March 15, 2017 Rockhurst University Dean of Health and Human Services
I am excited to announce that I will be joining Rockhurst University in July 2017 as the new Dean of Health and Human Services. You can read the announcement on the Rockhurst University website Here. I would like to thank UMKC for many opportunities to be a leader, teacher, scholar, and colleague. The Rockhurst University College of Health and Human Services offers several nationally ranked programs in areas of study that include teacher education (elementary and secondary), communication sciences and disorders, exercise and sport science, occupational therapy, and physical therapy. To learn more about my new academic home, please visit the CHHS website. |
February 22, 2017 UMKC Online News - Faculty Spotlight Interview
The new issue of UMKC Online includes a Faculty Spotlight feature, and I am honored to have been selected as the interviewee for Spring 2017. Here is an excerpt form the full article:
Faculty Spotlight: Jennifer Friend, PhD
UMKC’s innovative education instructor is raising the bar for quality online learning: Combining technology with pedagogy, education instructor Jennifer Friend creates a dynamic learning space for exploration of diversity and inequality.
When and how did you first get involved with online teaching at UMKC? During the 2007-08 academic year, I was one of 12 UMKC faculty members engaged in a pilot program to use Tegrity as an innovative podcasting tool through Blackboard. This was my first experience with a blended classroom model where the lecture could be delivered online and the face-to-face class time could be used to engage the students in activities related to the learning objectives.
What do you like most about online education? What is most challenging? What I like most about online education is the opportunity to incorporate critical pedagogy to create learning spaces that encourage every student’s voice to be heard as they engage in reflective conversations to examine diverse meanings, ideologies and knowledge. What I find most challenging is keeping up with the rapid development of technologies to support learning in online environments.
What principles, techniques, or tools do you use to engage students? My teaching methods are grounded in a constructivist approach, and I strive to incorporate culturally responsive pedagogy through inclusion of student voice and project-based learning. As a faculty member certified in online teaching and learning, I have used the Blackboard system for all classes as an instructional tool and as a means of communication by posting weekly assignments, the course syllabi, and announcements. Each class also has a Student Lounge as the first online Discussion Board topic, so that students have a space for open dialogue about any topics of interest and importance to them. I utilize Panopto podcasting software for asynchronous online instruction with instructor video, and students create individual projects to share their learning by recording their own Panopto video presentations. I engage with students in online discussion forum activities, and I use short quizzes and case studies to check for understanding and identify areas to re-teach or to expand upon based on students’ demonstration of the learning outcomes. Lastly, Blackboard Collaborate has been a useful tool for online synchronous sessions.
What’s your best advice to new online instructors? My best advice would be to engage in conversations with other faculty who are teaching online and with UMKC’s instructional designers in order to explore effective online teaching techniques and available tools. I have valued the relationships developed with faculty members and instructional designers across campus through faculty development opportunities and committees focused on enhancing online learning experiences for UMKC students.
The new issue of UMKC Online includes a Faculty Spotlight feature, and I am honored to have been selected as the interviewee for Spring 2017. Here is an excerpt form the full article:
Faculty Spotlight: Jennifer Friend, PhD
UMKC’s innovative education instructor is raising the bar for quality online learning: Combining technology with pedagogy, education instructor Jennifer Friend creates a dynamic learning space for exploration of diversity and inequality.
When and how did you first get involved with online teaching at UMKC? During the 2007-08 academic year, I was one of 12 UMKC faculty members engaged in a pilot program to use Tegrity as an innovative podcasting tool through Blackboard. This was my first experience with a blended classroom model where the lecture could be delivered online and the face-to-face class time could be used to engage the students in activities related to the learning objectives.
What do you like most about online education? What is most challenging? What I like most about online education is the opportunity to incorporate critical pedagogy to create learning spaces that encourage every student’s voice to be heard as they engage in reflective conversations to examine diverse meanings, ideologies and knowledge. What I find most challenging is keeping up with the rapid development of technologies to support learning in online environments.
