Leslie Massey, Kim Petrone Named Student Success Faculty Fellows

Leslie Bartsch Massey, advanced instructor in the First-Year Engineering Program, and Kim Petrone, teaching associate professor in the Sam M. Walton College of Business, have been named Student Success Faculty Fellows for the fall 2026 semester.

The Student Success Faculty Fellows program supports innovative, evidence-based projects that improve student retention and advance student success. Fellows propose their own projects and work closely with the senior vice provost for student success and academic excellence, to design, implement and assess efforts that address certain campus retention concerns.

Massey will serve as the Student Success Faculty Fellow for Mission 1, a new program designed to strengthen first-year student retention and success. Massey's work will be focused on supporting academic success, determination, sense of belonging and advancement to the second year. As part of her fellowship, Massey will develop the university STEM pathways program, collaborate with the institution-wide retention efforts and assist in the campuswide implementation of Navigate360, a student success management and CRM (Customer Relationship Management) system.

"I want every student to see a path to success at the University of Arkansas," Massey said. "That means creating first-year experiences that meet students where they are, help them discover their strengths, build connections and find an academic path where they can thrive."

Petrone's fellowship will focus on implementing different learning interventions to improve course success rates in Legal Environment of Business (BLAW 20003). These interventions include exam retest opportunities and study groups led by faculty and undergraduate tutors. The interventions also include explorations with generative AI models as tools for student-specific exam preparation. In addition to improving student learning and course success rates, this project aims to boost concept mastery, expand access to support, increase student confidence and promote effective study habits that will benefit students beyond the BLAW classroom. Petrone is working closely with Jen Caba, senior director for retention and learning lab retention, and the Student Success team in Walton College on implementing these interventions in the BLAW courses.    

"I have loved working with Jen Caba on this project," Petrone said. "She is creative and collaborative. She quickly understood the issues of the BLAW 20003 students and developed excellent tools to promote comprehension and learning."

More About Massey

Massey joined the U of A in 2006 as a graduate research assistant, and she became a program associate in the Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering in 2008. She became a faculty member in the First-Year Engineering Program in 2013.

In addition to first-year engineering, she has taught honors, interdisciplinary, online and biological engineering courses, including over 100 undergraduate engineering course sections. She has also conducted more than 2,000 one-on-one advising appointments, and she created the Honors Innovation Experience, co-led the redesign of the First-Year Engineering curriculum and developed the HNRC 102VH Innovation Bridge Course.

Her scholarship focuses on engineering education, with an emphasis on first-year engineering, student success, innovation education, mentoring and evidence-based teaching practices. She is certified in Effective College Instruction by the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) and is an associate academic life coach.

She has been recognized with the U of A Outstanding Faculty Advisor Award in 2023, the Biggadike Dean's Excellence Award for Non-Tenure Track Teaching in 2025 and multiple Outstanding Teacher awards from the First-Year Engineering Program in 2026, 2023 and 2021. She was inducted into the U of A Teaching Academy in 2024 and was the October 2024 Wally Cordes Chair.

Massey earned a bachelor's degree in biological engineering and a master's degree in environmental engineering from the U of A.

More About Petrone

Petrone joined the U of A in 2011 as an instructor in the College of Engineering's Master of Science in Operations Management program.  She became a faculty member in the Walton College of Business in 2013 and is presently a teaching associate professor. Petrone serves as course coordinator for Legal Environment of Business, with more than 2,400 students and 35 sections annually. 

Petrone has taught business law courses in various formats: full semester, eight-week, four-week and online. She created three online courses, including courses in law and ethics, legal environment of business and commercial transactions. Over the past year, she has developed and taught in-person courses on AI governance. 

She has served on the Faculty Senate Committee on In-Class Response Systems and the Provost's Committee on Remote Learning. In addition, Petrone has contributed to university efforts related to academic integrity, teaching effectiveness and student engagement. She has also presented at several conferences across the country on various topics including technology, teaching business law and litigation involving consumer debt.

Petrone has received several awards for teaching, including the Walton College of Business Teaching Faculty Excellence award. In 2024 and 2016, she was also a finalist in the Charles M. Hewitt Master Teacher Competition at the annual conference for the Academy of Legal Studies in Business.