Dr. George S. Low, associate professor and chair of the Marketing Department in the Neeley School of Business, has been named an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow for academic year 2011-12. His fellowship will take place at the University of Texas at Arlington, where he will focus on strengthening the relationship between higher education institutions and students upon receipt of their degrees/certificates.

 

The ACE Fellows Program, established in 1965, is designed to strengthen institutional capacity and build leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing promising senior faculty and administrators for responsible positions in college and university administration. Fifty Fellows, nominated by the presidents or chancellors of their institutions, were selected this year in a national competition.

 

“Working with UTA President James Spaniolo and through a series of campus visits to other leading institutions, I hope to learn more about leadership in higher education and prepare to better serve TCU when I return,” Low said.

 

Interestingly, UTA’s Dr. John B. Buckwalter, associate dean for research and graduate studies in the College of Education and Health Professions, will be spending his ACE fellowship at TCU, focusing on retention. “I chose TCU because it provides valuable insight into the distinctive environment of a stellar private university that is currently undergoing transformative growth,” Buckwalter said. “In addition, I was excited by the opportunity to work with and be mentored by the innovative, well-respected, experienced senior administrators that TCU currently has in place.”

 

Sharon A. McDade, Ed.D., director of the ACE Fellows Program, noted that most previous Fellows have advanced into major positions in academic administration.  Of the more than 1,700 participants in the first 46 years of the program, more than 300 have become chief executive officers and more than 1,100 have become provosts, vice presidents, or deans.

 

According to McDade, the cross-campus exchange between Drs. Low and Buckwalter is highly unusual. “This is not something the program itself directed—the Fellows follow our process to individually pursue institutions where they feel they would be best served in their respective projects—so the fact that these Fellows landed at each other’s campuses suggests that the Fellows found their institutions to be similarly aligned with regard to leadership and innovation,” she said.