees you can shake besides the salary adjustment tree.” While rewarding performance will rarely be free of cost, you can consider a variety of low-cost and one-time expenses that allow you to appreciate faculty. The difficulty of a salary increase is that it is a permanent addition to the ongoing budget. There are many options for rewarding performance for which that is not the case. Look for one-time expenses. Beyond salary increases, you can recognize faculty achievements and, at the same time, use those achievements to encourage a high-performing faculty culture by: Making the most of your faculty awards competition Inviting high-performing […]