What principles, techniques, or tools do you use to engage students? My teaching methods are grounded in a constructivist approach, and I strive to incorporate culturally responsive pedagogy through inclusion of student voice and project-based learning. As a faculty member certified in online teaching and learning, I have used the Blackboard system for all classes as an instructional tool and as a means of communication by posting weekly assignments, the course syllabi, and announcements. Each class also has a Student Lounge as the first online Discussion Board topic, so that students have a space for open dialogue about any topics of interest and importance to them. I utilize Panopto podcasting software for asynchronous online instruction with instructor video, and students create individual projects to share their learning by recording their own Panopto video presentations. I engage with students in online discussion forum activities, and I use short quizzes and case studies to check for understanding and identify areas to re-teach or to expand upon based on students’ demonstration of the learning outcomes. Lastly, Blackboard Collaborate has been a useful tool for online synchronous sessions.
What’s your best advice to new online instructors? My best advice would be to engage in conversations with other faculty who are teaching online and with UMKC’s instructional designers in order to explore effective online teaching techniques and available tools. I have valued the relationships developed with faculty members and instructional designers across campus through faculty development opportunities and committees focused on enhancing online learning experiences for UMKC students.
February 10, 2017 Recognizing Graduate Student Accomplishments at UMKC!
Congratulations to the graduate students who participated in the second annual 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition at the UMKC Community of Scholars event on February 10, 2017! The 3MT is a global event that originated at the University of Queensland in Australia. Students speak for a maximum of 3 minutes, using one PowerPoint slide to explain their research using language that an educated layperson can understand. This is an excellent opportunity for graduate students to strengthen their oral communications skills, and we had many faculty members who volunteered to serve as judges for the competition.
This year I had the honor of serving as the Announcer for the 3MT competition and as a judge for the graduate student poster presentations displayed during the Community of Scholars event. These graduate students were engaged in scholarship that is making an impact in their fields, and it was exciting to hear about their research studies in diverse disciplines. Last year I helped to produce the videos of our eight 3MT Finalists, including Grand Prize winner, Aqdas Afzal, who has had over 5,000 views of his video. We will be posting the videos of the nine Finalists from the 2017 3MT on the UMKC School of Graduate Studies YouTube channel.
We ended the Community of Scholars with an award ceremony to celebrate graduate students receiving research grants, fellowships and awards, including an Outstanding Dissertation Award - Honorable Mention for Dr. Kimberly Johnson. As the Chairperson for her dissertation committee, it was a privilege to be able to hand her the award during the ceremony. Dr. Johnson was a May 2016 graduate from the Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration program in the School of Education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Dr. Johnson’s dissertation was titled, “Invisible Life in the Academy: Understanding the Workplace Experiences of African American Women Staff in Higher Education.”
Congratulations to the graduate students who participated in the second annual 3-Minute Thesis (3MT) Competition at the UMKC Community of Scholars event on February 10, 2017! The 3MT is a global event that originated at the University of Queensland in Australia. Students speak for a maximum of 3 minutes, using one PowerPoint slide to explain their research using language that an educated layperson can understand. This is an excellent opportunity for graduate students to strengthen their oral communications skills, and we had many faculty members who volunteered to serve as judges for the competition.
This year I had the honor of serving as the Announcer for the 3MT competition and as a judge for the graduate student poster presentations displayed during the Community of Scholars event. These graduate students were engaged in scholarship that is making an impact in their fields, and it was exciting to hear about their research studies in diverse disciplines. Last year I helped to produce the videos of our eight 3MT Finalists, including Grand Prize winner, Aqdas Afzal, who has had over 5,000 views of his video. We will be posting the videos of the nine Finalists from the 2017 3MT on the UMKC School of Graduate Studies YouTube channel.
