News Archive

IU McKinney has two assistant deans who are serving as advisors for a new leadership and professional development project that’s being administered by an alumna and an associate dean at the law school.

Johnny Pryor, assistant dean for Student Affairs, and Chasity Thompson, ’02, assistant dean for the Office of Professional Development are part of the IUPUI Next Generation 2.0 advisory board. The project is co-chaired by Karen Bravo, professor of law and associate dean for Graduate Studies and International Affairs at IU McKinney. Kathy Grove, ’77, director of the IUPUI Office for Women, is the project’s manager.

Participants in the program will complete a yearlong curriculum that will prepare them to step into and/or create leadership opportunities in their units and schools. In addition, participants will engage with each other in smaller groups to identify, plan and implement a capstone project that responds to identified needs of the IUPUI campus or the Indianapolis community.

The program will prepare women and underrepresented minority faculty and staff for positions of leadership and opportunities for advancement at IUPUI and in higher education, in keeping with the IUPUI Strategic Plan and goals to retain and develop a diverse pool of talent to lead the institution into the future.

Co-chairing the intitiative with Bravo is Gina Sanchez Gibau, associate professor of anthropology and associate dean for student affairs in liberal arts. After participating in the 2013 Higher Education Resource Services Bryn Mawr Summer Institute and consulting with interested stakeholders, Bravo and Gibau collaborated with Grove to advocate for the renewal and expansion of an earlier, successful IUPUI leadership program.

IUPUI has sent over 40 women faculty and staff members to the HERS institute since 1988. More than half of the IUPUI women who have attended the HERS institute continue to work at IUPUI in leadership capacities. The institute is considered not only an opportunity to prepare for administrative leadership positions but also to develop a national and international network of colleagues.

IUPUI Next Generation 2.0 also builds upon the successes of a 2009 IUPUI faculty leadership program, Next Generation @ IUPUI. IUPUI and the Indiana University School of Medicine secured a grant under IU President Michael A. McRobbie’s Diversity Initiative to fund the previous yearlong program designed to provide an avenue to expand the pool of faculty ready to assume leadership positions at Indiana University. The Next Generation @ IUPUI cohort of 15, six male and nine female faculty members, represented a variety of ethnic groups from several schools including the School of Medicine, the School of Dentistry, the School of Engineering and Technology, and others.