性色视频

Cover Letter

Dear Search Committee Member,

It is my pleasure to apply for the position of Senior Executive Vice President and Provost at 性色视频 (WSU). I鈥檝e been an admirer of 性色视频 State over the years 鈥� both as a research collaborator with WSU faculty and staff, and as an observer of WSU鈥檚 growing impact 鈥� so it is a pleasure to explore this leadership opportunity. I strongly resonate with WSU鈥檚 strategic emphasis on helping families through access and affordability, building the talent pipeline, and increasing economic prosperity. I鈥檓 also energized by the challenges of pursuing R1 Carnegie classification, growing enrollments despite the enrollment cliff, and burnishing academic quality, all while maintaining a laser focus on student success and wellbeing. 性色视频 State鈥檚 strong emphasis on paid, experiential learning opportunities is appealing to me. Finally, while I鈥檓 naturally drawn to WSU and 性色视频鈥檚 deep aerospace legacy, I鈥檓 most excited about the prospect of joining a university with a broad, diverse array of disciplines. For example, the opportunities emerging through the new 性色视频 Biomedical Campus are exciting for academic integration and community impact! I thrive in leading cross-functional teams to develop innovative, creative solutions to tough problems and am eager to lead academics spanning Applied Studies, Business, Engineering, Fine Arts, Health Professions, Innovation and Design, and Liberal Arts and Sciences. For these reasons I鈥檓 intrigued by the Provost opportunity at 性色视频 State, and would welcome the opportunity to explore the position through an interview. Below I summarize my experience and strengths relative to the position profile and will conclude with a brief description of my vision for the future at 性色视频 State.

Provide visionary academic leadership and deepen community engagement

My leadership is focused on people, stemming from a deep passion for human flourishing. My approach to leadership is best described as a transformational leadership style, in which I inspire those around me to coalesce around a common vision and empower the team to achieve results. Through thoughtful alignment of objectives and individuals鈥� strengths, I build intrinsic motivation and commitment to shared goals. With my approach to leadership, my teams have achieved amazing results! For, example:

• Academic excellence: Vaulted ERAU鈥檚 prestigious aerospace engineering program into the Top 5 and the College of Engineering into the Top 100 for the first time (U.S. News).
• Student success: Exceeded first-year retention targets, catapulting from 79.9% to 88.5% in just two years. The College was the only one in the University to hit the target.
• Research focus: Expanded new research awards by 47% over a two-year period.
• Community engagement: Recruited Boeing to establish a new on-campus facility, creating 400 new, high-paying jobs. Establishing pathways for students internships and full-time positions.

My approach to leadership leverages high emotional intelligence and the courage to make difficult decisions. I don鈥檛 hesitate to take on the thorniest, most difficult matters because I always endeavor to base decisions on a reasoned, data-driven, mission-focused approach. For example, I have:

• Made the tough call on space allocation, providing space to those who are research active, and merging labs into shared space when the faculty productivity is insufficient.
• Allocated new faculty lines according to academic program growth and research output, rather than favoritism or relationships.
• Made tough decisions to remove people from positions of responsibility when the mission was not being fulfilled, even when those individuals are close friends.

Prioritize enrollment growth across all academic disciplines at undergraduate and graduate levels

In my current role, the college of engineering has experienced dramatic growth, with over 28% growth over a 3-year period. This dramatic growth has been the financial lifeblood for the success of the University; it also presents a leadership challenge to provide an outstanding education to students despite lagging resources. Within the context of Embry-Riddle鈥檚 centralized budget model, I鈥檝e successfully advocated for and received 14+ faculty lines, with another allocation coming in this recruiting cycle. I鈥檝e also secured an existing building to add to the College鈥檚 footprint for lab space and graduate student offices, with the renovations concluded and occupancy happening now.

I have achieved these enrollment gains by partnering closely with the faculty, enrollment management, and marketing to develop custom-tailored marketing strategies, cultivating a welcoming environment on campus, and targeted outreach efforts in specific communities in Florida and beyond. I am also advancing a priority to balance student enrollment across all academic programs in the college, even though aerospace engineering is the signature program that draws students into Embry-Riddle. I鈥檝e led the development of targeted marketing and communication strategies for degree alternatives to students. I鈥檝e also spearheaded the development of a new degree program in systems engineering to help enhance the academic portfolio of the college and meet industry needs.