We ended the Community of Scholars with an award ceremony to celebrate graduate students receiving research grants, fellowships and awards, including an Outstanding Dissertation Award - Honorable Mention for Dr. Kimberly Johnson. As the Chairperson for her dissertation committee, it was a privilege to be able to hand her the award during the ceremony. Dr. Johnson was a May 2016 graduate from the Ed.D. in Higher Education Administration program in the School of Education at the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC). Dr. Johnson’s dissertation was titled, “Invisible Life in the Academy: Understanding the Workplace Experiences of African American Women Staff in Higher Education.”
January 19, 2017 UMKC School of Graduate Studies Newsletter: Featuring the Graduate Writing Initiative
Each semester the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Graduate Studies publishes a newsletter that includes student, faculty, staff, and program features. The Spring 2017 semester marked the first issue with a central theme: the campus-wide Graduate Writing Initiative (GWI) at UMKC. I provided leadership for this collaborative effort to expand graduate writing support at UMKC over a three-year period. The GWI involved the development, implementation, and assessment of robust and engaging graduate student writing resources such as writing workshops, video tutorials and website content, a Blackboard “Resources for Graduate Student Writing” site, social media, and Emeriti faculty mentoring program. During the first year of the GWI, writing resources were accessed by over 2,000 unique graduate student users and 100 graduate faculty. Here is a link to the UMKC School of Graduate Studies Spotlight newsletter with articles that tell the story of the Graduate Writing Initiative!
Each semester the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC) School of Graduate Studies publishes a newsletter that includes student, faculty, staff, and program features. The Spring 2017 semester marked the first issue with a central theme: the campus-wide Graduate Writing Initiative (GWI) at UMKC. I provided leadership for this collaborative effort to expand graduate writing support at UMKC over a three-year period. The GWI involved the development, implementation, and assessment of robust and engaging graduate student writing resources such as writing workshops, video tutorials and website content, a Blackboard “Resources for Graduate Student Writing” site, social media, and Emeriti faculty mentoring program. During the first year of the GWI, writing resources were accessed by over 2,000 unique graduate student users and 100 graduate faculty. Here is a link to the UMKC School of Graduate Studies Spotlight newsletter with articles that tell the story of the Graduate Writing Initiative!
December 1, 2016 Writing Yourself into History Project Funded by Missouri Humanities Council
I am excited to announce funding for a project led by Dr. Drew Bergerson, a Professor in the UMKC History Department and Humanities Consortium, in collaboration with Dr. K. Scott Baker, Dr. Jennifer Friend, and Dr. Shelly Cline, and scholars from Germany, Dr. Christine Hartig (Uni-Hamburg, BRD) and Prof. Laura Fahnenbruck (Uni-Groningen, NL). On May 20, 2017, this group of scholars will offer a one day public workshop at the Diastole Scholars' Center that uses theatre performance and video production techniques to invite members of the public to "write themselves into history." Actors will perform excerpts from correspondence written by an ordinary German couple from 1938 through 1947 who lived in Nazi-occupied Europe.Through a guided process of academic framing, theatrical rehearsal, theatrical performance, oral discussion, and written and video recorded responses, we will invite the public to participate in a scholarly process of discovering new humanistic insights into historical letters, while also documenting this method of public engagement in the humanities for both popular and scholarly consideration.
I am excited to announce funding for a project led by Dr. Drew Bergerson, a Professor in the UMKC History Department and Humanities Consortium, in collaboration with Dr. K. Scott Baker, Dr. Jennifer Friend, and Dr. Shelly Cline, and scholars from Germany, Dr. Christine Hartig (Uni-Hamburg, BRD) and Prof. Laura Fahnenbruck (Uni-Groningen, NL). On May 20, 2017, this group of scholars will offer a one day public workshop at the Diastole Scholars' Center that uses theatre performance and video production techniques to invite members of the public to "write themselves into history." Actors will perform excerpts from correspondence written by an ordinary German couple from 1938 through 1947 who lived in Nazi-occupied Europe.Through a guided process of academic framing, theatrical rehearsal, theatrical performance, oral discussion, and written and video recorded responses, we will invite the public to participate in a scholarly process of discovering new humanistic insights into historical letters, while also documenting this method of public engagement in the humanities for both popular and scholarly consideration.
