President's Blog

Owens Faculty Is On the Forefront of Preparing Students for the Workforce

April is National Community College Month, and so we celebrate our mission to transform our students’ lives. We are very intentional in our commitment to supporting our students by offering value through access to incredible faculty, student services, new facilities, and state-of-the-art equipment.

Thanks to the hard work and dedication of our talented and innovative faculty, Owens is at the forefront of preparing students for their careers. When students come to Owens, they learn in small classes, where our experienced educators provide them with a top-notch education that immediately transfers directly into today’s workforce needs or to bachelor’s degrees.

As a community college, we adapt to the needs of our students and the community. For example, our faculty members have created a collection of openly licensed course content for students. These Open Educational Resources (OER), which are free and used in place of traditional textbooks, increase equity in student learning. Since starting to use OER, Owens students will have saved more than $1 million over four semesters.

Owens continues to play a leadership role among community colleges. In April, our faculty will lead a county-wide training focused on nursing and health professions and developmental disabilities that will ultimately lead to better patient outcomes. This event will provide interdisciplinary professional education and align healthcare professions across the region.

This month our School of Nursing and Health Professions will also collaborate with the Wood County Board of Developmental Disabilities to provide a free Assistive Technology Fair for students, health professionals, and those who work with individuals with developmental disabilities.

Owens’ Fine and Performing Arts department also recently held its biennial Networking Fair and Symposium. This event was free and open to the public and featured dynamic speakers and interactive sessions related to careers with an arts focus. Those in attendance had the opportunity to meet educators and professionals from the fields of graphic design, photography, recording arts, broadcasting, theatre, music, music business, and fine arts.

We are also proving that we have some of the best and brightest faculty members in the country through the awards and accomplishments many of them have recently received.

Dr. Sara Burke, Assistant Professor in our Physical Therapist Assistant program, received the Dale P. Parnell Distinguished Faculty Recognition from the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). Named in honor of former AACC President and CEO Dale P. Parnell, this designation has been established to recognize individuals making a difference in the classroom. Dr. Burke is the third Owens faculty member to receive this prestigious honor.

Dr. Burke embodies all four of the major aspects for consideration of this award. She demonstrates her passion for students and teaching and learning in the classroom. She is intentional in engaging students in learning experiences that reinforce the concepts taught within the context of real-life experiences. She also supports students outside of the classroom, as she is a mentor for the Ohio Physical Therapy Association.

Dr. Burke is a learner who lives for continuous self-improvement in order to be a better teacher and colleague. She successfully completed the virtual 2021 IPEC Interprofessional Leadership Development Program, and she was awarded Owens’ School of Nursing and Health Professions Teaching Excellence Award for 2021-2022.

Several Owens faculty members have completed the Association of College and University Educators (ACUE) course in Effective Online Teaching Practices, which was co-endorsed by the American Council on Education (ACE). This intensive course with 25 modules is based on evidence-based pedagogy and is designed to empower faculty to be impactful online instructors to ensure student success. Congratulations to faculty members in the last cohort:

• Eileen Alexander, Assistant Professor, Nursing
• Kelley Colston, Adjunct Faculty, Business Technologies
• Danielle Dremann, Adjunct Faculty, Life and Natural Sciences
• Michelle Gonzalez, Adjunct Faculty, Radiography
• Tiffany Hastings, Adjunct Faculty, Business Technologies
• Laud Kwaku, Professor, Math
• Brittany Moore, Adjunct Faculty, Dental Hygiene
• Michelle Poole, Adjunct Faculty, Social and Behavioral Sciences
• Farida Sidiq, Instructor, Biology
• Kevin Walker, Lab Technician, Advanced Computer Aided Machining

Our outstanding faculty members are making their presence known on a national level through their recognitions and leadership work.

Julie Lohse, Professor of Nursing, won Owens’ 2022 Presidential Teaching Award, based on quality and innovation in teaching and commendable service to the College and/or profession.

Brad Wood, Findlay Campus Dean and former Chair of our Physical Therapist Assistant Program, was awarded the Excellence in Accreditation Leadership Award for his leadership in the field of accreditation in Physical Therapy Education. He also attended the Commission of Accreditation for Physical Therapy Education Fall Meeting in Washington D.C. and was re-elected to serve as a commissioner for the Physical Therapist Assistant Panel for a four-year term.

Jodi Gore, Instructor in Social Work and Human Services, was selected as a member of the Association of Social Work Boards (ASWB), which serves as a task force and subject matter expert for the practice analysis process. As a member of the task force, she helped develop the Social Work Census, the largest practice analysis survey of social work practitioners ever undertaken, which launched during Social Work Month in March. In addition, the task force will shape the next iteration of the social work licensing examination content to be released in January 2025.

Bernard Goedde, Assistant Professor in our Transportation Technologies Department, attended John Deere Instructor Development Week training in Wichita, Kansas, where he achieved new certified technician status.

Kimberly Moore, Dental Hygiene Instructor, was nominated for the James Quilty Champion of Oral Health Award for her efforts in addressing access to oral health and improving the oral health of Ohioans. She is fulfilling this by encouraging student participation in the Owens Kids Access to Oral Health Program.

Kevin Schroeder, Professor of Fine Art, was awarded first place for his piece Artists Who Teach at the Ellington-White Contemporary Gallery (Fayetteville, NC). His work was also featured in the 28^th Parkside National Print Exhibition (University of Wisconsin-Parkside) and the 57^th Annual Drawing and Small Sculpture Show at the Joseph A. Cain Memorial Art Gallery (Corpus Christi, Texas).

Shannon Holleran, Adjunct Faculty, Psychology, was published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 2023, Vol. 124, No. 1, 215–235: “Do People Agree on How They and Others Are Acting? Examining the Degree of Target–Observer and Observer–Observer Agreement About Current Behavior as It Changes Across Situations” Eranda Jayawickreme, Shannon E. Holleran, Scott Sutton, R. Michael Furr, and William Fleeson.

Dr. Michelle Arbogast, Chair of Teacher Education and Human Services, was selected as a Community Leader for the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE). She will work to develop activities as a content expert for global webinars, articles, and open educational resources in all areas of educational technology and levels/disciplines of teaching and learning.

Beth Tronolone, Chair of Dental Hygiene, is serving her second term as a two-year American Dental Hygienists’ Association (ADHA) District V Trustee. She also serves on the ADHA Finance Committee and on the ADHA Board Governance Manual Committee.

I’m very proud to see the many achievements of our faculty members and how they selflessly give of their time. Owens faculty members are essential to improving the quality of life in northwest Ohio.

Dione D. Somerville, Ed.D.
President