College Leadership Team
Minutes
July 17, 2013
Present – Larry Daniel, Marsha Lupi, Claribel Torres, Linda Sciarratta, Cathy O’Farrell, John Kemppainen, Jennifer Kane,
Karen Patterson, Jeffrey Cornett, John Venn, Guests: Roger Brown, Kristopher Brooks, Joanna Norris
Call to Order – The meeting was called to order at 9:35 am.
Welcome Florida Times Union
Dr. Daniel shared some history of the College Leadership Team and the roles CLT members have in the College of
Education and Human Services. Dr. Daniel gave thanks to Joanna Norris, Associate Director of Public Relations in the
Media office here on campus.
Introduction of CLT Members and Guests
Overview of Agenda
Thanks and appreciation to the representatives from the Florida Times Union
Greetings from UNF Media Relations – Joanna Norris
Joanna has been working with media relations for 13 years and has been at UNF for 8 years. Joanna was a former
journalist/print journalist; she knows the background of media and understands deadlines. Joanna is very pro-active but
at the same time very quick to get any type of expertise or data needed. Joanna told Roger and Kristopher that UNF
faculty members are very responsive if a comment is needed for an education story. Contact Joanna first and she will do
whatever is needed to accommodate the Editorial writers.
Dr. Daniel provided a contact list of deans, chairs, directors, and other contacts for the College of Education. Dr. Daniel
also provided a topic of interest list including department/unit contact info.
Dr. Daniel gave an appreciated thank you to Kristopher, Roger and the Times Union. COEHS has been the benefactor of
great press coverage and advertisements. COEHS faculty are available to serve as experts for the Times Union.
Kristopher is open for phone calls/opportunities and welcomes feedback. Roger welcomes opinion prospective and
representatives are encouraged to write about issues in op-ed news.
Discussion Points
COEHS likes the press to be aware of the commitment we have to local education. Our major work as a unit is to prepare
professionals for education which includes teachers, school principals, school counselors, other auxiliary personnel.
COEHS has a commitment to traditional, or college based four year teacher prep programs as well as alternative teacher
preparation. COEHS’ title includes Human Services – we prepare professionals in Sports Management, American Sign
Language interpreting, and Disability Services.
Jennifer Kane shared that the Leadership, School Counseling, and Sport Management department, has four sport
management faculty and each have areas of expertise. Kristi Sweeney does research in sports finance and would be
more than happy to discuss current issues associated with the Jacksonville Jaguars. The school counseling program
mission is to work with issues of social justice. The School Counseling faculty does a lot of work with urban schools such
as Raines, Ribault, and Jackson. The program is called SOAR (Supporters of Academic Rigor) and their mission is to
encourage as many students as possible in those under-served areas. This is a “hands on” program bringing many
resources to the students. Dr. Kane will inform Joanna Norris the dates the SOAR program will be bringing students on
campus. Twice a year the SOAR program has instant decision days where local representatives make college admission
decisions on site. Dr. Kane shared that they have an Ed.D program which is a doctoral degree in educational leadership.
It is the only academic doctorate at this institution.
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Jeff Cornett shared that the Foundations and Secondary department would be interested in sharing topics of interest
including democratic education, whole child education, and teacher and leader accountability. Foundations and
Secondary intersects with Math, Biology, English, and Political Science as major partnerships. FSE students take roughly
30 content hours in those disciplines. Secondary teacher education students are educated by the whole university with
FSE doing the special methods courses. Special methods courses are hosted at Sandalwood High School. Khristopher
asked if he could call next year, after the one year evaluation period” for the departments prospective on leader
accountability. Dr. Cornett shared that COEHS faculty have a great amount of international experience. In Dr. Cornett’s
unit there are at least 16 different countries where faculty has either lived or worked; they speak the language and have
done research in those countries. For example, Dr. Ali-Khan would be a good resource on the topic of Islamaphobia.