November 20, 2016 University Council for Educational Administration (UCEA) Film Festival 2016 in Detroit
The UCEA 30th Annual Convention in Detroit, Michigan November 17-20, 2016 marked the 5th annual UCEA Film Festival program co-chaired by Dr. Jennifer Friend and Dr. Julia Ballenger. The inaugural UCEA Film Festival was held during the UCEA 2012 Convention in Denver, Colorado. Over the past four years, the films selected to screen at the annual UCEA Film Festivals have included diverse viewpoints based upon graduate students’ learning experiences, leadership preparatory program features, community connections that support social justice, and international leadership development program partnerships. Through a peer review process, six films were selected from the video submissions for this year’s festival. Check out the full films below:
#1 – Leadership Induction Program: Leading as Learners (Vanderbilt University; Nancy D. Dickson)
#2 – Improving School Leadership, One Story at a Time (East Carolina University; Dominic Militello and Dr. Matthew Militello)
#3 – Urban School Leadership Collaborative: Graduate Voices (University of Texas at San Antonio; Amanda Jo Cordova and Dr. Encarnacion Garza
#4 – Balanced Education: A Partnership for Change (Florida Atlantic University; Dr. Maysaa Barakat)
#5 – Leadership Development (Baker College, The University of Toledo, and NCPEA; Dr. Marlena Brander and Dr. Nancy Staub)
#6 – P.O.S.T. Chile (Pedagogy of Social Transformation) (Texas State University; Brett Lee)
The UCEA 30th Annual Convention in Detroit, Michigan November 17-20, 2016 marked the 5th annual UCEA Film Festival program co-chaired by Dr. Jennifer Friend and Dr. Julia Ballenger. The inaugural UCEA Film Festival was held during the UCEA 2012 Convention in Denver, Colorado. Over the past four years, the films selected to screen at the annual UCEA Film Festivals have included diverse viewpoints based upon graduate students’ learning experiences, leadership preparatory program features, community connections that support social justice, and international leadership development program partnerships. Through a peer review process, six films were selected from the video submissions for this year’s festival. Check out the full films below:
#1 – Leadership Induction Program: Leading as Learners (Vanderbilt University; Nancy D. Dickson)
#2 – Improving School Leadership, One Story at a Time (East Carolina University; Dominic Militello and Dr. Matthew Militello)
#3 – Urban School Leadership Collaborative: Graduate Voices (University of Texas at San Antonio; Amanda Jo Cordova and Dr. Encarnacion Garza
#4 – Balanced Education: A Partnership for Change (Florida Atlantic University; Dr. Maysaa Barakat)
#5 – Leadership Development (Baker College, The University of Toledo, and NCPEA; Dr. Marlena Brander and Dr. Nancy Staub)
#6 – P.O.S.T. Chile (Pedagogy of Social Transformation) (Texas State University; Brett Lee)
November 9, 2016 New Review Published for Caruthers & Friend Book
As an educator and activist in support of social justice - I am re-energized today to engage in this work. In addition to the call to action from the U.S. election results, a book review of "Great Expectations: What Kids Want for Our Urban Schools" in Teachers College Record affirmed the value seen in the years of scholarship with Dr. Loyce Caruthers around the inclusion of student voice in urban school renewal.
Excerpts from the review by Amy L. Masko:
"Critical race theorists contend that counter-storytelling is a necessary component in understanding the everyday experiences of people of color and the way that racial inequity functions in their lives. These stories are necessary to push back against the master narratives or majoritarian stories that marginalize people of color and those growing up in poverty. The authors of this text effectively demonstrate this CRT tenet. In fact, they go further than modeling it; they provide a framework for teachers, administrators, and researchers to include student voice in urban school renewal."
