2012-2015 Core Committee Self-Nomination Statements

Name: Joy F Morrison
Title: Director, Office of Faculty Development
Institution: University of Alaska Fairbanks

I served on the Core Committee for 18 months, 2009-2010, as an appointee to replace a Core member who needed to leave early. I am now back and I would very much like to rejoin the Core. It is important that all geographic regions are represented on Core and we in Alaska have some unusual perspectives.

I have been the Director of the Office of Faculty Development at the University of Alaska Fairbanks for 9 years, and before that was a professor of Communications. I am responsible for all professional development of 700 faculty members, and 65 department chairs.

While a member of Core I served on the Finance & Audit Committee which I would like to rejoin, and hopefully chair. I also served on the Diversity Committee, and ambassador for the North-West & Alaska welcoming new members.

Over the next three years I would like to see POD being much more active in the area of development of national standards in post-doctoral teaching training. My sabbatical was spent primarily at four universities: Stellenbosch in Cape Town, South Africa at the Center for Teaching & Learning, Southampton in the UK at the Learning & Teaching Enhancement Unit, at Oxford working with the Oxford Learning Institute, and at Oxford Brookes with their faculty developers. This gave me great insight into how other countries professionally educate their academics. I participated in a 30-credit Postgraduate Certificate in Academic Practice which is becoming mandatory in the UK under the new Professional Standards Framework. I am keen to get involved with PODs Professional Development Committee to begin a discussion about offering something similar in the United States.