The Southern Regional Education Board has named leaders from a diverse group of colleges to an advisory committee for a new Center for Innovative Faculty Development. 

As part of SREB’s efforts to improve the success of postsecondary students, the center will support faculty with teaching strategies to help more students complete credentials and launch careers. 

Advisory committee members will help SREB shape the center’s focus, including lending their expertise to the center’s curriculum and design.

The group began convening this month. 

• Derek Greenfield, vice president for inclusive excellence, Harris-Stowe State University, chair
• J. Indigo Eriksen, associate professor of English, Northern Virginia Community College 
• Melody Kelley, associate professor of chemistry, Georgia State University 
• Robert Osgood, associate professor and program director, department of biomedical sciences, Rochester Institute of Technology 
• William Russell Robinson, associate professor and chair, department of communications, Alabama State University
• Betina Cutaia Wilkinson, associate professor and associate chair, department of politics and international affairs, Wake Forest University
• Sheila Witherspoon, CEO, eLearning Design
• Luria Young, professor, department of science and mathematics education, Southern University and A&M College

Ex-officio members are Douglas Curry, doctoral candidate at North Carolina State University, and Stevie Lawrence II, provost and vice president for academic affairs, Lincoln University 

“Faculty members play an important role in their students’ success, not only in coursework but as they embark on their chosen paths into the workforce as well,” said SREB President Stephen L. Pruitt. “At institutions that serve students from low-income families, rural areas and racial and ethnic groups underrepresented in higher education, it’s especially important for faculty to align teaching with how students learn and what they need in the workplace.” 

“It’s an irrefutable fact that our population of students will continue to grow more diverse in the coming years, and our faculty need ways to reach students of a new generation unlike their own,” said Ansley Abraham, director of SREB’s Doctoral Scholars Program. “The center will build on what we’ve learned over 30 years in preparing faculty through the Institute on Teaching and Mentoring.”

SREB will announce plans for the new center on Sept. 14 and 15 at its annual Student Success Summit in Atlanta. Faculty are encouraged to attend to participate in training and provide feedback on the center’s future offerings. The SREB Center for Innovative Faculty Development plans to host its first faculty cohort in the 2024-25 school year.  

The Southern Regional Education Board works with states, districts and schools to improve education at every level, from early childhood through doctoral education and the workforce. An interstate compact and a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization based in Atlanta, SREB was created in 1948 by Southern governors and legislators to advance education and improve the social and economic life of the region.