Presidential Sponsors must be from an Ohio higher education institution.
Preferably no more than 2 Presidential Sponsors from one of the 4 regions at a time. Presidential sponsors may be women, men or non-binary.
Presidential Sponsor 1: September 2018 – December 2020 Presidential Sponsor 2: January 2019 – December 2021 Presidential Sponsor 3: January 2020 – December 2022
Offer advice, mentoring and sponsorship to the ACE WNO State Co-Chairs as/when appropriate.
Participate in 3 conference calls with state co-chairs per year (October, February and June).
Uphold the ACE WNO mission to promote the advancement of women into senior administrative positions in higher education and to encourage the professional development of all women.
Encourage Deans, Directors, and Department Heads at your institution to release employees and support their attendance at the ACE WNO annual conference.
Promotion of the role through ACE WNO Faces of Ace feature on our website and social media.
Promotion of the role through visibility in the program booklet and Presidential Panel during our annual conference.
Terms:
Presidential Sponsor 1: September 2018 – December 2020 Presidential Sponsor 2: January 2019 – December 2021 Presidential Sponsor 3: January 2020 – December 2022
Responsibilities:
Offer advice, mentoring and sponsorship to the ACE WNO State Co-Chairs as/when appropriate.
Participate in 3 conference calls with state co-chairs per year (October, February and June).
Uphold the ACE WNO mission to promote the advancement of women into senior administrative positions in higher education and to encourage the professional development of all women.
Encourage Deans, Directors, and Department Heads at your institution to release employees and support their attendance at the ACE WNO annual conference.
Benefits to Presidential Sponsors:
Promotion of the role through ACE WNO Faces of Ace feature on our website and social media.
Promotion of the role through visibility in the program booklet and Presidential Panel during our annual conference.
President Susan Edwards, Ph.D., M.S., B.S. Wright State University
Edwards joined Wright State in 2018 as executive vice president for academic affairs and provost. She was drawn to Wright State because of the university’s core values and dedication to students. She is proud of how Wright State serves its students and the region and is honored and humbled to serve the university and its partners as president.
Edwards began her presidency January 2020 and has had a focus on recruitment, retention, and relationships. She is personally committed to student success, especially in terms of retention, experiential learning, and high quality classroom education.
She is committed to fostering a welcome and inclusive campus for students, faculty and staff. She has also focused on strengthening relations with the community and being very vocal about telling the Wright State story.
Prior to coming to Wright State, Edwards served as vice provost for faculty affairs and professor of biology at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. She was responsible for overseeing all areas of faculty evaluation and development and served as the academic affairs liaison on all personnel matters.
In 2007, Edwards left her native Australia to join the Department of Biology at Appalachian State. She then took on a leadership role as assistant chair for three years before being appointed chair of the department in 2012.
Previously, she was a faculty member in the Department of Physiology and Pharmacology in the Faculty of Medicine, Health and Molecular Sciences at James Cook University in Australia. She also served as a visiting assistant professor in the Department of Biology at Georgia Southern University.
She has taught numerous courses in 10 different degree programs including veterinary science, medicine, biology, pharmacy, biomedical science, aquaculture, medical laboratory science, physiotherapy, exercise science, education, and nursing. In addition, she has taught in university programs localized within indigenous communities in Victoria, Far North Queensland, and the Torres Strait Islands in Australia.
Edwards has published more than 30 research papers and two book chapters, co-edited the book Hagfish Biology, and served on the editorial board of Comparative Biochemistry and Physiology from 2006 to 2018. She is a former president of the Physiology Section of the American Fisheries Society. She also participated in the American Council on Education's Spectrum Aspiring Leaders Program in 2016 and the BRIDGES Academic leadership for Women at the University of North Carolina in 2014.
Edwards received a Ph.D. in comparative physiology from Deakin University in Victoria, Australia, an M.S. in neuroscience from The University of Melbourne and a B.S. in biology from Deakin.
President Dr. Lisa N. Williams Cuyahoga Community College Western Campus
Dr. Lisa N. Williams serves as the Campus President of the Cuyahoga Community College (Tri-C®) Western Campus in Parma, OH. Tri-C's Western Campus opened in 1966 in the former Crile Veterans Hospital. The campus has oversight of the Brunswick University Center and serves southern Cuyahoga and Medina County residents. offering a rich mix of direct-to-job and transfer programs, including includes numerous health career programs. Externally, Dr. Williams represents Tri-C to a variety of business, education and civic stakeholders in the western suburbs.
Dr. Williams has broad experience in community college administration. She joined Tri-C in 1995 and served in various positions in the health careers programs, eventually becoming the assistant dean of Health Careers & Sciences at the Western Campus. She served also as associate dean of Health Careers at the Eastern Campus for more than four years. In 2009, Dr. Williams accepted the position of vice president for Academic Affairs at Terra State Community College. She held several positions at Terra State, including senior vice president for Academic and Student Affairs, vice president for Institutional Advancement and executive director for the Terra College Foundation. In 2014, Dr. Williams rejoined Tri-C as vice president of Learning and Engagement. In this role, she oversaw online learning and academic technology, curriculum development, accreditation, faculty development, assessment, Aspire (GED) programming and institutional research. She became president of Eastern Campus in 2018 after serving eight months as interim president.
Dr. Williams has been active in state and national community college and higher education organizations. She has presented at numerous conferences including the League for Innovation in the Community College, the American Association of Community Colleges and the Bellwether College Consortium. Dr. Williams holds a doctorate in Higher Education Administration from the University of Toledo, as well as masters and bachelor degrees in Science from the University of Akron.
