In an effort to further encourage faculty input, engagement, and faculty leadership development, Provost and Senior Vice President of Academic Affairs, Dr. Terrell Strayhorn, is happy to announce the appointment of Dr. Karl Jackson and Dr. Tim Wenzell as Faculty Development Fellows within the Division of Academic Affairs.
 
As Faculty Development Fellows, Drs. Jackson and Wenzell will help lead the implementation of a Faculty Development Initiative (FDI), through efforts like:

• Facilitation and distribution of resources to support faculty engagement in research, teaching effectiveness, conferences, and professional service;
• Coordination of roundtable, brown bag, and/or virtual discussions on pedagogy, high-impact teaching practices, research, scholarship, and related faculty activities;
• Trainings, workshops, webinars, and/or meetings, as needed, to support the development of faculty skills and abilities in key areas such as assessment, student learning, evaluation, innovative teaching, online instruction, and engaged scholarship;
• Coordination and expansion of new faculty orientation, in partnership with Academic Affairs, Human Resources, Information Technology, and Deans, into a more comprehensive on-boarding experience to include modules on technology, teaching effectiveness, advising, and becoming part of the VUU community;
• Serving as a campus resource for teaching, research, outreach, and faculty/academic staff development, among others.

Meet this year's Faculty Development Fellows:

Dr. Karl Jackson received a B.S. in Chemistry from Virginia State University in 2006 and a PhD in Inorganic Chemistry from Virginia Commonwealth University. While at VCU, his research into polymers design and synthesis was published in various peer-reviewed journals. Previously serving as chemistry lecturer at Appalachian State University, he currently serves as Assistant Professor of Chemistry and Chair of the Department of Natural Sciences where he has overseen the widest expansion of his Departments offerings in the University’s history including the new B.S in Health Sciences, the M.S. in Biology, and the Master of in Public Health which will be starting January 2021. He can be reached at ktjackson2@vuu.edu.

Dr. Tim Wenzell has been teaching writing and literature courses at Virginia Union University since 2011, and he has been teaching for almost thirty years. He is published widely, including the novel Absent Children, Retrievals: Collected Poems, Emerald Green: An Ecocritical Study of Irish Literature, Velvet Shipwrecks: Collected Stories and as editor of Woven Shades of Green: An Anthology of Irish Nature Literature, as well as many publications in literary magazines and journalism in Richmond Magazine. He has also edited Another Green World: An Anthology of African American Nature Literature, forthcoming from The University of South Carolina Press. He can be reached at twenzell@vuu.edu.

Congratulations again to our Faculty Development Fellows. Academic affairs is very excited to appoint these new Fellows whose time and effort on this work will benefit all faculty at VUU.