In the realm of graduate student recruiting, I am working with key faculty to build targeted partnerships with peer institutions in India, Italy, Spain, and Columbia. These partnerships are based on existing relationships and include dual-degree programs and research collaborations. I am also finalizing a relationship with an external firm that specializes in the graduate student pipeline, funneling new qualified applicants to our programs.

Strongly advocate for the continued growth of research and scholarship and the use of cutting-edge technology

In my time as a center director at Ohio State, research expenditures grew by 175% over a three-year period. At Embry-Riddle, I brought a new Associate Dean for Research onto my team, and we have partnered to catalyze 47% growth in new research awards over a two-year period. And all the while I have increased the impact and visibility of the scholarly work being done by faculty colleagues. We鈥檝e achieved this strong growth in our research activity through aggressive hiring of outstanding early career faculty who are research active, and by incentivizing research growth by mid-career faculty who had never had the opportunity to invest in research output. Incentivization programs include seed grant opportunities tied to university and college strategic research thrust areas, and mentoring programs for faculty to win signature awards. Outcomes directly tied to incentivization programs include 2 NSF CAREER awards, 15 journal papers, 34 conference papers, and $1.35M in new grants.

Support and enhance 性色视频鈥檚 deep commitment to inclusive excellence

I maintain a sustained emphasis on building community and a sense of inclusive belonging for people across a wide spectrum of backgrounds, race, ethnicity, and beliefs. I appointed the first-ever Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion committee in the college, tasking the group to develop a series of policy recommendations in collaboration with me, and successfully garnering a Bronze Recognition under the ASEE Diversity Recognition Program. Under my leadership, faculty have conducted a pilot program to shape male students鈥� empathy, professionalism, and perceptions of gender equity in STEM disciplines 鈥� this study had a strong, positive impact on our male student population, and we are currently expanding the scope to reach all first-year students with the new curriculum. I also make a point to personally engage with students from a diverse set of backgrounds and identities, through regular visits and listening sessions with affinity groups (NSBE, SWE, SHPE, OSTEM, etc.) and providing generous support for students to attend national conferences.

Ensure student-centeredness and success is infused into all University strategic efforts

Student success is at the core of everything we do at Embry-Riddle 鈥� it鈥檚 the top priority and value in our strategic plan. I maintain this emphasis on student wellbeing and student success at every turn. At college retreats and town hall meetings (3x/year), department faculty meetings, and in all of my communications I maintain our focus on student success. Perhaps the most impactful thing I鈥檝e done is create a new weekly newsletter (the 鈥淒ean鈥檚 Logbook鈥�) where I share reflections, celebrate successes, and emphasize our mission and values. It鈥檚 more like a personal diary than an informational email 鈥� and the impact has been stunning. I have many faculty colleagues who stop me in the hallway to thank me for these notes, and share how it helps motivate them, lift their spirits, and maintain focus on what matters. I have also led the development of specific student success initiatives such as a new tutoring center and a peer-mentoring approach woven into first-year courses. One of the key metrics where we have seen success is in first year retention, where the college has leaped from 79.9% to 88.5% in just two years.

Recruit, retain, and mentor faculty and staff in a teaching and research environment ensuring academic quality and distinction

One of my top priorities at both Ohio State and at Embry-Riddle has been to advance people. In both institutions I have tackled pay inequities across gender and racial demographics. I have actively promoted and mentored women and people of color to help diverse populations advance in their careers. At Embry-Riddle I have provided oversight of the recruiting, hiring, and onboarding of approximately 30 faculty over a three-year period. I have provided funding, motivation, and oversight for faculty mentorship programs to promote new skills and competencies. I鈥檝e applied similar investment strategies for our outstanding staff as well, helping them develop professional skills such as executive thinking, program management, multi-tasking, customer service, etc.

