Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs candidate Dr. Carol A. Blackshire-Belay to visit today, Fri., March 18

As a reminder, this week, finalist candidates for the Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs (EVP-ASA) will be interviewed on campus on Monday, March 14; Tuesday, March 15; Thursday, March 17; and Friday, March 18. All Campus Forums on each of those days will occur in the Automotive Showroom from 3 to 4 p.m. Please plan to attend and participate.

If you are unable to attend, DVDs of each EVP-ASA Campus Open Forum will available in the Library on the day of a candidate’s Forum.

  • Viewing of the DVDs will occur in the Library and will not be available for check-out.
  • Feedback forms (on paper) will be available for those viewing the DVDs to complete.  (A lockbox in which to place completed feedback forms will be in the Library.)
  • The deadline for viewing DVDs and submitting feedback forms is 5 p.m. on Monday, March 21, 2016.

Today’s EVP-ASA candidate is Dr.Carol A. Blackshire-Belay:

Screen Shot 2016-03-17 at 10.13.33 PMDr. Carol A. Blackshire-Belay is a Higher Education Consultant with Onward Education, and has more than 25 years in senior-level academic administration and as a faculty member. She is regularly sought after to help higher education institutions promote and expand superior graduate and undergraduate education, and has accomplished that at a number of leading institutions across the country, e.g., The Ohio State University, Temple University, Indiana State University, University of North Carolina System, University of Wisconsin System, and California State University System.

She holds Ph.D. and MA degrees from Princeton University, as well as a Magister Artium from the Ludwigs-MaximiIians UniversItät München, In Munich, Germany, a Bachelor’s degree from the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, all In Germanic Linguistics. She also has an Associate of Art’s degree from Oakland Community College, With more than 45 books, scholarly articles, and book review publications to her credit, Dr. Blackshire-Belay is internationally recognized for her extensive publications and research contributions to the fields of Germanic Languages and Literatures, specifically Germanic Linguistics, language variation and change, and German colonial history on the continent of Africa. She has won numerous fellowships and grants, and has delivered keynote addresses, scholarly speeches, lectures, and workshops around the globe.

As a change agent she has honed an ability to provide strategic leadership through personal relationships over many years of distinguished academic service. My work as a change agent has taken on many forms. As former Interim Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs, she was instrumental in advancing the teaching and learning mission of Naropa University, while also serving as the campus liaison for the University’s reaffirmation of accreditation efforts directed by the Higher Learning Commission during its comprehensive visit to Naropa. In addition, she served as the university’s activity director for the federal Title III “Strengthening Institutions” grant, which focused on implementing the university’s undergraduate academic plan while also helping to expand the university’s capacity to serve low-Income students. During her tenure, Dr. Blackshire-Belay also provided oversight for the implementation of the 3-year reorganization plan of the Division of Academic Affairs.

As a college and university leader, Dr. Blackshire-Belay has dealt effectively with regulatory agencies, on the state and federal levels, developing and implementing policies on a variety of Issues, including strategic planning, evaluation, compliance, higher education program development and planning, and human resource management. As a very engaged and dedicated academic administrator, Dr. Blackshire-Belay is highly recognized for the instrumental role she has played in General Education reform, institutional and program accreditation, as well as program assessment and student outcomes. She has also been successful in the development and execution of community/technical college transfer-articulation agreements between two-year and four-year institutions, in particular in meeting the growing demands of more educational and diversified training programs for citizens within global society.

Dr. Blackshire-Belay’s educational background, academic administration, and consulting experience is diverse. She works with individuals one-on-one, as well as in team formats on college preparedness and planning toward success in degree completion. Providing training, mentoring, and personal and professional development to staff personnel, faculty, students, and college/university administrators, she is committed to making a difference in helping others in reaching their highest potential for success in college, the workplace, as well as in their personal lives.

Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs candidate Dr. Dana Grove visit, Tues., March 15

As a reminder, this week, finalist candidates for the Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs (EVP-ASA) will be interviewed on campus on Monday, March 14; Tuesday, March 15; Thursday, March 16; and Friday, March 17. All Campus Forums on each of those days will occur in the Automotive Showroom from 3 to 4 p.m. Please plan to attend and participate

If you are unable to attend, DVDs of each EVP-ASA Campus Open Forum will available in the Library on the day of a candidate’s Forum.

  • Viewing of the DVDs will occur in the Library and will not be available for check-out.
  • Feedback forms (on paper) will be available for those viewing the DVDs to complete.  (A lockbox in which to place completed feedback forms will be in the Library.)
  • The deadline for viewing DVDs and submitting feedback forms is 5 p.m. on Monday, March 21, 2016.

Today’s EVP-ASA candidate is Dr. Dana Grove:

dana groveImmediately before Dr. Dana Grove became President of Morton College in Cicero, Illinois, the school was sanctioned with being On Notice by the Higher Learning Commission (HLC) in the areas of Governance, Strategic Planning and Assessment. The Board of Trustees made it clear that his highest priority as the new president was to have the sanction removed by the HLC as soon as possible. Because of his experience in leading assessment and strategic planning efforts at other colleges and because of his years as a peer reviewer for the HLC, the Morton College On Notice sanction was removed within a year. With 82% of its students Hispanic, Morton College is the sixth largest two-year public Hispanic Serving Institution (HSI) in the country, out of 174 such colleges, making it the largest two-year public HSI east of the Mississippi River.

Within eight months of his coming to Morton College, Dr. Grove was able to negotiate with Illinois Governor Pat Quinn to grant the college $4.5 million of Illinois Jobs NOW! money for the construction of a ten-classroom facility that was sorely needed on campus. Because of his passion for active learning, Dr. Grove worked with faculty to design these classrooms as Learning Studios that promote cooperative and collaborative learning pedagogies.

