161 Pebble Beach Drive
Little Rock, AR 72212
March 10, 2012
Dr. Richard Starnes, Chair
Provost Search Committee
Western Carolina University
Dear Dr. Starnes and members of the search committee:
Dr. Joel Anderson has informed me that he has nominated me for Provost and Vice Chancellor
for Academic Affairs at Western Carolina. After exploring the rich history and future plans for
WCU, I am happy to be a candidate for this exceptional opportunity.
I have spent the majority of my career at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, an institution
just a little larger than Western Carolina. While we are located in an urban state capitol and have
been designated as a Doctoral Research institution, we are like Western Carolina University in
many ways. We are also a Carnegie Engaged Institution, and we are committed to economic,
cultural, and community development in our region. Most importantly to me, I believe we share
cultural values of putting students first, providing access to higher education , and maintaining
collegial relationships among faculty, staff and students. In short, what I have experienced at
UALR and sense at Western Carolina is a rich academic community.
I have served for the last eleven years as Dean of the College of Professional Studies, overseeing
degree programs and outreach units in Social Work, Public Administration, Criminal Justice,
Audiology and Speech Pathology, Mass Communication and Speech Communication. I am
responsible for about 140 faculty and staff members and an annual budget of over $12 million,
over half of which is generated by external grants and contracts. My administrative portfolio is
very diverse in supervising various disciplines and working with complex organizational
structures. One of my departments is shared with the University of Arkansas for Medical
Sciences, a separate campus within the University of Arkansas System. I also have a consortium
Ph.D. program that is shared by three universities. The Mid-South Center within the School of
Social Work is responsible for child welfare training throughout the state of Arkansas and has six
field offices and 60 employees. I’ve also had experience in fund-raising, generating over $7.2
million in our current comprehensive campaign.
Beyond my experience at UALR, my experience in higher education leadership has been broad
and diverse, with appointments at two public and two private universities. I have served as a
Department Chair, Associate Dean, and Dean. My appointment at Abilene Christian University
was as Dean of the Graduate School and Associate Provost for Research, a leadership position
that gave me university-wide responsibilities and contacts with all disciplines across campus. In
that role I worked closely with the science disciplines in grant administration, raising funds for
undergraduate research, and developing research infrastructure. I attended the Institute for
Management and Leadership in Education at the Graduate School of Education at Harvard last
summer. I also completed peer evaluator training with the Higher Learning Commission of the
North Central Association of Colleges and Schools.
I place great emphasis on teaching, research, and service and see them as an intertwined
braid. As we continue our lively intellectual life through research and creative activity, we bring
a vibrancy to the classroom, often involving students in our on-going scholarship. As we pursue
applied or translational research, our work enriches our communities and solves pressing social
problems and needs. I have won a number of teaching and research awards, detailed in my cv. I
have continued my writing as an administrator, completing a second edition of my textbook on
organizational culture last year. I teach as an adjunct in the top-rated dispute resolution in the
country in the Straus Institute at Pepperdine University School of Law. I also have taught at
least one class every year on my home campus. I encourage both strong teaching and research
among the faculty in my college. I am proud that CPS faculty members have won six out of the
last 18 Faculty Excellence awards at UALR. My college has led the University in external grants
and contracts for the last 20 years. We have increased publications and grant awards as we have
offered research start-up packages to new faculty, supported more stipends for graduate students,
and offered summer fellowships for faculty. I am a strong proponent of the Boyer model of
scholarship and served on the Faculty Roles and Rewards Committee here at UALR three years
ago which incorporated the Boyer model centrally in our statement of faculty expectations.
I exercise collaborative leadership and transparent communication. Any member of my dean’s
cabinet will confirm that we make all important decisions as a group from strategic priorities to
budget cuts. I freely share information, power, and credit for successes. I firmly believe that
faculty and staff support what they helped to create, and that they should never hear about
decisions that affect them through the grapevine. I spend time developing personal relationships
with department chairs and faculty members to foster trust and open communication. I feel that
when I understand the successes and challenges of the faculty I can be a better advocate for
them. I feel I have the ability to balance strong advocacy for my units with a broader perspective
of what may be best for the university as a whole. I support shared governance and enjoy my
interaction with Faculty Senate.
I am committed to faculty and staff development. I personally host a first-year orientation
program for new faculty and staff in the college. Concerned about the lack of leadership
succession on campus, I created a Leadership Academy in the College. It is a two-year program
for 5-8 faculty and professional staff members in which we hear from campus leaders, work
through budget and personnel cases, attend a conference together on broader higher education
issues, attend leadership meetings on campus and work on one-on-one mentoring. In the nine
years I have conducted the program, participants have gone on to a number of leadership roles.
One is now Vice President for Student Affairs at the University of Kentucky. Two are
department chairs. One is a graduate coordinator. One is the current UALR Faculty Senate
President. Two have served as Associate Vice Chancellors for Academic Affairs at UALR, and
one is now Associate Dean for Academic Affairs at the Clinton School of Public Service.
I have played a leadership role in many of the university’s community engagement efforts. I
chaired an interdisciplinary task group that worked with 17 small water systems in a neighboring
county to form a regional water distribution district to assure a secure water supply for small
communities. I have facilitated strategic planning for health care reform with the Arkansas
Center for Health Improvement, Arkansas Department of Health and the Arkansas Department
of Insurance. I worked for two years on juvenile justice reform planning with the Arkansas
Division of Youth Services. I’m presently leading an effort for our Institute on Race and
Ethnicity on facilitating inter-racial dialogue in small communities in which economic and social
progress are limited by racial wounds that have never healed. I chaired the curriculum
committee that shaped the Clinton School of Public Service. I worked with Chancellor Charles
Hathaway twenty years ago in a strategic planning effort for UALR that brought community and
campus leaders together to discuss how the university could address pressing community needs.
I have a demonstrated commitment to diversity. Over the past 10 years, I have hired 54 faculty
and professional staff members in highly competitive professional fields¸ often constrained by
salaries lower than regional averages. Of those 54 hires, 10 have been African Americans and
five have been international faculty members. I have served on the Chancellor’s Committee for
Race and Ethnicity for five years, from its original meeting. I have played a leadership role in
the eight years of the Survey of Racial Attitudes in Pulaski County. I facilitated the planning
retreat for the formation of the Institute for Race and Ethnicity and served on the search
committee for the Founding Director. Your emphasis on Cherokee heritage and culture
especially attracts me. I had an opportunity as an eight year old to attend the Trail of Tears
pageant in the Smoky Mountains, and it made such an impression on me that I chose to write all
my research projects through junior high on the Cherokee tribe.
As an administrator I am innovative and entrepreneurial. I developed an interdisciplinary
graduate certificate program in conflict mediation at UALR that offers coursework in an
intensive weekend format. Many of the class instructors are leaders in the field who fly in from
around the country to interact with our students. Our department of Audiology and Speech
Pathology has developed a relationship with Arkansas Children’s Hospital to dispense hearing
aids to children, a program that brings in over $600,000 per year. I have arranged joint faculty
appointments between our campus and University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. I have
developed two consortium graduate programs with other universities in which we share
instructional expenses to offer programs that neither of us could afford to offer on our own.
I feel a strong resonance with the culture I perceive at Western Carolina University, and I feel I
would be a good fit as your Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs. I hope I have the
opportunity to explore the position further with you.
Cordially,
Angela Laird Brenton, Ph.D.