Diversity, writ large, goes across the entire unit but we also have the scholarly expertise within the unit that addresses
diversity for the whole college.
Tying into what Jeff Cornett is saying, Dr. Kane commented on the efforts COEHS is making in trying to involve our
partners. Leadership faculty are working to develop cohorts in school leadership where curriculum is based on the needs
of the district. Faculty will use the strategic plan, and the technology plan of the district bringing in the theory and
practicum that will better meet the needs of future leaders.
Karen Patterson, Exceptional, Deaf, and Interpreter Education, shared how the majority of coursework the Exceptional
Student Education initial certification students take all have some field experience connection. Reading classes are held
on site at Woodland Acres and are taught by our reading expert, Susan Syverud who is a Professor in Residence at the
school. The Curriculum and Instruction and Math and Science courses are held at Lake Shore Middle School with a focus
on working with children with disabilities. Debbie Reed, also Professor in Residence would be a good contact for stories
relating to working with UNF students, children in a K-12 setting, and their teachers, because of the holistic approach
involved in the process. Dr. Patterson shared how the department was awarded a community based transformational
learning grant which provides the opportunity to put these practices into coursework. Donald Moores, world expert in
deaf education, can provide an historical view and is very knowledgeable of the controversial issues in the field. Kristine
Webb, Director of Disability Resources and COEHS faculty is a good contact for disability related services. Dr. Patterson
shared that her department has several grants with disability resource focus. For example, the Access Academy (Janice
Seabrooks-Blackmore & Kristine Webb) provides students at UNF, through disability resource services, with extra help in
strategies, organization, and time management. Dr. Patterson also shared information about the department's newest
program - ASL/English Interpreting - a program that is growing under director, Sherry Shaw. The graduate program is
unique, the only program of its kind in our area and it is offered online. The standards for the interpreting program are
very high and rigorous on the academic level. Dr. Patterson also talked about the collaborative initiatives underway
among faculty in other departments. For example, Caroline Guardino and Katie Monnin worked together to develop a
summer camp experience (IREAD) on campus for children who are Deaf or hard-of-hearing. In addition, Dr. Patterson
also gave the following contacts as faculty experts: Janice Seabrooks-Blackmore and Kristine Webb for transition related
issues; Susan Syverud for reading; Donald Moores and Caroline Guardino for Deaf Education; Sherry Shaw and Jan
Humphrey for Interpreting; Michael Stultz for ASL.
Roger feels the departments within the COEHS are common in how actively engaged they are in the work they are
doing. Dr. Daniel told the times union representatives that COEHS is a deliberate urban college of education. We are
very much attached in what’s going on in the most challenging of urban schools throughout all programs. We want to
respect diversity and the variety of different school settings. We want COEHS students to be prepared to work in any
variety of school setting.
Dr. Kane shared that Dr. Jerry Johnson is an expert on rural education and could provide input on education in any of the
rural areas of Northeast Florida.
John Venn, Childhood Education, Literacy, and TESOL, shared that the department included early childhood education.
Elementary education is the largest program. Literacy covers all areas of reading and written expression, and the
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department also houses TESOL - Teachers of English and Speakers of Other Languages. Dr. Venn’s particular expertise is
testing children; throughout his career he has done a lot of work with assessment. Dr. Venn shared that his department
and all of COEHS, has innovative cutting edge work in distance learning. TESOL at the graduate level has gone entirely
online.
In regards to students and faculty, Joanna Norris said we are rising in the ranks as to “why come to UNF?”
Six of our faculty have received the EVE Award. We have a long history of influential people here in education. Chairs do
encourage faculty to work with each other across disciplines and across departments.
John Kemppainen, Director of Advising, shared that the advisors within his office are the first contact that any student
or family have with the university, particularly those that are transferring in or in high school and considering UNF and
want to be a teacher. Dr. Kemppainen feels they are the infantry, first contact, and really exemplifies customer service.
