Provost's Welcome
December 20, 2012
As students finish their courses and faculty complete grading, I am particularly conscious of the remarkable teaching and learning that happen at Simmons. On behalf of our students, I would like to thank the Simmons faculty for their dedication to student learning.
A number of those faculty have been recognized internally by Simmons or externally for their work. Professor Donna Beers of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science is the inaugural recipient of the College's Toby Sloane Award for Student Centeredness in Teaching. Assistant Professor at GSLIS Naresh Agarwal was awarded the James M. Cretsos Leadership Award by ASIS&T. The award recognizes a new member of the American Society for Information Science & Technology who has demonstrated outstanding leadership qualities in professional ASIS&T activities. In September, Associate Professor of Practice in Nursing Margaret Costello received the Mary Fay Enrichment Award from Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH). Established in 1999 by Yousuf and Estrellita Karsh, the award provides nurses an opportunity to explore and implement innovative and evidence-based solutions to complex patient/clinical problems. And a case study authored by Professor of Practice Mary Shapiro and Senior Lecturer Cynthia Ingols entitled "Helen Drinan: Giving Voice to Values," won the Tate Award for the most outstanding case published in the Case Research Journal in 2011. The case is about our President Drinan and her extraordinary leadership.
I am also pleased to announce that the College has secured an extraordinary leader as Interim Dean of the Graduate School of Library and Information Science. Maureen Sullivan, Professor of Practice in the GSLIS Ph.D. in Managerial Leadership Program is the 2012-13 President of the American Library Association. She has agreed to take on the role of Interim Dean, beginning January 2, 2013.
Her presidency of the 60,000+ strong ALA is the culmination of a long career of service to the profession. Highlights of this career include: Co-Chair of the Emerging Leaders Initiative and chair or member of eight other ALA Committees; President of the Association of College and Research Libraries (1998-99) and of the Library Administration and Management Association (1988-89), two divisions of the ALA. Join me in welcoming Maureen.
I would like to formally thank Dean Michele Cloonan once more for her decade of outstanding leadership of GSLIS. Michele delayed starting up a number of exciting scholarly projects to continue as Dean through the fall semester. I am very grateful to her and hope that you will join me in thanking Michele for not just these extra months but for an extraordinary run.
As the semester draws to a close, I extend my hopes to the entire Simmons community for a restful break, happy holidays, and for a great 2013.
Charlena Seymour, Provost
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