Derek Jones joined the Center for Innovation and Change as Faculty Director in June 2021. He is Associate Professor of Cognitive Science and has directed the Cognitive Science program at UE since 2013. Dr. Jones has held many faculty leadership positions during his time at UE, including Director of the First Year Seminar, Vice Chair of the Faculty Senate and Co-Chair of the UE Mission and Core Values Workgroup. He received the College of Arts and Sciences Dean’s Teaching Award in 2019. In June of 2023, Dr. Jones will begin his role as Director of Field Innovation, where in addition to overseeing UE’s “ChangeLab” experiential education programming, he will develop social innovation programs for rural high schools in southeastern Indiana and Kentucky. Dr. Jones graduated from the University of Evansville with a BA and a BFA in 2003. He served as an officer in the Army after graduating, and then went on to earn an MA from the University of Houston in 2007 and a PhD in Philosophy from Indiana University in 2013. His current research interests include the psychology of creativity, expertise, technology, and embodied cognition, and he has published a book and several articles on related topics. A […]
Meet the first ever Metaversity Director, Dr. Muhsinah Lateefah Morris. A BS chemistry graduate of the HBCU Clark Atlanta University. She obtained an MS & PhD from the Harvard of the South, Emory University in Biomolecular Chemistry. Dr. Morris has been part of and leading Morehouse’s Metaversity project since the Spring of 2021. She’s won awards for Teaching Excellence at Morehouse College, Best Emerging Technology and Innovation from CBRE, First Place Unconventional Innovation in Industry by T-Mobile, and Educator of the Year for 2022 by STEM Women Atlanta. She resides in McDonough GA with her husband and five sons. One of her sons has autism and she advocates for the entire autism community as a member of the Community Advisory Council and advocacy Ambassadors for Autism Speaks. She’s a VR pioneer in education and is transforming learning globally. She is affectionately known as Dr. M.O.M. (Molder of Minds) by all her students. She continues to mold the minds of educators and students globally in the Metaverse. She is a member of the XR Advisory Council for the XR Association and Futurist Council for Jobs for the Future (JFF). Her goal is to authentically transform the educational system for our future […]
Though institutions of higher education are increasingly looking for technological solutions to strategic challenges, downgrades in the rank of the chief information officer at institutions such as MIT and the University of Chicago raise questions about the CIO’s role in university leadership. While there isn’t any conclusive data to suggest that the CIO role is shrinking, concerns voiced over that possibility do serve to direct increased attention to one of IT’s pressing challenges: that is, how to position the CIO, and the broader IT organization, as a strategic partner within the institution. We turned to Gene Spencer, principal of Gene Spencer Consulting and a lead thinker on IT management, for practical advice on how chief information officers can grow, rather than shrink, their role. Missed Opportunities “Running an IT organization is about relationships first, then technology.”Gene Spencer, Gene Spencer Consulting Spencer suggests that CIOs who see their role shrinking may need to first look at their own approach to key interactions with partners across the institution. Common mistakes that a CIO can make which actually reduce his or her ability to engage with key decision-makers (and be seen as a strategic partner) include: The most critical thing is to shift your focus […]
By Manya C. Whitaker, PhDAssociate Professor & Chair of Education, Crown Faculty Center Director, Colorado College When I started graduate school in 2006, I had no interest in becoming a professor or joining academe. I wanted to work at a think tank researching youth development to inform public policy. But in my third year of graduate school, I was a Teaching Assistant (TA) for a developmental psychology class and everything changed. I discovered the joy of teaching and eventually petitioned to teach sections of the course. When I entered the job market, I was certain to apply to small liberal arts colleges where teaching was paramount in the job description. Ten years later, I know I made the right decision. But I also confess that in year 6, teaching started to lose its appeal and I sought new challenges. I asked my chair if I could be the associate chair to ease the workload in the department. He happily agreed, and I had my second professional epiphany—I like administrative work! I’ve always been a person who made lists and found joy in crossing each item off. I have very detailed schedules that tell me what I should be doing almost […]
On average, it takes three submissions before a faculty member will get their proposal for funding accepted by a grant agency. To complicate matters, the reviews that accompany the rejection are often complex and contradictory, so it can be difficult to know how to move forward – especially when many faculty get little help interpreting reviews. As such, many faculty members, especially junior faculty, simply give up on the proposal too soon and do not put effort into revising and resubmitting it. When this happens, important research may be left undone, the institution cannot meet its strategic goal of growing research, and faculty find it difficult to publish in top journals and stay on track for promotion and tenure. Join our expert instructor to learn how to review and analyze your declined grant proposals with a fresh perspective – one that will give you confidence in how to best move forward with your declined proposal, as well as all future proposals. Our expert will guide you through the process that will teach you how to: Objectively assess your individual reviews Identify patterns and uncover the most critical feedback Anticipate hidden weaknesses Identify both the root causes and underlying conditions preventing an award Develop a plan for resubmission If you’re looking to better understand the proposal review process and put yourself in reviewers’ shoes, this webcast is for you!
