Five MSU faculty and academic administrators were recently named 2018-19 Fellows in the Academic Leadership Program of the Big Ten Academic Alliance.
The Academic Leadership Program provides intensive leadership and managerial development, addressing the challenges of academic administration at major research universities, like tightening budgets, changing student populations, and increasing pressures from external sources. Many of the program’s nearly 1,000 fellows have gone on to serve as college presidents, provosts and deans.
During the 2018-19 academic year, the MSU ALP Fellows will visit three Big Ten Academic Alliance universities. In addition, they will meet with campus and community leaders of their choosing, to complement their knowledge of policy and institutional organization with local insights and contacts.
2018-19 MSU ALP Fellows
Kendra Spence Cheruvelil is associate dean for research and faculty development for Lyman Briggs College, where she also serves as the college’s faculty excellence advocate. Cheruvelil conducts big-data research to understand how global climate change and land use intensification affect lakes across regions and continents. She enjoys bringing together collaborators from across disciplines to answer complex scientific questions and mentoring early-career scientists to advance data-intensive ecology, team science and open science. Cheruvelil also implements innovative and evidence-based teaching practices, such as team-based research experiences, in her classrooms. She studies the effects of these interventions in order to improve student learning and classroom climate.
Cara Cilano is chair of the Department of English in the College of Arts and Letters. She is affiliated faculty in the Muslim Studies Program. Cilano has received two Fulbright grants and served as lead PI on a $1 million Department of State University Partnership grant with the International Islamic University in Islamabad, Pakistan. She is the author of several books on Pakistani literature. Cilano taught at the University of North Carolina Wilmington from 2001-16, where she also served as the general education administrator, prior to coming to MSU.
Pero Gaglo Dagbovie is associate dean in the Graduate School and is a University Distinguished Professor of History. For five years, he served as the graduate director and associate chair in the Department of History. From 2008 until 2012, under the auspices of the U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service (National Capital Parks-East), he served as the principal investigator for the Carter G. Woodson Home, National Historic Site. He remains active in public history. He will be the next editor of " The Journal of African American History." Over the last decade, he has served as the major adviser for more than a dozen graduate students who earned their doctorates.
Ashley Green is assistant dean of administration for International Studies and Programs. In this role, Green provides leadership in the implementation and administration of international programs and global initiatives that advance and strengthen university wide missions related to research, outreach and engagement activities. Before coming to ISP, Green was the director of scholarships for the National and International Fellowships and Scholarships Office within MSU's Honors College, where she led daily operations and supported students in pursing national and international funding awards. Prior to NIFS, she was the program manager for the Hubert H. Humphrey Fellowship program in the Center for Advanced Study of International Development within ISP. Additional administration experience includes student affairs roles in admissions, career services, student success, and TRIO Programs.Green earned a bachelor's degree in psychology from MSU, a master's degree in higher education student affairs and a doctorate in educational leadership and administration.
John Papapolymerou is a MSU Foundation Professor and chairperson of the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering. His research focuses on the development of new RF/microwave and mm-wave circuits and antennas for wireless communication and sensing systems, as well as radars. His work has been funded by grants from NSF, NASA, DoD, DoE and various companies that have supported several graduate and undergraduate students and post-doctoral researchers. He is a past recipient of the NSF CAREER award and the ARO Young Investigator Award. He will serve as the Chair of the 2019 IEEE International Symposium on Antennas and Propagation. Papapolymerou taught at Georgia Tech from 2001-15 before joining MSU.