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.