Steven Howell (associate professor of Kinesiology and Physical Education), Vijaykumar Krishnan Palghat (associate professor and chair of Marketing) and Alicia Schatteman (associate professor of Public and Global Affairs) have been selected as Program Fellows to participate in the second year of the Mid-American Conference’s (MAC) Academic Leadership Development Program.
Steve Howell
Vijay Krishnan
The goal of the MAC Academic Leadership Development Program (ALDP) is to offer professional development opportunities to faculty and administrators at MAC universities and to prepare and enhance their academic leadership abilities.
“Through the thoughtful and collaborative efforts of our provosts, other institutional leaders and conference staff, this professional development opportunity has launched and should provide tremendous value to the participants and the membership,” said MAC Commissioner Jon Steinbrecher. “This will be an excellent tool to enhance the growth and development of future leaders in higher education and is another way in which the MAC can provide value to its membership beyond intercollegiate athletics.”
The ALDP is sponsored by MAC and will include academic leadership development workshops hosted by one of the twelve MAC institutions each fall and spring semesters, and monthly meetings of the Fellows at their home institutions. This year’s fall workshop will be held at Miami University, followed by a spring workshop at Central Michigan University. NIU is slated to host one of the workshops in spring 2020.
“This program sponsored by MAC is a good opportunity for NIU to share its commitment to academic leadership excellence with other institutions and increase the leadership pipeline,” said Chris McCord, NIU’s acting provost. “I enjoyed interacting with last year’s Faculty Fellows and I look forward to meeting this year’s cohort.”
Alicia Shatteman
Schatteman, one of this year’s Faculty Fellows, said, “As a recently tenured faculty member, I am now thinking about my long-term career interests, and higher education administration has some appeal given my own personal background in nonprofit management. The MAC ALDP program is an excellent way to meet those in administration in my own institution whom I may not interact with regularly, as well as those in other universities. This program comes at the perfect time for me personally and professionally.”
Sarah Geiger
Leanne Vandecreek
Two NIU Faculty Fellows, Sarah Geiger (assistant professor of Health Studies) and Leanne Vandecreek (associate dean of University Libraries) who participated in last year’s program have been awarded leadership grants by the MAC ALDP. Geiger, in collaboration with Faculty Fellows from University of Akron and Western Michigan University, is exploring methods to improve student retention, and Vandecreek, in collaboration with Faculty Fellows from Bowling Green University and Eastern Michigan University, is analyzing ways to debunk myths about academic leadership. Both projects are expected to be completed by summer 2019.
Contact Logan Brooks, MAC championships administration assistant, at lbrooks@mac-sports.com for more information about the MAC ALDP.
