ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst

Event Title

Welcome and Morning Plenary: Setting Students Up for Success: Addressing Analog Issues in a Digital World

Presenter Information

Kumble Subbaswamy, University of Massachusetts - Amherst
Donna Lisker, Smith College

Location

Univerity of Massachusetts - Amherst

Event Website

http://www.umass.edu/studentsuccessconference/index.php

Start Date

19-9-2014 9:00 AM

End Date

19-9-2014 9:45 AM

Description

In a higher education environment focused on transformative technologies, it can be easy to lose sight of foundational issues -- devoid of platforms, apps and circuitry -- that nonetheless influence student success. This talk will cover principles that help faculty and administrators address the education of the whole student, and ensure students' ability to thrive in modern educational environments.

Comments

Dr. Kumble R. Subbaswamy assumed his role as chancellor of the University of Massachusetts Amherst on July 1, 2012. He is the 11th chancellor of the flagship campus. Before coming to Amherst, Dr. Subbaswamy, a physicist, served as provost at the University of Kentucky since 2006. He joined Kentucky’s physics faculty in 1978 after serving as a post-doctoral fellow at the University of California, Irvine. During his first 18 years at the University of Kentucky, he served as associate dean of Arts and Sciences and as chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy. Chancellor Subbaswamy was also dean of the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Miami from 1997 to 2000, when he left to become dean of Arts and Sciences at Indiana University Bloomington, serving until 2006. He was active in promoting life sciences-related economic development efforts in Indiana and Kentucky. He is also active in academia nationally and internationally, serving on a number of panels, including the American Council on Education and the German-American Fulbright Commission. Chancellor Subbaswamy holds a B.S. in physics from Bangalore University, an M.S. in physics from Delhi University and a Ph.D. in physics from Indiana University. He was elected a fellow of the American Physical Society in 1989. His primary research area as a physicist is the optical properties of novel materials and nonlinear excitations. He has published over sixty articles and co-authored a book on the local density theory of polarizability.

Chancellor Subbaswamy and his wife, Mala, plan to live at Hillside, the campus home for the chancellor. They have two grown children, their daughter Apurva and son Adarsh.

Donna Lisker was appointed Dean of the College and Vice-President of Campus Life at Smith College in July 2014. Prior to coming to Smith, she had a 15-year career at Duke University in Durham, NC. From 2007-2014, she served as the Associate Vice-Provost for Undergraduate Education (along with a temporary stint as Interim Vice-Provost for Duke Kunshan University and China Initiatives). Her portfolio encompassed coordination of all aspects of the undergraduate experience – academic, residential, social and co-curricular – with particular focus on strategic planning for global education, redesigning Duke's residential system, and studying the experiences of financial aid and first-generation students. In 2004 Lisker founded the Baldwin Scholars, Duke's prestigious women's leadership program, and served as its co-director until her departure from Duke.

From 1999-2007, Donna Lisker was Director of the Duke University Women's Center, where she led the undergraduate research component of the Duke University Women's Initiative. She came to Duke from Virginia Tech, where she was a faculty member and administrator, 1995-1999. A native of Philadelphia, Donna received her B.A. from Williams College, and her M.A. and Ph.D. in English from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She's married to Peter Schwaller, an open-source software development manager, and they have two teenage daughters, Samantha and Veronica. Donna is a fitness enthusiast and competitive masters rower.