UGA staff and faculty from across the state completed the Vivian H. Fisher Leadership Academy on Friday, earning certificates for their participation in the nine-month leadership development course.
Facilitated by the J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development, the academy is a nine-month leadership program designed to build leadership capacity among high-level performers within PSO, who have outreach as the major part of their duties. The academy gives participating faculty-staff an opportunity to cultivate leadership skills while developing a deeper understanding of the scope and reach of UGA’s public service and outreach mission.
Provost Pamela Whitten, who addressed the group at a Friday luncheon, said that as a land- and sea-grant university, outreach is intricately involved with the entire campus but also has a mission to serve the state.
“That’s the role we have as a land-grant,” she said. We’re supposed to leave our campus.”
Six of the 16 participants in the 2015-16 are based in communities outside of Athens-Clarke County.
The leadership academy was founded in 2007 by Vivian H. Fisher, then an associate vice president for Public Service and Outreach. Fisher died in 2008. The academy was named in her honor in 2012.
“Vivian Fisher set an example of strong leadership and her values and standards are what we want to pass on to the future leaders in public service and outreach,” said Jennifer Frum, vice president for public service and outreach.
Participants in the 2015-16 Vivian H. Fisher Leadership Academy are:
- Joseph Allen, Georgia Center for Continuing Education
- Mona Behl, Marine Extension and Georgia Sea Grant
- Michelle Elliott, Archway Partnership
- Shannon Ferguson, Carl Vinson Institute of Government
- John Graham, State Botanical Garden of Georgia
- Sheldon Hammond, College of Agricultural & Environmental Sciences, Cooperative Extension
- Lauren Healey, J.W. Fanning Institute for Leadership Development
- Kyle Hensel, Small Business Development Center
- Kris Irwin, Warnell School of Forestry and Natural Resources
- Beverly Johnson, Carl Vinson Institute of Government
- Emily Newdow, Georgia Center for Continuing Education
- Andrea Scarrow, College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Extension and Outreach
- Kelly Simmons, Office of the Vice President for Public Service and Outreach
- Trina Von Waldner, College of Pharmacy
- Josh Walton, Georgia Small Business Development Center
- Theresa Wright, Carl Vinson Institute of Government