Provide leadership in fundraising, revenue generation, and astute fiscal stewardship to support WSU鈥檚 aspirations and priorities

In fiscal management, I lead through a transparent approach whenever feasible. I typically share the rationale for my budgetary decisions and share information with those who need to know. I can do this without fear since decisions are made with a clear-eyed focus on our mission and values. I鈥檝e also excelled in the cultivation of new resources, including an innovative graduate fellowship program that was jointly funded by two different companies (Intuitive Machines and Columbia Sportswear), and a $3M in-kind gift for the launch of an Embry-Riddle student payload to the Moon. Faculty in my college have also grown adept at developing new curricula for industry (e.g., certificate programs), which result in increased revenue for the college and the faculty involved.

Vision

I鈥檒l endeavor to share some visionary thoughts about the potential future of 性色视频 State University. These thoughts are, of course, from an outsider鈥檚 perspective, without the benefit of context, relationships, or deep knowledge beyond what can be found on the WSU website. I think the looming enrollment cliff will be the most significant challenge facing WSU in years to come. This can be met head-on through a two-pronged approach: 1) Offer an outstanding education and market WSU鈥檚 distinctiveness to prospective students in extraordinary ways, such that WSU is competitive with other regional and national universities. 2) Recruit from global populations that are not in decline. Despite the coming population decline in the U.S., there will still be robust population growth in India, Indonesia, and many African nations for years to come. WSU can build focused relationships for targeted recruiting pathways to bring the world to Kansas. This also has the positive effect of improving the Kansas economy through a highly-educated talent pipeline to drive innovation and economic growth.

In the pursuit of R1 status, innovative strategies for incentivizing doctoral studies are needed. Incentivization programs can help faculty connect in new ways with the robust interdisciplinary research activities happening on campus, leading to doctoral student advising in related areas. Depending on available resources and philanthropic support, new University fellowship programs can be created for doctoral student support.

Finally, faculty and staff are the lifeblood of the university. My understanding is that there is a pay gap between WSU and market rates. I would endeavor to take a thoughtful, data-driven, transparent approach to addressing pay inequity and pay gaps, with the goal of fostering equity and bringing WSU up to market rates. I would also develop innovative recruiting strategies such as development of targeted hires in signature areas, in ways that advance the diversity of the faculty and staff body.

I would be delighted to engage with the 性色视频 Provost search committee and the campus community through your interview process. I鈥檓 eager to discuss the aspirations of the University community and to explore in-depth how my experiences and traits make me an ideal candidate for the next Provost. I鈥檓 particularly eager to share other aspects of who I am 鈥� including my disciplinary breadth and ability to lead multi-disciplinary teams towards academic excellence. You can reach me on my personal email at xxxxxxxxxxxx or on my cell phone at XXXXXXXXXXXX if any further information is needed, or to discuss next steps.

Sincerely,

James W. Gregory, Ph.D.
Dean, College of Engineering
Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University

 

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Biography

The following is reproduced from Dr. Gregory's on the Embry鈥慠iddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach website

Dr. Jim Gregory is Dean of the College of Engineering at Embry鈥慠iddle Aeronautical University Daytona Beach campus, which is home of the largest Aerospace Engineering program in the US.  He received his doctorate and masters degrees in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University in 2005 and 2002, respectively, and his Bachelor of Aerospace Engineering from Georgia Tech in 1999, graduating with highest honors.  Dr. Gregory is a Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics and a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Dr. Gregory took on leadership of the ERAU College of Engineering in August 2021.  The College has over 116 permanent faculty and 24 staff, with an annual budget of $29.2M, serving over 3500 undergraduate and graduate students.  With five departments (including a top-10 ranked Aerospace Engineering program), the College offers 19 bachelor鈥檚, master鈥檚, and doctoral degree programs.  The College of Engineering has a rich tradition of excellence in engineering education, with a vast array of well-equipped laboratories that facilitate hands-on learning.  The COE is also growing in research expertise, with the John Mica Engineering and Aerospace Innovation Complex serving as home to many of the College鈥檚 research laboratories, including a large subsonic wind tunnel, the Eagle Flight Research Center, and incubator space for industry-academic collaborations.