When someone calls they do not receive a message – callers speak with a live person and get transferred to an advisor
within the unit. Dr. Kemppainen is happy with faculty and the collaboration within departments. Advisors are assigned
to units – there is a good rapport established between faculty and advisor. Collaboration is across all divisions. Dr. Lupi
iterated that all advisors have at least their master’s degree.
Dr. Kemppainen is also the primary contact for the Florida Fund for Minority Teachers. This is really the brain child of the
late Senator Kirkpatrick back in early 1990’s. Senator Kirkpatrick saw that the gap was widening between the number of
children of color in schools and the number of teachers. This is a state funded project. The annual amount of the
Minority Teacher Education Scholarship is $4,000. Awards are only disbursed during the Fall and Spring semesters, in the
amount of $2,000 per semester. Students must teach in a Florida public school for two consecutive years after
graduation. The Executive Director said we have an 83% retention rate of students still teaching after the two years after
the program. This is one of the few programs nationally with such a good retention rate of keeping minority teachers in
the field. Dr. Kemppainen said UNF has over $1,000,000.00 worth of scholarships paid for our local students. Dr. Daniel
said the available pool of funds has unfortunately declined over the years.
Linda Sciarratta concurred with the wonderful stories just heard of how excellent our programs are and added that over
the years we have had severe cut backs in our budgets, regardless, we continue to offer high quality programs even with
the cut backs and call backs.
Claribel Torres, Director of Assessment and Research
Claribel Torres keeps all of COEHS accountability data, particularly our educator preparation programs. Dr. Torres also
does all the credibility reports for the college. Dr. Daniel prefaced that we have been part of a much bigger effort than
UNF. COEHS is part of a profession wide effort to be very transparent about the work we do and the quality of our
graduates. Dr. Daniel applauds the department of education and the board of education in working with us in
developing an accountability system that makes sense. COEHS is focused on outcome data – what can our graduates do?
Dr. Torres maintains a data base that all faculty in COEHS contribute to. Specific competencies are measured and all
competencies match the state standards. When a student graduates we can say “here are all the things we know they
are able to do”. (A data report is included in the packet)
Dr. Torres wanted to highlight that COEHS likes to stay ahead of what’s coming. COEHS likes to have that big picture to
facilitate the work of our faculty and our directors. How can we rely ourselves without compromising quality or
resources and still move forward and meet all standards. Behind all the compliance is one main goal – To make sure that
our candidate is well prepared and that we are preparing them adequately to stay in the classroom. Dr. Torres works
very closely with the department of institutional research making sure the outgoing data to the media, public, or faculty
is official data. Dr. Daniel iterated that COEHS knows a tremendous amount about the people we are graduating; we can
tell you with extreme detail how successful our graduates are. COEHS graduates are getting jobs and performing well in
their jobs, and their students are doing well on their required testing. Also, graduates are staying in those jobs at a much
higher rate than would be typical. COEHS is offering incredible high quality to the profession and this story does not get
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told adequately. Maybe COEHS is not telling the story well or maybe the press needs to help tell the story well. Dr.
Torres informed Roger and Kristopher if there was anything they needed to learn before publishing a story that has to
do with the quality of our students, the numbers and data, the context, she is more than happy to pitch in any way she
can. COEHS works very hard to provide the very best to the community.
Marsha Lupi, Associate Dean – Dr. Lupi wanted to point out that the COEHS building still looks brand new even though it
is five years old. COEHS students treat this building with respect and hopefully students will bring this value out into
their schools. Dr. Lupi shared that the university has given the opportunity (for the past nine years) for faculty who
wanted to take their students on an international teaching experience. UNF calls these “Transformational Learning
Opportunities”. These are applied for through a grant and an award received. During the past few years Dr. Kemppainen
has been successful getting a short term TLO to take students to Belize. TLO’s occur during the internship semester.
Students are teaching in Jacksonville but have the opportunity to teach in another country for three weeks. Dr.
