The Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center and the Office of Faculty Affairs are pleased to announce that Hope Ballentine has accepted a three-year term as TFSC co-director. Ballentine will join the center in August and will be responsible for coordinating the center's events and programs along with co-directors Carole Shook (Information Systems) and Richard Cassady (Industrial Engineering). She will serve a three-year term replacing Lynn Meade (Student Success) who is completing her service as co-director.

According to Ballentine, "I am thrilled and so honored to have been chosen for the role of TFSC co-director. Since attending my first TFSC Teaching Camp in 2016, I began dreaming about a day I could play a part in leading this wonderful organization. The TFSC has been instrumental in helping me develop as a teaching faculty member in the classroom and beyond. I feel certain that many of the meaningful connections I have made with faculty across campus never would have been orchestrated without this organization. As a co-director, I look forward to helping empower faculty to create and sustain meaningful learning experiences for their students and hope to foster feelings of welcoming and belonging for all faculty at the University of Arkansas."

Ballentine earned her Doctor of Nursing Practice from the U of A, her master's degree from Vanderbilt University and her undergraduate degree from Harding University. She is a licensed certified nurse educator, a certified nurse midwife and a registered nurse. She is a teaching associate professor in the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing in the College of Education and Health Professions, and she has served on the U of A faculty since 2012, beginning as an adjunct instructor and receiving promotions to her current role.

She has developed and instructed courses at the undergraduate levels and graduate levels, has chaired and served on numerous dissertation committees and honors theses committees and has recently led the college's undergraduate course and programs committee. She has extensive training in competency-based education and has led major departmental curriculum revisions, and she is a member of the SEC Nursing Collaboration. She is the faculty adviser to Sigma Phi Lambda on the U of A campus.

Her teaching awards include the 2022 Arkansas Alumni Association Rising Teaching Award, election in 2022 as fellow of the U of A Teaching Academy, the 2021-2022 Excellence in Teaching Award from the Eleanor Mann School of Nursing and the 2021-2022 Didactic Teacher of the Year from the Student Nurses Association at the U of A.

Continuing co-directors Shook and Cassady and HEI Program Coordinator Lori Libbert are pleased to welcome Ballentine to the TFSC team. According to Shook, "Dr. Ballentine has been an active participant in Cordes TFSC events, a committed educator dedicated to helping students achieve excellence and a creative and enthusiastic scholar. We are excited about the new ideas she brings to the team."

Established in 1992, the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center serves as an interactive resource for faculty to enhance teaching and learning. Events coordinated by the center include the Faculty Lunch Series, Faculty Enrichment Series, Winter Teaching Symposium and Teaching Camp.

For more about the TFSC and its programs go to Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center | Teaching and Faculty Support Center | University of Arkansas (uark.edu).