In 2019, a group of OU faculty from a variety of disciplines and roles gathered to consider possible strategies to positively impact the engagement, motivation, and effectiveness of all OU faculty. After sharing of stories, review of data, and wide-scaled consideration of ideas, the team eventually focused on the goal of re-envisioning the faculty annual evaluation process as a means for transforming the faculty experience. The team leveraged existing institutional data, including faculty satisfaction surveys, award rates, and rates of research proposal submissions and funding, with the intent of representing the voices of all those involved in the evaluation process in their efforts. Because many of the members had worked closely together on past scholarly efforts, the team coalesced quickly, and a pre-proposal for the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation award was submitted in late 2019. That effort was rewarded when the National Science Foundation invited the team to submit a full proposal.
At that time, as interest and support for transdisciplinary research rose, the Office of the Vice President of Research and Partnerships awarded several internal grants to the team. With those funds, the team conducted interviews and launched surveys assessing faculty and leader perspectives on work experiences at OU and the role of the existing annual evaluation process.
With the goal of developing an evaluation system that encompasses the full scope of faculty activities and achievements, the team garnered the interest and support of shared governance bodies, university administrators, the Office of the Provost, the Office of the President, and the Office of the Vice President for Research and Partnerships. By approaching the task holistically and engaging a wide range of stakeholders, the team utilized preliminary research to establish the basis on which to pursue institutional transformation.
In spring 2021, the OU Elevate team submitted a full National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation proposal, and in summer 2022, after more than three years of perseverance and dedication, the project was funded. In August 2022, the project was officially launched, supporting the team in their collaborative work with academic units, faculty governance, and administrators to develop a comprehensive, reliable, and customizable faculty annual evaluation toolkit. With this resource, departments can identify and account for all dimensions of faculty work, especially for impactful activities difficult to quantify, in a manner relevant to their disciplinary area.
As updates become available, they will be posted on this and other pages. We invite you to visit them periodically to stay updated.
The organizational chart of the OU Elevate project is designed to foster collaboration among key stakeholders and professional roles so that together they can contribute to successfully achieve institutional transformation. At the institutional level, the OU Elevate team operates as a hub connecting several parties. To stay abreast with faculty-related policy, the team communicates with the OU administration, the Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost, the Faculty Senate, and the Deans’ Council, and interacts with academic chairs, directors and associate deans at the department and college level. Finally, the team collaborates with the Center for Faculty Excellence to design and offer workshops for academic leaders and faculty.
In addition to establishing collaborative relationships, the organizational chart incorporates mechanisms of evaluation and accountability. An internal evaluator and external evaluator help identify factors that affect the success of project activities and to assess achievement of project goals, respectively.
The Faculty Evauation Working Group is an interdisciplinary body of faculty members meeting weekly with the OU Elevate team to share realtime feedback as aspects of the toolkit are developed and revised. An Internal Advisory Committee is appointed to provide input about the focus and challenges of the project activities within the context of OU. An External Advisory Committee offers an outside perspective on the project activities and frameworks and expands the OU Elevate team network.
Along with eight additional scholars, some of whom hold administrative posts at OU, the director is part of the OU Elevate executive team. The lead associate director and two associate directors oversee the development, refining, and piloting phases of the project. The project manager manages daily operations, while three graduate research assistants are dedicated to helping develop tools and processes and to collect and analyze data.
Lori Anderson Snyder, Ph.D.
Professor of Psychology in the Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences
Keri Kornelson, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Director
Professor in the Department of Mathematics
Mashhad Fahes, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Associate Professor in the School of Petroleum and Geological Engineering, Mewbourne College of Engineering
Amy Cerato, Ph.D.
Associate Director
Rapp Foundation Presidential Professor in the School of Civil and Environmental Engineering, Gallogly College of Engineering
Sarah Ellis, Ph.D.
Vice Provost for Faculty
Associate Second Century Presidential Professor of Music Theory, School of Music, Weitzenhoffer Family College of Fine Arts
Megan Elwood Madden, Ph.D.
Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence
Robert & Doris Klabzuba Chair of the School of Geosciences
Georgia Kosmopoulou, Ph.D.
Professor of Economics
Associate Dean for Research for the Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences
Carol Silva, Ph.D.
Senior Associate Vice President for Research and Partnership
Director of the Institute for Public Policy Research and Analysis
Professor in the Department of Political Science
Nathalie Youngbull, Ph.D.
Assistant Professor in the Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, Jeannine Rainbolt College of Education
Loretta Bass, Ph.D.
Professor in the Department of Sociology, Dodge Family College of Arts and Sciences
Paola Conte, MPA
Project Manager
Cooper Delafield
Graduate Research Assistant Student
Benyt Hagler
Graduate Research Assistant Student
Raechel Sanger
Graduate Research Assistant Student
Kyra Gallion
Graduate Research Assistant Student
Katie Holloway, Ph.D.
Research Assistant
Aaron Biggs, Associate Provost for Academic Technololgy
Karen Hennes, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the School of Accounting, Price College of Business
Karen Horne, Managing Director, Center for Faculty Excellence
Samuel Huskey, Ph.D., Professor in the Department of Classics and Letters, College of Arts and Sciences
Jonathan Nichol, Ph.D., Professor in the School of Music, College of Fine Arts
Andrea Benjamin, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Clara Luper Department of African and African American Studies and Director of the Oklahoma Scholar-Leadership Enrichment Program (OSLEP), College of Arts and Sciences
Matthias Nollert, Ph.D., Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical, Biological and Materials Engineering, Gallogly College of Engineering
John Peters, Ph.D., Professor and Chair in the Department of Chemistry and Biochemistry
Zahed Siddique, Ph.D., Professor and Associate Dean for Research in the School of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering
To be announced
Ricky T. Muñoz, Ph.D.
Associate Professor in the School of Social Work, College of Arts and Sciences
To be announced
