Linda Hodges Appointed Director of the Faculty Development Center

From:   Elliot Hirshman, Provost and Senior Vice President for Academic Affairs; and Patrice McDermott, Interim Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs

We are very pleased to announce the appointment of Linda Hodges as director of the Faculty Development Center at UMBC.  As Director, Hodges will provide faculty with a comprehensive program of services designed to support teaching and related instructional activities. Her responsibilities will include mentoring faculty in their teaching roles, assisting faculty in course design, facilitating the use of technology to enhance student learning, fostering research on teaching and planning activities designed to support teaching excellence at UMBC. As director, she also will provide guidance to academic departments and individual faculty in student learning outcome assessment.

Hodges has worked in faculty development for eight years at the McGraw Center for Teaching and Learning at Princeton University, and searched as director for the last five years. She designed a broad array of successful initiatives at the McGraw Center, raised the visibility and value of teaching excellence at Princeton and supported constituencies across the disciplines in the use of technology, course design and pedagogical innovation. Hodges has published extensively in the areas of engaged student learning, effective pedagogical practices and the role of faculty development in higher education. She is nationally known as a leader in the field who conducted pedagogical research and developed new tools for learning assessment as a Carnegie Scholar through the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching.

Hodges received her Ph.D. in biochemistry from the University of Kentucky and held the position of chair of the Department of Chemistry and the William Rand Kenan, Jr. Professor at Agnes Scott College prior to her appointment at the McGraw Center.

Join us in welcoming Hodges to the UMBC community.  Her appointment as director will begin August 16.

We wish to thank all of the members of the search committee for their exceptional service. We also extend our gratitude to Barry Casey for his contributions to the campus while serving as interim director of the Faculty Development Center.