For seven-and-a-half years, Dr. Grove was an executive vice president at Johnson County Community College, an institution with a fall enrollment of 21,000 credit students located on the Kansas side of the Kansas City metropolitan area.   JCCC is one of only 18 community colleges whose CEOs comprise the Board for the League for Innovation in the Community College, the most prestigious two-year college organization in North America, if not world-wide. After arriving at JCCC in 2005, Dr. Grove had the distinction of being the college’s Representative to the League for Innovation Board, and as such, he attended all League for Innovation Board meetings and dialogued regularly with the CEOs and other League “reps.”

In 1985, Dr. Grove received his doctorate in English from Ball State University in Muncie, Indiana. Afterwards, he was hired as a faculty member at Indian Hills Community College in Ottumwa, Iowa, where for ten years he taught a variety of courses in English and humanities. In 1993 the University of Iowa’s College of Education recognized his classroom efforts by giving him its Distinguished Teacher of the Year Award. From 1993-1995, he was also designated as Director of the English/Humanities Program, which was a faculty-chair position. In 1995, Dr. Grove became the Dean of Arts and Sciences at the college, supervising all liberal arts and transfer disciplines. In 2000, he was selected as the Vice President of Academic Services (CAO) at Lincoln Land Community College in Springfield, Illinois.

After serving as interim president of the Business and Technology campus of Metropolitan Community College of Kansas City, Missouri, for six months, Dr. Grove is currently filling in as interim dean of instruction at the college.

Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs candidate Dr. Ron Liss to visit today, Mon., March 14

As a reminder, this week, finalist candidates for the Executive Vice President for Academic and Student Affairs (EVP-ASA) will be interviewed on campus on Monday, March 14; Tuesday, March 15; Thursday, March 16; and Friday, March 17. All Campus Forums on each of those days will occur in the Automotive Showroom from 3 to 4 p.m. Please plan to attend and participate

If you are unable to attend, DVDs of each EVP-ASA Campus Open Forum will available in the Library on the day of a candidate’s Forum.

  • Viewing of the DVDs will occur in the Library and will not be available for check-out.
  • Feedback forms (on paper) will be available for those viewing the DVDs to complete.  (A lockbox in which to place completed feedback forms will be in the Library.)
  • The deadline for viewing DVDs and submitting feedback forms is 5 p.m. on Monday, March 21, 2016.

Today’s EVP-ASA candidate is Dr. Ron Liss:

liss HeadshotDr. Ron Liss was the Western Campus president for Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C) from July 2013 to July 2015 reporting to the college president. In this position he was the chief academic and administrative officer for a comprehensive campus and the Brunswick University Center totaling 11,000+ students per semester. The Brunswick University Center, owned by Tri-C, has partner universities on site offering upper level coursework. He then assumed the role of Vice President & Special Advisor for Workforce, Community, and Economic Development. He works with the Executive Vice President in this role.

He came to Tri-C from the position of vice president for academic affairs at Santa Fe Community College (SFCC) in N.M., where he served since 2007. During his time in Santa Fe, Dr. Liss was a member of the High School Redesign Committee for the local school district, developed an early college charter school and served on the Quality New Mexico Board of Examiners and on the executive team for the Western Interstate Commission for Higher Education. He left there with a distinguished service award, the only award presented by the college Board of Trustees.

Prior to his work at SFCC, Dr. Liss held numerous positions at Montgomery College in Maryland, including dean of business, management, chemistry and information sciences; director of distance learning and academic innovation; and director of academic and student affairs. He spent 15 years at the Community College of Baltimore County as faculty, department chair, division chair and director of instructional technology. He started his career as a high school teacher.

Dr. Liss holds a Ph.D. in Education Leadership and Management from American University in Washington, D.C., a master’s degree in Instructional Systems Development from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County, and a bachelor’s degree in education from the State University of New York College at Buffalo.

Save the date for Open Forums for Dean of Science/Math/Engineering

Please save the date for Open Forums for the hiring of the Dean of Math/Science/Engineering. The tentative schedule for the forums is as follows:

April 20, 22, 25 from 12:45-1:45 p.m.
April 21 from 3:30-4:30 p.m.

We’ll announce candidate names, room numbers, and additional information closer to the dates!

Open Forums for V.P. of Advancement/Exec. Director of Foundation Kicked Off Thurs., August 6 With a Presentation by Mary Brueggeman

Mary Brueggeman is a candidate for the position of V.P. of Advancement/Executive Director of the Foundation at Shoreline.

Mary Brueggeman is a candidate for the position of V.P. of Advancement/Executive Director of the Foundation at Shoreline.

About 40 people from the campus community attended the first of two open forums for V.P. of Advancement/Executive Director of the Foundation this past Thurs., August 6. Mary Brueggeman gave a 15-minute presentation, followed by a 45-minute session for questions from the audience. The topic of her presentation, as assigned by the search committee, outlined what her approach would be for launching a capital campaign to raise $30 million for a new medical training facility.

Ms. Brueggeman holds a Master’s in Medical Anthropology from Southern Methodist University and has served as Director of Development at the Future of Flight Foundation.

The next open forum is this Mon., August 10 from 2-3 p.m. in the Quiet Dining Room. Candidate Steven Meneses, who holds a Doctorate in Management in Community College Policy and Administration from University of Maryland, will give a 15-minute presentation followed by a 45-minute Q+A. Members of the campus community are encouraged to attend the forum to give their feedback. This Monday’s forum will be the final candidate presentation.