Prior to joining Embry鈥慠iddle, Dr. Gregory was a faculty member at The Ohio State University (2008-2021), most recently serving as Chair of OSU鈥檚 Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.  He provided oversight for academic programs in Mechanical, Aerospace, and Nuclear engineering, with nearly 80 faculty and 30 staff educating and serving about 1600 undergraduate and 300 graduate students.  Dr. Gregory was responsible for oversight of a $16M operational budget and facilities in the 230,000-square foot Scott Laboratory, with annual research expenditures of about $26M.

Dr. Gregory served as Director of the Aerospace Research Center from 2017-2020, where he expanded interdisciplinary collaborations to include colleagues from aerospace engineering, industrial engineering, electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, and medicine.  Under his leadership the Center鈥檚 annual research expenditures grew from $2.8M to $7.7M over a 3-year period.  He also expanded engagement to include over 15 faculty, approximately 50 students, 6 research staff, and 7 support staff.

Dr. Gregory鈥檚 research interests lie at the intersection of Unmanned Aircraft Systems (drones) and unsteady aerodynamics, including flight testing of vehicle performance, systems integration studies, robust flight of UAS in all weather conditions (wind and icing), unsteady airfoil loading, and low-Reynolds number rotor wake studies.  Funding for his work since 2008 has totaled over $20M, including grants from ARO (Young Investigator Award), ARL, AFOSR, AFRL, FAA, NASA, Sikorsky, Honda R&D, the Ohio Federal Research Network, and the Ohio Department of Transportation.  Dr. Gregory served as PI for Ohio State as a core member of the ASSURE FAA Center of Excellence on Integrating UAS in the National Airspace System, and was the lead PI for the Ohio Department of Transportation鈥檚 $6.9M Unmanned Aircraft Traffic Management (UTM) system.  He has published over 60 archival journal publications and over 100 abstract-reviewed conference papers.  His research has resulted in the Thomas Hawksley Gold Medal, a best paper award presented by the Institution of Mechanical Engineers (IMechE) across all of their journals; and the Alfred Gessow Award for co-author of the Best Paper at the 68th American Helicopter Society Forum.  Dr. Gregory also led a team of researchers and students to set official world records for speed and distance for an autonomous drone in August 2017 (sanctioned by NAA and FAI, and reported on in Aviation Week magazine).

Dr. Gregory鈥檚 teaching innovations have led to the NAA Frank G. Brewer Trophy, which honors significant contributions of enduring value to aerospace education in the United States.  He has also been recognized with the OSU College of Engineering鈥檚 McCarthy Engineering Teaching Award, the OSU Department of Aerospace Engineering Outstanding Professor Award, and the SAE Ralph R. Teetor Educational Award.  He has produced a video lecture series on the Science of Flight, in collaboration with the Great Courses and the Smithsonian Institution鈥檚 Air & Space Museum.  This video course, with 24 half-hour lectures, has sold over 14,000 copies with an additional 25,000 hours of online streaming since June 2017.  Dr. Gregory has also made his own video recordings of his Introduction to Aerospace Engineering course, and has used these to 鈥渇lip鈥� the classroom in this large, sophomore-level course, leading to a full letter grade improvement in the class average.  He has also developed a number of innovative design projects and labs including an international collaboration for aerial detection of buried landmines, high-altitude balloon launch, analysis of US Airways flight 1549 flight recorder data, glider design/build/fly, and airfoil design/build/test using rapid prototyping.

Dr. Gregory鈥檚 work experience includes stints at the US Air Force Research Laboratory Air Vehicles Directorate, Delta Air Lines, NASA Glenn Research Center, Tohoku University in Japan, and as a Fulbright Scholar at the Technion in Israel. He has also served as a policy fellow at the National Academy of Engineering through the Christine Mirzayan Science & Technology Policy Fellowship. He also completed a postdoctoral fellowship at the U.S. Air Force Academy, funded through the National Research Council Research Associateship Program. He is an instrument rated commercial pilot, with over 400 flight hours in single-engine aircraft, and is one of the first holders of a remote pilot certificate under part 107.

