Belmont University’s College of Education announced today a new Ph.D. program in Strategic Leadership in Education (SLE)* starting this fall that will provide educational leaders with the tools they need to successfully confront the many organizational, political, fiscal and instructional challenges faced in today’s educational settings. Belmont’s program will offer greater opportunity for educators to have a positive impact on the lives and futures of young people by training them to clearly identify solutions and strategies that address complex issues through leadership, research and collaboration.
Belmont’s SLE Ph.D. program is multidisciplinary, with core courses grounded in educational leadership theory and literature, and provides students with the opportunity to select one of three concentrations in Educational Leadership, Management and Entrepreneurship, or Faith and Justice Leadership.
Dean of the College of Education Dr. Jim McIntyre said Belmont is delighted to offer this new program because it will live at the nexus of excellence in both theory and practice. “We envision capable professionals from across the educational landscape leveraging this degree to gain the knowledge, practical wisdom and skills they will need to be even more effective in their critical work,” he explained. “With a focus on proven principles of leadership and research that informs practice, this rigorous but flexible doctoral degree will catapult candidates to the next level of their career, and more importantly, to the next level in their impact.”
Research-based and leadership-focused, the mission of Belmont’s Strategic Leadership in Education Ph.D. is to equip graduates to directly confront countless challenges that impact students, families and communities. And unlike other programs in the nation, this doctoral program will set graduates up for success as both senior leaders in education-oriented organizations and as scholars in the field of educational leadership.
Upon completing Belmont’s program, graduates can expect to grow into advanced leadership and management roles in PreK-12 schools and districts, adult and higher education institutions, education-oriented foundations, nonprofit and faith-based organizations, and government.
The SLE doctoral program is designed to accommodate working professionals, with a requirement of 60 affordable credit hours that can be completed part-time within four years. Coursework will be done predominantly online and will be supplemented with one required three-day, on-campus session each term.
Applications are open and will be accepted through July 31. To learn more, click here.
Associate Dean for Academic Affairs and Associate Professor of Law at Belmont University Dr. Deborah Farringer was recently published in MoneyGeek’s article “Guide to Health Insurance for Students and Young Adults.” Farringer gave advice regarding the importance of young adults having health insurance, the best insurance plans and common misconceptions regarding health insurance.
“I would tell students not to be afraid to ask questions and talk to people who know — parents, friends, providers, school officials — if they need more details and information about a policy,” said Farringer.
Dr. Abigail Santos, assistant professor of music and director of Belmont’s Opera Theater, recently performed in the Knoxville Opera’s production of Arrigo Boito’s Mefistofele.
Santos played the role of Magherita, a naive village girl. Critics called Santos’ performance “beautifully accomplished” as well as “chilling and stunning at the same time.”
When Dr. David Smith, who leads the de Vries Institute for Global Faculty Development at Calvin University, thinks back on memorable moments piloting modules for educators through a series similar to the new Christ-centered Learning Mentors program at Belmont, he remembers an African participant with a name that translates to “peace.”
This participant had long associated their name with quiet and “avoiding conflict and staying out of the way,” Smith recalled. And yet, the module on Educating for Shalom changed that perspective.
“Shalom in Isaiah, which is often translated ‘peace,’ means something much more holistic,” Smith said. “It’s more to do with well-being in every sense of the word – when you’re living in right relationship with other people, in right relationship with God, in right relationship with creation… A sense of everything functioning. It also has a justice component. A sense that there’s only shalom if members of the community are in right relationship with each other, and there isn’t oppression, suffering, marginalization.”
During the course, the participant’s name took on a new meaning for them. “It could mean pursuing justice, pursuing changing the world, reconciliation, all kinds of things,” Smith said – a whole new narrative of what a life might mean.
Of course, not all the participants in Smith’s courses have names that translate as peace, but the study he facilitates can be transformative nonetheless.
David Smith of Reflecting Faith and the de Vries Institute for Global Faculty Development at Calvin University
The Reflecting Faith series was developed by Smith and the de Vries Institute for Global Faculty Development at Calvin University. About a year and a half ago, a small cohort of 20 faculty from across all Belmont colleges helped pilot the program along with other educators from around the world. Now that the modules have officially launched, 12 faculty across various Belmont colleges are being trained as Christ-centered Learning Mentors on four modules that explore different facets of faith, learning and education. Next month, the 12 participants will begin inviting fellow faculty to consider becoming a part of small groups of faculty that will use the modules as catalysts for conversations about faith-animated teaching and learning.
