Dean of University of Arkansas Global Campus to Retire

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Dr. Linda Beene Ballard, associate provost and dean of the Global Campus

Linda Beene Ballard, associate provost and dean of the University of Arkansas Global Campus, has announced plans to retire on July 1, after 38 years of service to higher education.

“Dean Linda Beene Ballard has been a great asset to the state of Arkansas,” said Sharon Gaber, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “At the University of Arkansas she has spearheaded our distance education efforts and developed our Global Campus in Rogers. Her knowledge and experience will be missed.”

Ballard was appointed to lead the School of Continuing Education and Academic Outreach at the University of Arkansas three years ago, and led branding of the marketing term Global Campus, as well as designing and opening a new facility in Rogers. She implemented a more efficient revenue sharing agreement with university partners and facilitated the move of certain courses into ISIS, the Integrated Student Information System, for more student-friendly enrollment.

Ballard was instrumental in implementing the development of a customized computer software system for administration of the school and in funding preparation of 90 new Web-based distance education courses during her appointment. She sealed an agreement with Arkansas Education Television Network for real-time video streaming between the Fayetteville campus and AETN studios and has inaugurated the university’s participation in the sixteen-state Southern Regional Education Board Electronic Campus.

Previously at the state level, Ballard had the distinction of serving in Governor Bill Clinton’s administration and was appointed twice to Governor Mike Huckabee’s cabinet, serving most recently as director of the Arkansas Department of Higher Education. In that role, she coordinated approval of all academic programs and accountability for Arkansas’ 33 public colleges and universities; guided state and federal funding efforts that included development of a need-based funding formula, which gave additional weight to the land grant mission of the Fayetteville campus; assisted with developing the 2005 Higher Education Bond program; created the nationally-recognized Career Pathways program; and annually administered forty million dollars in state scholarships.

Over the past three decades Ballard has been both a university and community college administrator, having previously held appointments as dean at the University of Central Arkansas, dean at Henderson State University and vice president of the University of Arkansas campuses at Fort Smith and Helena. After teaching, she began her state-level career in the 1970’s in the Arkansas Department of Education, providing support for public school programs and subsequently implemented legislative mandates to create two state agencies with missions of higher education and economic development. For fourteen years, Ballard was a consultant in organizational development and training for Fortune 500 companies including Georgia Pacific Corporation.

Ballard holds degrees from the University of Arkansas, the Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., and the University of Central Arkansas. She plans to continue consulting and training while joining her husband, J. Barry Ballard, a college president, at their home near Lake DeGray south of Hot Springs.