Kemppainen will be taking 11 students to Belize this up-coming fall. Honduras is another county that has been hosting
out students. When COEHS talks about partnering with schools, we are also partnering with schools internationally. In a
global economy it is so important for our teachers to have this opportunity. Dr. Lupi has a very successful partnership
with the University of St. John and St. Mark in Plymouth, England. This is quite rigorous and no extra monies are involved
– Faculty does this because they want to and it is a big responsibility. Dr. Lupi also takes students to London on a field
experience. Dr. Lupi has also taken sports management students where they are able to intern with sport franchises in
Plymouth. Counties also included have been Peru, Hawaii, Philippines, and Austria. This is a very significant of where
COEHS is trying to move towards. Dr. Kemppainen said there are over 500 UNF alumni working in the schools of Belize.
80% of the schools in Belize have at least one teacher from UNF. Dr. Lupi stressed that these initiatives are really
important and hope to continue them. The scholarship money is important because we want a diverse group of students
going. This has been very successful. Dr. Lupi has three articles published on this in reputable journals.
Dr. Lupi was awarded a small grant to start a program to prepare teachers to work with military families. Dr. Lupi has
partnered with the military and has a great advisory council. The first workshop day will be October 18th. All of the
student teachers will be coming in to participate. School liaison officers from the Navy will be speakers. A school
psychologist from the Navy will talk about emotional deployment issues. A one credit course will be developed for it.
Kristopher told Dr. Lupi that the times union just hired a person to cover the military and asked if she could please write
something up, send it to Joanna Norris, to be sent to the editors, and also include some of the contacts from NAS Jax.
Kristopher will also follow up with a “cheer item” in their editorial page.
Cathy O’Farrell, Director of Educational Field Experiences- Dr. O’Farrell talked about how engaged the faculty and our
students are in working in school settings. Students are actively involved in the schools from their freshman year all the
way through to their last semester of internship. This developmental continuum of field experiences allows them to
have “hands on” types of experience starting with observations as freshman and developing in to more in depth
experiences and responsibilities of being a teacher and the realities of the classroom. We have a variety of field
experiences. There are structured and defined field experiences and a number of other opportunities of course
embedded field experiences with assignments students have to do all the way up to their internship semester.
COEHS has a long standing and nationally recognized partnership with the Duval county schools and that is the urban
professional development school partnership. (See brochure) One goal of the partnership is to prepare our students to
work in challenging urban settings and to retain them at those schools. COEHS has faculty who teach courses on site at
West Jacksonville Elementary, Kings Trail Elementary, Woodland Acres Elementary, and Lake Shore Middle School. We
have resident clinical faculty who work onsite at these schools and professors of residence who are COEHS faculty
members who work directly with the children and the students. All of the Professional development Schools are urban
and each has an identified focus. Relationships have been developed with corporations to further the work of the Urban
Professional Development Partnership. Mainstreet America has transformed a business partnership of just providing
resources into a true partnership of working with children and faculty at Woodland Acres Elementary.
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Conversations about the possibility of creating a partnership with One Jax, UNF, and the Aspen Institute are underway
with the potential of developing a national model that will support aspiring teachers to be effective and want to
continue to work in urban settings. Dr. O’Farrell invited the guests to see the professional development school in action.
John Kemppainen and Dr. O’Farrell are exploring the opportunity to develop an international professional development
school in Belize. It would be a program where our students would spend time in Belize and Belizean students will spend
time here.
Dr. Lupi feels a good story would be the benefits of going to a university based program like ours. What COEHS provides
is a whole professional not just a practitioner. Dr. Daniel noted that a good media story could focus on students pursuing
master’s degree and what are they gaining from advanced study?
Dr. Cornett shared that he felt a good story would be about the people who are passionately committed to the
education of youth. How transformative these folks are. Dr. O’Farrell called them the “hidden gems” that no one knows
about except the parents and the students they work with.
The rest of the meeting was spent on discussion and suggestions of good story topics.
Meeting adjourned at 11:05
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