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Introduction
Introduction
To teach is to never to stop learning, which is also our goal for students. I consistently improve my knowledge, network, and more importantly, my teaching through professional development. Several longstanding memberships inform my teaching. I have been a member of the National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship (NACCE) for 20 years. This network informs my recruitment strategies and their best practices with non-traditional students have proven valuable. Every year (except one) I attended their national conference and since 2021, I have presented or been an invited speaker. The Credit for Prior Learning Assessment Network (CPLAN) is a System-wide group that significantly contributes to my knowledge of prior learning assessment and best practices. During my sabbatical, I worked with CPLAN Director, Dr. Mary Beth Lakin, to shape the new process for internal assessment in the Applied Leadership program.
Over the last four years, I am most proud of my completion of the ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices certification course (i.e., the Association of College and University Educators). I accessed this course through the support of MSU Mankato ONLINE starting in 2022. Due to my husband's terminal cancer, I needed to pause my participation for a semester and completed it in spring 2024. This rigorous course required at least eight hours weekly. I have already incorporated course learnings into my teaching pedagogy and curricula.
DEI & Racism Learning
DEI & Racism Learning
The pandemic and civil unrest in the Twin Cities helped me to focus on the issue of systemic racism and to become a better scholar on this topic. This informs my teaching and increases my students' exposure to these critical issues through my course content. In 2022, my selected reading was White Fragility by Robin DiAngelo (2018). This book helped me to explore racism from a systemic or institutional perspective. With critical race theory so prevalent in the news, I wanted to help students get beyond the "I am not a racist" or "I don't see color" response and recognize systematic oppression that marginalizes and disadvantages BIPOC persons. An example of this is in AOS492 Agriculture and Leadership. Students are asked to watch a 1968 video from CBS News called Hunger in America. This video includes the story of a pregnant African American woman from Mississippi who lost her newly born child to hunger and malnutrition. Approaching food justice as systemic racism was eye-opening for many students who previously thought of it as simply a financial issue.
This led me to my book choice for 2024, Caste:The Origins of Our Discontents (Wilkerson, 2020). I am moved by her perspective on racism and the origins of systemic oppression. I already viewed race as a social construct but her examples of oppression as caste and the linkage to global examples enriched my teaching of DEI topics. This book was an uncomfortable read. It challenged me to think more deeply about white privilege and what is missing in the US history taught in our K-12 schools.
I am still working to effectively incorporate caste in my courses, as I believe it vital to educating a global and virtual workforce that continues to grow. In October 2024, I attended an in-person lecture by this noted author and scholar at St. Catherine's University in Saint Paul.
Trainings & Certifications
Trainings & Certifications
2023 ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices Certificate
2021 CITI Ethical Research Refresher Certificate (IRB). This is the new required training for IRB which is critical for research production and helps to prepare graduate students in Sociology for the standards and preparation for an IRB application.
ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices Course
ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices Course
Between 2022 and 2024, I completed the ACUE Effective Online Teaching Practices Course (transcript is provided in Criterion 3 evidence). I took away many learning topics for future use. I am already implementing some of the best practices for online teaching into my new courses. An example of this is the new AOS492- Leading Virtual Teams course that was first offered in fall semester 2024. See the note to self below from the ACUE course that reminded me that I planned to implement an action learned in a module, Then in the yellow highlighted area you see I created "check on learning" quizzes to follow through on that commitment. It is not enough to learn something; one must apply it for it be useful. This is "walking the talk" in applied leadership as a discipline.
Conferences & Symposia
Conferences & Symposia
2024 National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Annual Conference, Bloomington, MN.
2024 Isabel Wilkerson: Our Racial Moment of Trutth lecture, St. Catherine' s University, St. Paul, MN.
2023 Midwest Academy of Management Annual Conference, Chicago, IL.
2023 National Association for College Entrepreneurship Annual Conference, Nashville, TN.
2022 CPLAN webinar- Keeping Up with CPL Policy and Practice, Virtual.
2022 Forum on Workplace Inclusion. Augsburg University, Virtual.
2022 National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Annual Conference, Boston, MA.
2022 NIFA Conference for USDA Service Learning Grantees, Virtual.
2021 GreenSeam Rural Forum (Agriculture & rural economic development), Mankato, MN.
2021 MSU Mankato Frontier Forum, Mankato, MN Virtual. (I was also part of the organizing committee)
2021 National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship Annual Conference. Minneapolis, MN.
2021 Society for College and University Planners Annual Conference. Virtual.
Professional Memberships/Organizational Affiliations
Professional Memberships/Organizational Affiliations
CPLAN- The Credit for Prior Learning Assessment Network is a Minnesota State collaborative that supports 30 colleges and 7 universities in credit for prior learning (CPL) implementation. (Member- 2019-present).
MWAOM- The Midwest Academy of Management comprises researchers and practitioners in the fields of management, education, organizational leadership, and professional studies. This is a regional arm of the Academy of Management, a national organization. Membership in the organization offers me opportunities to attend and present research at their academic conferences servicing the Midwest region. (Member- 2023-present).
NACCE- National Association for Community College Entrepreneurship. This organization provides leadership and sustainable, scalable resources to foster entrepreneurial thinking and action in one of the largest entrepreneurial ecosystems in North America. Includes faculty, administrators, and program managers in two-year colleges and related educators. (Member- 2004-present).
USASBE- US Association for Small Business Entrepreneurship is an association of university entrepreneurship educators who advance entrepreneurship and innovation education through teaching, scholarship, and practice. This organization is an outlet for my research in the social entrepreneurship space and I read their Entrepreneurship Education and Pedagogy journal regularly (Member- 2016-2023).
Future Outlook
Future Outlook
My record of association/peer-group membership, networking in teaching, and research on organizational management, leadership, entrepreneurship, and adult learners evidences I am a lifelong learner. My participation in each organization has covered multiple years. I attend their workshops, annual conferences, and read their publications or listservs to remain current with the literature, best practices, and find research opportunities. I will continue participation in these groups and add new ones that align with my teaching and scholarship. I also plan to continue identifying one book or publication each year on DEI topics to incorporate into my curricula. As Program Director, I continue to learn from my sabbatical and the CPLAN network to expand credit for prior learning at MSU Mankato (see Criterion 4).
Source: Quote attributed to Peter Drucker (Drucker Institute, n.d.)
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