In addition to Educating for Shalom, topics include Hospitality to the Stranger, Engaging Responsibly with Scripture, Faith and Pedagogy, and additional topics forthcoming. Each course is divided into three sections – Roots, Reflections and Applications, which encourage faculty to read scripture and the more recent work of diverse scholars while also discussing their findings and how they might apply what they learn in their work.
Smith says the courses have been written for folks of many cultural and theological backgrounds. “Our tradition at Calvin University is Reformed Protestant,” he continued. “And that’s clearly where we’re coming from. We’re not pretending to be anything else. But we are trying to write the courses so that the message is not that you have to think exactly the way we do or have to arrive at this set of conclusions. The modules offer a jumping off point for wide-ranging conversations on what Christ-centered learning can look like on various campuses and in various disciplines.”
Unlike the African participant’s story, the “everyday good stories,” Smith says, happen when educators have revelations about what they plan to carry forward in their classrooms. And there are certainly plenty of those stories. During the course on Educating for Shalom, for example, it has been fascinating to see how the course materials inspire Belmont educators across disciplines.
For Jeremy Lane, director of the School of Music, the study on shalom brought up the inequities in funding, facilities and qualified teachers in music education – especially outside school settings for pre-school children or older adults. With music and the arts as contributors to shalom and a healing tool amidst the brokenness of our world, he noted that he’d like to encourage active thinking for his music education students around these issues including research and planning to address better access in the community on a practical level.
Faculty across disciplines discussed their findings and encouraged one another in their study as well. For example, the study of shalom had Amy Smith, a law professor, thinking about teaching more chancery law and equity.
Lee Warren, an accounting professor, took an interest in Anthony Monica’s inspiration for his architecture students in confronting studio culture, which can turn unhealthy and overly competitive or obsessive if not managed well. “Modeling a positive example of a faithful dedication to finding wholeness and balance is critical as a groundwork for asking my students to do the same,” Monica wrote. “In my studio courses, I consciously build in reflection periods at the end of every project with my students to pause, come together, and reflect on how things are going in the class. ‘How did this last project go for you? Did the requirements surpass the point of a challenge to become a major stressor? Are you carving out time for rest? How would you change the next project? What could I have done better?’ I’ve found these conversations to be eye-opening and helpful for me to adjust or pivot as needed over the course of the class to ensure a healthy balance.”
Meanwhile, Amy Rasmussen, a professor of nursing, noted that she plans to incorporate aspects of shalom into lectures on pain management even as she took inspiration from her colleague’s comments. “It reminds me that some of the aspects of shalom in Isaiah are tangible (planting crops, building homes, having families),” she wrote, “and that those things are an integral part of shalom. The goal is not to lay around all day and not produce anything meaningful, but for our work to have dignity and reward embedded in it. Structures and organizations (as well as the people who lead them) have a responsibility to ensure the dignity of the work for every individual. What an important part of learning how to create systems!”
Dr. Valez Thornton, assistant director of financial aid at Belmont, was recently featured as an expert on Study.com for their 2022 College Guide for Low-Income Students.
As these students may face unique challenges in their college experience, this guide is designed to help provide information and resources that will help them overcome these challenges, including scholarship, financial information and organizations that assist low-income students.
Thornton shared her college preparation advice and answered a few of the most common student questions. Read her contribution here.
Dr. Anthony Blash, associate professor in pharmaceutical, social & administrative sciences in Belmont’s College of Pharmacy, recently published a book chapter titled “The Role of the Professional Association” in the 2nd edition of the Handbook of Continuing Professional Development for Health Informatics Professionals. This chapter was written in collaboration with JoAnn Klinedinst, M.ED., CPHIMS, PMP, DES, FHIMSS, FACHE, vice president of professional development for the Healthcare Information Management Systems Society (HIMSS).
Engaging in ongoing, continuing professional development is a strategic imperative for the health informatics professional. In today’s global economy, health care is fast-paced, dynamic and ever-changing. While this rapid change is both exciting and exhausting, digital health transformation is positively impacting lives, today and every day, in ways not previously imagined. For these reasons, health informaticists must embrace lifelong learning to ensure they have the professional competencies to advance initiatives that positively impact patient care.