"I teach at a predominately white university in the Midwest, and reflective of the field of education, my students are mainly white middle-class women. Their life stories do not match the stories of many of the children they will be teaching, which sometimes results in student resistance to ideas of racial and economic injustice. They have been exposed only to stories of the majority, stories that are “colored by power and privilege, which [cast] poor people as individuals with differences in innate ability and morality” (p. 43). I intend to incorporate this book into my courses this year with the hope that my learners will be more open examining educational inequity when they hear about it from elementary and high school students’ own voices. I further hope that by being exposed to this book in their undergraduate education, my students will develop habits of mind to listen carefully and intently to their students in their own careers as educators."
As an educator and activist in support of social justice - I am re-energized today to engage in this work. In addition to the call to action from the U.S. election results, a book review of "Great Expectations: What Kids Want for Our Urban Schools" in Teachers College Record affirmed the value seen in the years of scholarship with Dr. Loyce Caruthers around the inclusion of student voice in urban school renewal.
Excerpts from the review by Amy L. Masko:
"Critical race theorists contend that counter-storytelling is a necessary component in understanding the everyday experiences of people of color and the way that racial inequity functions in their lives. These stories are necessary to push back against the master narratives or majoritarian stories that marginalize people of color and those growing up in poverty. The authors of this text effectively demonstrate this CRT tenet. In fact, they go further than modeling it; they provide a framework for teachers, administrators, and researchers to include student voice in urban school renewal."
"I teach at a predominately white university in the Midwest, and reflective of the field of education, my students are mainly white middle-class women. Their life stories do not match the stories of many of the children they will be teaching, which sometimes results in student resistance to ideas of racial and economic injustice. They have been exposed only to stories of the majority, stories that are “colored by power and privilege, which [cast] poor people as individuals with differences in innate ability and morality” (p. 43). I intend to incorporate this book into my courses this year with the hope that my learners will be more open examining educational inequity when they hear about it from elementary and high school students’ own voices. I further hope that by being exposed to this book in their undergraduate education, my students will develop habits of mind to listen carefully and intently to their students in their own careers as educators."
October 19, 2016 Funding for Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program for STEM Faculty of Color
This semester I am working with an interdisciplinary team of faculty to launch a two-year pilot for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship Pipeline Program for STEM Faculty of Color. We received $250,000 in strategic funding for this project, and we will be announcing the three Fellowship positions later this semester for the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Biological Sciences, School of Computing and Engineering, and the physical sciences division of the College of Arts and Sciences. You can read more about this program in UMKC's newsletter U Matters.
This semester I am working with an interdisciplinary team of faculty to launch a two-year pilot for a Post-Doctoral Fellowship Pipeline Program for STEM Faculty of Color. We received $250,000 in strategic funding for this project, and we will be announcing the three Fellowship positions later this semester for the University of Missouri-Kansas City School of Biological Sciences, School of Computing and Engineering, and the physical sciences division of the College of Arts and Sciences. You can read more about this program in UMKC's newsletter U Matters.
October 11, 2016 UMKC's Preparing Future Faculty Program
I love my work as the Director of UMKC's Preparing Future Faculty graduate certificate program! Here is an article in this week's edition of U Matters that describes our efforts to re-design the curriculum and use technology to make the program available for distance learners.
Here is a photo of PFF graduate, Dr. Hessam Sarooghi, who is now an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Butler University:
I love my work as the Director of UMKC's Preparing Future Faculty graduate certificate program! Here is an article in this week's edition of U Matters that describes our efforts to re-design the curriculum and use technology to make the program available for distance learners.
Here is a photo of PFF graduate, Dr. Hessam Sarooghi, who is now an Assistant Professor of Entrepreneurship and Innovation at Butler University: