Four Fellows for SEC Academic Leadership Development Program Named by Provost

Four University of Arkansas faculty members have been named as Fellows of the Southeastern Conference Academic Leadership Development Program for 2012-2013. The four are: Michael Looper, professor and head of animal science department in the Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Science; Jeannie Hulen, associate professor of ceramics and chair of the art department in the J. William Fulbright College of Arts & Sciences;, Calvin White, Jr., assistant professor of history and director of the African and African American Studies program in the Fulbright College; and Matthew Waller, professor of supply chain management and chair of supply chain management in the Sam M. Walton College of Business.

The program identifies and mentors the next generation of academic leaders SEC schools.  Fellows participate in two regional workshops as well as in programs specific to each campus over the course of the academic year.

“The ALDP Fellows represent the strength, talent, and expertise of the faculty at the University of Arkansas,” said Sharon Gaber, provost and vice chancellor for academic affairs. “I could not be more pleased with the group and appreciate their interest in the leadership program.  They are excellent representatives of the University and its academic leaders.”

The program is in its fifth year and was an early initiative of the leadership of the SEC academic consortium. When the academic consortium was absorbed into the SEC, the presidents and chancellors chose to continue the leadership development program within the SEC academic initiatives.  The four individuals participating for the 2012-13 year are recently appointed to their roles as departmental chairs or academic program directors.

Michael Looper was appointed as head of the animal science department head in September 2011.  He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Arkansas and his doctorate from Oklahoma State University.  Prior to his appointment, Looper was a research animal scientist for the United States Department of Agriculture. He served as an adjunct faculty member at the University of Arkansas and the University of Arkansas at Fort Smith and as an assistant professor and extension research specialist at New Mexico State University in Las Cruces.

Jeannie Hulen was appointed as department chair of the art department in 2010.  She joined department in 2002 and was promoted to associate professor in 2008.  She earned a bachelor of fine arts from the Kansas City Art Institute and a master of fine arts in ceramics from Louisiana State University.  Her curatorial projects have included organizing major symposia on the contemporary movements in the field of ceramics, serving as an invited art juror for eight exhibitions and art festivals.  A member of the University of Arkansas Public Arts Oversight Committee, Hulen has also served as a resident artist at the Graduate Institute of Applied Arts at the Tainan National University in Tainan, Taiwan.

Calvin White, Jr. was appointed director of African and African American Studies in July 2011.  He earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees from the University of Central Arkansas and his doctorate from the University of Mississippi.  He joined the history department as an assistant professor in 2007.  White’s scholarship emphasizes Southern and African American religion and his first book, The Rise to Respectability:  Race, Religion, and the Church of God in Christ, was published this year by the University of Arkansas Press. He has been nominated for the Imhoff Award for Outstanding Teaching and Student Mentorship and the Omni Center Award for Social Justice and Outreach.  White serves on the university-wide Silas B. Hunt Legacy Selection Committee and the Martin Luther King Day Planning Committee.  His departmental service includes service on the planning and fiscal committee and the executive committee.  He served as a Gilder-Lehrman Fellow at the Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, New York.

Matthew Waller was appointed as the first chair of the newly created supply chain management department in July 2011.  He earned his bachelor’s degree from the University of Missouri and his master’s and doctoral degrees from Pennsylvania State University.  Waller joined the management and logistics department at the U of A in 1995 after teaching for one year as a visiting assistant professor. He was promoted to full professor in 2007.  Waller holds the Garrison Endowed Chair in Supply Chain Management and is co-editor of the Journal of Business Logistics.  In 2008, he was the director of the Walton College of Business Executive MBA program in Shanghai, China.  He has served as a management consultant to Hewlett-Packard, General Mills, Southwestern Energy, and J.B. Hunt.  His opinion pieces have appeared in The Financial Times and in the Wall Street Journal Asia. Waller was the founder and first president of the Northwest Arkansas Roundtable of the Council of Supply Chain Management professionals.  Besides serving as a faculty senator, Waller has served on numerous departmental committees.

The Fellows all received strong recommendations from their deans and were selected through a nomination process among faculty who are serving in administrative roles in their departments.  The Fellows will attend workshops, along with colleagues from across the Southeastern Conference, at the University of Tennessee in October and at the University of Florida in February.

Kathy Van Laningham, vice provost for planning, serves as the liaison to the Academic Leadership Development Program for the University of Arkansas.  She was elected to serve a two-year term as chair of the liaison group beginning this year.