Written as a contributed compilation of topics by leading practitioners, the Handbook of Continuing Professional Development for Health Informatics Professionals discusses the most critical competencies needed to ensure understanding of the vast health and care ecosystem while also highlighting industry influences that shape the very evolution of health information and technology.
Nine Belmont students were recently recognized with a Student ADDY Award through one of the top local competitions for student advertising design in the nation. The awards are hosted by the American Advertising Federation Nashville (AAFN) and the Nashville Student Advertising Awards.
Paper Boy magazine design by Sebastian Lara
The students who took home five gold and nine silver awards include Sebastian Lara, Mackenzie Smith, Caitlin Cooney, Margaret Owens, Carrie Neville, Abraham Mast, Kayla Monis, Caitlyn Swartwood and Ambrose Vargason.
“ADDY awards are nationally recognized in the design industry, and it is an extremely competitive competition. Winning one lets future employers know you have exceptional talent,” said Art Professor Doug Regen. “I could not be more proud of the talented hard working students that were recognized this year.”
The award categories and their winners are as follows:
Belmont Law hosted an expungement clinic, assisting 12 clients to expunge 40 criminal charges, where seven attorneys and nine students volunteered their time.
The clinic was held in partnership with:
The Tennessee Bar Association
Legal Aid Society, a legal nonprofit that works to advance, defend and enforce the legal rights of low-income and vulnerable people
Doors of Hope in Murfreesboro, a nonprofit that helps to empower women to break the cycle of addiction, homelessness and incarceration
Belmont alumna Rebecca White recently published her first author publication: a case study entitled “Treating severe traumatic brain injury: Combining neurofeedback and hyperbaric oxygen therapy in a single case study” in the journal of Clinical EEG and Neuroscience. White graduated with a B.S. in psychology and minor in neuroscience in 2021.
Upon graduating from Belmont, White moved to Houston, Texas to work as a research assistant and neurofeedback technician at Houston Neuroscience Brain Center and currently works as a medical scribe for an orthopedic and spinal surgeon.
The study is aimed at providing direct neurological treatments for severe traumatic brain injuries by coupling hyperbaric oxygen therapy and neurofeedback to target many posttraumatic symptoms and conditions including posttraumatic epilepsy, Broca’s aphasia, short-term memory loss and executive dysfunction. Read White’s full case study here.
Undergraduate and graduate students recently engaged in an interactive overview of socially responsible leadership with the Belmont Office of Leadership Development (BOLD). Student leaders invested in their own personal development by attending one of four 2-hour Social Change & Multicultural Experiences (SC&ME) workshops. During these workshops, led by Student Life and Student Financial Services staff, 70 students learned about the three levels of development and the seven C’s that make up the social change model of leadership: consciousness of self, congruence and commitment, common purpose, collaboration, controversy with civility and citizenship.
As they completed the interactive activities with facilitators, student leaders began to realize that societal change starts with them. From there they learned how their own values, attitude, beliefs and actions positively or negatively impact group and societal values. Each student received a “change tool,” more commonly known as a fidget spinner, to demonstrate the interconnectedness of the three levels of development and the seven C’s.
Using the three levels of development, the facilitators emphasized, “I change, we change, the world changes.” The overarching goal of the Social Change Model is to help leaders enhance their leadership qualities and skills to make the world a better place. This experience aligns with the newly introduced mission and vision of Belmont.
Through interactive activities student leaders practiced what it means to be congruent in their actions and behaviors while committing to have controversy with civility. During SC & ME, students learned how socially responsible leaders prioritize being intentionally empathetic, inclusive, compassionate and connected to other members of their society. One value of the social change model is not more important than the other, but each value in the model works together to bring about positive change. With this knowledge, one student said their most important takeaway was, “You have to constantly be working on yourself to make an impact on the world.”
After participating in BOLD’s leadership development workshops, student leaders are able to walk away and immediately put what they have learned into practice. 98.5 percent of participants said that SC & ME helped them understand the importance of socially responsible leadership. Because we are always evolving, socially responsible leadership is not something that students have to wait until after they graduate or after they get a formal leadership position to implement. Belmont leaders can begin making the world better today, right inside their classrooms, residence halls, in our community. Check out pictures from the SC&ME 2022.
Email bold@belmont.edu or click here to learn more about BOLD or participate in the upcoming Leadership Lately experience on March 21 or 28, 2022.
