58 Faculty & Staff Complete 5th Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium Academic Leadership Academy

The Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium has announced that 58 Fellows have completed its sixth Bluegrass Academic Leadership Academy recently at Kentucky State University, announced the chair of the consortium President M. Christopher Brown II of Kentucky State University.

The Academic Leadership Academy is a presidential initiative, led by the 12 presidents represented in the consortium, to build future academic leaders in the Bluegrass Region. 265 Fellows have now completed the program in six years. The purpose of the academy is to encourage faculty and staff to consider leadership career paths and to provide guidance in developing the skills that are requisites for effective institutional leadership to ensure a sound and successful future for their institution and the Bluegrass Region. This year, through a partnership with the Council on Postsecondary Education, the academy was made available to all of the public universities in the state outside of the Bluegrass Region footprint, and Murray State, the University of Louisville, Northern Kentucky University and several campuses of the Kentucky Community & Technical College System also participated.                        

The 58 faculty and professional staff from our Kentucky colleges and universities who completed the curriculum as fellows in the Class of 2019 are: Lewis Willian of Asbury University; Mia Brown, Randolph Cullum and Shannon Hankins of Ashland Community & Technical College; Shannon Phelps of Berea College; Laura Lynch and David Sturgill of Bluegrass Community & Technical College; Candace Wentz and John Harney of Centre College; Dominic Ashby, Joseph Carucci, Stacey Korson, James Maples and Derek Paulsen of Eastern Kentucky University;

Stashia Emanuel, Shuo Han Walter Malone III, Nikki McZee, Candace Raglin and Jamar Simmons of Kentucky State University; Jennifer Robinson and Brian Weldon of Midway University; Flint Harrelson, Michele Paynter Paise, Daryl Privott, Sherif Rashad and Lexius Yarbrough of Morehead State University; Susan Contreras Bloomdahl, Dina Byrers; Maeve Lewis McCarthy, Drew Seib, Melony Shemberger of Murray State University; Matthew Albritton, Joe Cress, Vanessa Hunn, Cecile Marczinski, Julie Moses and Carolyn Noe of Northern Kentucky University;

Jamie Cress, Tiffany Evans, Ian Hester and Anchalee Steele of Sullivan University; Jennifer Bird-Pollan, Brian Lee, Y. Charles Lu, Gia Mudd-Martin, Gitanjali Pinto-Sinai, Steven Schwarze, Asha Shenoi, and Sarah Wackerbarth of the University of Kentucky; Lynn Boyd, Meg Hancock, Amy Higdon, Thomas Rockaway, Michelle Rodems and Beth Willey of the University of Louisville.

The fellows participate in two full days of training where university presidents, vice presidents, provosts, deans and other key academic leaders present keynote addresses, panels and workshops. The final session was highlighted by keynote presentations by President Jay Box of KCTCS, and a popular opening keynote panel discussion with Presidents Christopher Brown of Kentucky State University and John Roush of Centre College.

Fellows also complete a research project for their specific institution between the spring and fall sessions. Completed Campus Projects were presented in four concurrent sessions at the final session at Kentucky State. Those presented were: Asbury successfully engaging incoming students, Ashland Community & Technical College “Connect: Establishing a Protocol for High Quality, Online Advising;” Bluegrass Community & Technical College “Community Resource Innovation;”  Berea College …”Building a Peer Health Education Program;” Centre College… “Digital Badging;”

 Eastern Kentucky University “The Impact of Advising Models on Student Success;” Kentucky State University “Mentorship/First Year Students;” Midway University “Inquiry-based Faculty Development on Assessment;” Morehead State University “Eagles of All Cultures” to involve all faculty and staff in cultural competencies; Murray State University “Recognizing and Supporting Faculty;” Northern Kentucky University “Provost’s Leadership Fellowship: Professional Development;” Sullivan University “Smashing Barriers: Strategies to Address Retention and Engagement;” University of Louisville “Program-level Advisory Boards: Best Practices for Recruiting… Employer Feedback, Financial Support and Community Engagements,” and the University of Kentucky “University of Kentucky Abbreviations and Acronyms” centralized access.

The Bluegrass Higher Education Consortium and the Academic Leadership Academy is managed by Bluegrass Tomorrow.  Member institutions include: Asbury University, Berea College, Bluegrass Community and Technical College, Centre College, Eastern Kentucky University, Georgetown College, Midway University; Morehead State University, Kentucky State University, Sullivan University, Transylvania University,  and the University of Kentucky.