Deena J. González, a professor of Chicana/o Studies at Loyola Marymount
University, has been named to the prestigious ACE Fellows program, which
trains veteran faculty members to potentially take on administrative
roles in the future.
González
is one of 46 fellows chosen this year by the American Council on
Education, a nationwide higher education consortium that includes 1,600
colleges and universities as members. During her yearlong fellowship,
González will shadow senior administrators at a college in the Southern
California region to learn how their work is done.
"It’s really
exciting and interesting, because it’s adding depth to my experience,”
González said. “As a faculty member for 28 years, I thought I had an
idea what, for example, Student Affairs does. But when you actually sit
down and look at things from their view, it provides this depth of
meaning to the amount of training required, what are the typical issues
on any given day that they face, how do they resolve conflict, what
contributions to they feel or think they’re making to an institution.”
González
plans to focus her training on dealing with diversity and gender equity
issues within the university. She has not yet been placed at a host
institution for the fellowship, but will return to LMU after the 2010-11
school year.
“The idea is that you’ll be able to apply in some
way what you’ve learned outside at your home institution, so that it can
be helpful to programs or strategic plans or visions,” she said. “It
might also just be helpful at the ground level to have a faculty member
who has seen the inner workings of an administrative office, to know how
that is structured and how that functions.”
Sharon McDade,
director of the ACE Fellows Program, said most previous fellows have
advanced into major positions in the administrations of their
institutions. Of the nearly 1,700 participants in the first 45 years of
the program, more than 300 have become chief executive officers and more
than 1,100 have become provosts, vice presidents, or deans.
“We’re
extremely pleased with the strength of the incoming class,” McDade
said. “The Fellows Program will sharpen and enhance their leadership
skills and their network, and prepare them to address issues of concern
to the higher education community.”