Title: Strategic Leadership for Christian Higher Education Administrators in Communication and the Arts
Lead Facilitator: Denise Edwards-Neff, PhD, Azusa Pacific University
Additional Presenters/Facilitators: Diane Badzinski, PhD, Colorado Christian University; Stephanie Bennett, PhD, Palm Beach Atlantic University; Tom Carmody, PhD, Vanguard University; John Hatch, PhD, Eastern University; Brandon Knight, PhD, William Carey University; Bala Musa, PhD, Azusa Pacific University; Joy Qualls, PhD, Biola University; Kevin Schut, PhD, Trinity Western University; Dorie Shelby, MA, Spring Arbor University; Ken Waters, PhD, Pepperdine University.
Date and Time: Thursday, June 23, 2022 | 11:30 am – 3:00 pm EDT
Description: Please join us for this Administrator Academy for Christian higher education administrators working in Communication and the Arts. If you lead a Communication department or school or program in a Christian college or university, this workshop will provide valuable resources and opportunities to engage with other experienced leaders. Communication departments share many things in common with other disciplines, but we are unique in many ways. We are tech/media heavy, handle debate/forensics, produce theater, and are required to staff adjuncts in highly specialized areas. We have colleagues within our departments from very different traditions within the discipline. The diversity of these program offerings and traditions under one roof present many blessings, indeed, but also inherent challenges to the collective.
This half-day leadership workshop will feature presentations by veteran leaders with Q&A, breakout sessions, roundtable discussions, and an interview with administrators at leading Christian colleges and universities. The workshop will conclude with an implementation session to take the concrete knowledge gained to produce individualized strategic development plans for the year ahead.
Workshop topics include:
– supporting the Christian formation of employees, or faculty and staff
– development in support of the institution’s Christian mission
– building a positive faculty and staff working culture
– cultivating a positive and effective working relationship with deans and provosts
– modeling and supporting active scholarship
– hiring faculty and staff
– having difficult conversations
– faculty annual review and evaluation
– promotion, tenure, and contract negotiation and decisions
– dealing with problem students
– innovative curriculum development
– assessment and program review
– enrollment and retention strategies
Denise Edwards-Neff (PhD, Purdue University) is Associate Dean in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and Professor of Communication at Azusa Pacific University. She has held interim dean, department chair, and undergraduate and graduate program director and faculty positions at APU, Pepperdine University, Indiana Wesleyan University, and the University of Indianapolis.
Dr. Edwards-Neff’s research has been published in the Journal of Public Relations Research, Public Relations Review, Public Relations Journal, Sociological Quarterly, Quarterly Review of Business Disciplines, Business Review Yearbook, Oxford Handbook of Religion and the News, and The Handbook of Public Relations, and has been presented at annual conferences of the International Communication Association, National Communication Association, Religious Communication Association, International Association of Business Disciplines, and Public Relations Society of America.
Denise holds the Accreditation in Public Relations (APR) from the Public Relations Society of America, is on the board of PRSA-Los Angeles and is an executive member of the international Commission on Public Relations Education. She has served as President of the Religious Communication Association and Chair of the Public Relations Division of the National Communication Association.
Registration Fee: $75.00
Registration Available now