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View James Gregory's Curriculum Vitae (pdf)

Cover Letter

Dear Search Committee:

Today, higher education faces a myriad of challenges including but not limited to funding, enrollment, student success and debt, politicization, and societal attacks about its value. Institutions of higher education must respond well to these and future challenges. It needs leaders that are listening, responding, facilitating, and leading change. I am deeply convinced that 性色视频 (WSU) is on an exciting path forward. The university鈥檚 strong academic programs and emphasis on innovation and entrepreneurship are particularly appealing to me. I find that WSU鈥檚 clear strategic goals and established priorities lean into the future of higher education, and they align well with my experience. For these reasons, I am formally applying for the position of Senior Executive Vice President and Provost.

With over 20 years of higher education leadership experience, I have amassed a strong record of visionary leadership and organizational and programmatic transformation. It is through these extensive and diverse administrative experiences that I feel uniquely qualified to serve in the role of Senior Executive Vice President and Provost. Currently, I serve as Dean of the College of Health and Human Services (CHHS) at California State University, Long Beach. Leading one of the most diverse colleges in the California State University system, I oversee nearly 9,500 students with over 600 faculty and staff. In addition, I have held several key positions at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas including roles as Associate Dean in the School of Medicine, Vice Provost, Associate Vice Provost, and Founding Chair of the Department of Sports Education Leadership.

Throughout my leadership career, I have consistently demonstrated ability to build the academic and research enterprise, propel innovation, and promote student success. As my curriculum vitae (CV) indicates, I have administrative experiences at the department, college, and university levels. These experiences have afforded me unique perspectives that as dean, have proved extremely helpful in shaping culture and advancing academic and inclusive excellence. To demonstrate the alignment of this position with my administrative experience, skills, and interests, I have organized my letter to address many of the key opportunities and challenges outlined in the search profile.

Upon reviewing my CV, you will find that I am a seasoned visionary and transformational academic leader. I have experience advancing community engagement and partnerships and growing extensive and diverse graduate and undergraduate programs. I have successfully navigated budget and infrastructure challenges while creating opportunities for new collaborative partnerships that enhance our mission. Listening, understanding, and growing trust are paramount to advancing community partnerships and shaping a strong and cohesive campus culture. As an administrator, and I am committed to these practices. I am dedicated to shared governance and have substantial experience in developing metrics for transparent, data-driven decisions on sensitive issues such as tenure-track hiring, policy implementation, and new program development.

Declining student enrollment is a challenging problem facing many institutions of higher education and there isn鈥檛 a simple solution. Yet, it is exciting to see that WSU is bucking this nationwide trend. Being number one in the state for transfer enrollment is super! In my experience, development of a wellthought- out, sustained, and multi-pronged approach that establishes evaluative metrics coupled with a commitment to the systematic use of data to inform modifications, programs can successfully grow enrollment. The work of student recruitment is never done and facilitating strong, nimble, and adaptable infrastructure to support it is critical.

I am passionate about promoting, supporting, and cultivating research and scholarship. I believe research is the university鈥檚 lifeblood as it fuels innovation, contemporary and high impact education, faculty career trajectory, university partnerships, and raises the profile of the institution. Thus, I place high value on supporting research time, space, and equipment and believe it should be a central part of the university strategic plan and reflected appropriately in the budget. As dean, I have made strong investments in our research infrastructure including increased funding for faculty travel, lab renovation, equipment procurement, start-up funding, and new technologies. Additionally, one of our strategic plan goals is to increase externally funded research and indirect cost return to the college, departments, and principal investigators. To support this goal, we implemented a faculty grant incentive program and in just a few short years, we have seen a five time increase in our new grant awards and indirect cost return has grown from $36K annually to $1.6M.

As dean, I have fostered a culture grounded in the belief that all students should have the opportunity to succeed, making student success a central focus of my role. Like many institutions, we have prioritized inclusive excellence and student access to the university and implemented several initiatives to enhance retention, progression, and graduation rates. I fully understand the need for, and am committed to, advancing supports that enable all students to thrive. Over the past four years, we have tackled challenges to student progression, such as imposture syndrome and bottleneck courses and we have implemented a first year experience, developed affiliation groups, streamlined degree unit requirements, strengthened the connection between degree programs and career pathways, and improved communication, advising access, and basic needs support. Recognizing the growing importance of mental health services on campus, CHHS partnered with University Counseling and Psychological Services and Mental Health America, Los Angeles, to develop and pilot an embedded peer mentoring program. We have since expanded this effort by placing MSW student interns within departments to extend support for student mental health needs.