As a result of COVID-19, almost all the interactions you have with your students, alumni, colleagues, and donors are now through webcam in virtual meetings. Environmental factors such as poor lighting and background movement can become distractions and have implications on the level of engagement and potential for relationship building. Your body language and eye contact play an important role too as they can either facilitate meaningful communication or hinder it. Join us online for an interactive training where you will learn best practices for creating a professional and engaging persona during a video call. Our expert instructor will demonstrate simple tips and strategies for improving the quality of your physical surroundings and your presentation style during video calls. We will discuss how to: Place your laptop in the right position to maximize your lighting and appropriately frame yourself on screen Choose a background that does not offend or disturb others Reduce unnecessary movement to minimize distractions Maintain appropriate eye contact and body language that resonates with others online We have deliberately designed this training to go beyond the stock tips and strategies you’ll find online. You will have the opportunity to turn on your camera so that you can […]
Mike is an executive coach and higher education leader with a focus in group dynamics, interpersonal communication, leadership, and second career development. Three questions inspire Mike’s work as a coach: What brings you joy? What are you good at? What does the world need you to be? Mike’s professional career has taken him in many different directions, but always with the same focus, on helping others to grow, change, and become better. As a faith community leader, spiritual director, learning coach, academic counselor, and now as an Assistant Dean for Faculty and Student Success at the MGH IHP in Boston, Mike has developed and honed deep listening skills, asking questions that both challenge and inspire, and he knows how to accompany a client on their unique journey without imposing his own agenda or needs. He is especially skilled in dealing with grief, change of career, LGBTQ+ leaders, and crisis leadership. His own work as a faculty member enables him to understand the unique challenges of faculty who may be torn between the demands of scholarship, teaching, and service, while struggling to meet home and personal concerns. Mike’s educational background includes an MDiv with coursework in counseling, philosophy, and psychology, a […]
Picture this scenario. Your institution undertook a lengthy and arduous strategic planning effort, to which your division responded with an operational plan, identifying a list of core initiatives intended to help meet the institution’s strategic goals. It is now two years later. Your division’s operational plan or action plan sits on a shelf (whether physical or digital). Some of the initiatives were pursued and met with varying success; some were not. Few attempts are made to refer back to that operational plan for your division — not because the initiatives outlined in it were ill-considered but because the environment and your awareness of what is on the horizon for higher education and for your institution has changed. Much of what was proposed in the plan is no longer relevant to the demands under which you work and the opportunities that are most critical to address. This is a fairly common scenario, and a symptom of an episodic, reactive approach to planning, in which identifying and resourcing strategic priorities for the division is treated as a completed process once there is a documented plan. Five years later, the process has to be repeated again in order to arrive at a substantially […]
By Emma White JD, MAAssistant Professor and Department Chair, English, University of Hawai`i, Maui College Navigation and cartography may be overused clichés, but they helped me through tenure’s stormy seas. And the process of obtaining tenure is an especially stormy sea for women in particular. Data from the American Association of University Women shows that only 27% of tenured faculty among four-year institutions are women. Women faculty—especially women faculty of color—also face additional barriers in the form of systemic sexism, racism, and isolation based on the marginalized identities they hold. I cannot solve most of the challenges women face around promotion & tenure in one article, but I can share some of my own experiences in hopes of helping other women faculty along in the process. I applied for and was awarded tenure while pregnant with my first child. Over the five-year process to gain tenure, I followed a highly effective strategy that helped me improve my teaching, align with my goals, and manage my stress. I’ve since had the honor of mentoring other women through the tenure process, and as I look back on how I navigated my own, several guideposts emerge. Accept that you need a map and […]
I. Introduction The Great Resignation, the Great Attrition, the Great Disengagement, and the Big Quit are a few of the names for the phenomenon occurring throughout different industries, including higher education.1 Higher education is not immune from this great exodus and is at a turning point as retention of faculty, administrators, and staff is more important than ever.2 What’s joy got to do with it?3 Can it drive those who work in higher education to stay, leave, or return?4 Money is not enough by itself to retain workers.5 Over the last two years, higher education, like other industries, is facing a fundamental shift in how people view their work, their employer, and their life.6 Perhaps this is an opportunity for the Great Joy: to (re)discover joy in your work; reevaluate what you want from work, be open minded, and possibly reinvent how you work, where you work, who you work with, and what you work on. This article explores the challenges higher education faces as the pandemic continues to alter attitudes on work. It then offers some strategies to (re)discover joy in work. Finally, it discusses ways to maximize joy in work. II. The Struggle Exhausted, isolated, disconnected, burnt out, […]