As indicated throughout my CV, I have extensive experience in recruiting and hiring various kinds of faculty and staff, and I have actively mentored and led mentoring programs to support the skill and career advancement of numerous administrators, faculty, and staff members. I strongly believe in and enjoy facilitating the advancement of careers. In recent years, I have helped facilitate the promotion of three faculty members to associate dean roles, with one of my associate deans being appointed as dean. As an academic leader, I firmly believe in fostering a growth mindset and promoting it among our students, faculty, and staff as a core value. I am deeply committed to facilitating growth for all members of our community. To reflect this commitment, we have implemented a range of mentorship and professional development programs for faculty and staff at various stages of their careers.

I use a strategic and creative lens to manage large and complex budgets. I believe in sound fiscal management and expenditures that reflect strategic goals. As dean, I have administrative oversight of nearly a $50M budget. I designed and promoted the use of a multi-faceted approach to streamline budgetary expenditures and grow revenue to eliminate a $1.5M deficit and now, we have a multi-million dollar surplus. My college team has shared our program cost and revenue model with the campus divisions, the CSU Chancellor鈥檚 Office, and other CSUs.

Fundraising is a passion for me. One of the greatest challenges to fundraising for institutions is scarce infrastructure to effectively support cultivating and stewarding donors as well as marketing, branding, and ongoing alumni, private donor, and business/industry engagement. I believe a good share of the alumni relations and their systematic engagement really needs to be the work of the faculty. Ongoing engagement with our students is something that countless alumni have told me they are eager to do but often are never asked because the university does not structure alumni relations this way. As well, universities often have limited infrastructure and systems to support communications, marketing, and donor cultivation / stewardship. As Senior Executive Vice President and Provost, I would be eager to learn more about the fundraising history and current infrastructure so that I could work with the campus leadership to evaluate fundraising goals and invest time and resources aimed at fully optimizing structures and systems to advance our work in this area.

Alumni and donors want to give to things that they know about, are insprired by, and want to be part of now and in the future. For example, over the past three years, I have been working to develop a partnership with a local health care provider and CHHS to launch a collaborative health care clinic that will serve the campus and the local community. In our clinical model we will use the same facilities and equipment to both educate students and provide health care to patients. Existing university and clinical partner resources and new resources funded by the clinical revenue will support personnel and operating. Working together will substantially cut personnel and operating costs for both the university and our clinical partner and will result in increased quality of our clinical education programs and health care provided to patients. It will also result in the ability to care for and educate a larger number of people without adding cost. There are number of incredible mutual benefits for both the university and our clinical partner with this model that I can share with you during an interview, but this is the kind of innovation that inspires people to give and, in this case, resulted in a $10M gift agreement that will allow us to increase the building square footage for this clinic space. Over the course of my eight years a dean, I have raised over $31M in private runding and am set to raise another $5-10M over the next academic year.

In summary, my administrative background and accomplishments span the department, college, and university levels across two university settings not too dissimilar to WSU. These diverse experiences afford me unique perspectives that as Senior Executive Vice President and Provost will prove extremely helpful in advancing the university. I am selectively looking for the next step in my career trajectory and I see this position as uniquely aligned with both my administrative passions and career goals. Thus, I sincerely hope that I will have the opportunity to learn more about this position and WSU during an interview. Please contact me should questions concerning my application arise.

Sincerely,

Monica Lounsbery, Ph.D. Dean, College of Health and Human Services,
California State University, Long Beach

 

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Biography

The following is reproduced from Dr. Lounsbery's on the California State University, Long Beach website

Dr. Monica Lounsbery is Dean of the College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Long Beach (CSULB). Prior to her current appointment, Dr. Lounsbery held various administrative positions at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas including department chair, associate vice provost, vice provost, and associate dean for faculty affairs in the School of Medicine. Dr. Lounsbery鈥檚 research focuses on increasing population level physical activity and she has published extensively in this area. In recognition of her scholarly achievements, she has reached fellow status in three academic organizations, including the National Academy of Kinesiology.

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View Monica Lounsbery's Curriculum Vitae (pdf)