I am very excited to share that I have accepted a new position at MSU as Director of Innovation Advocacy with MSU Global. This is a tremendous opportunity and I’m very excited to continue to serve MSU and to continue to grow professionally. (See the awesome job description below!) This excitement is certainly bittersweet as it means I will be leaving my role as co-director of the MAET program effective August 28th.
I started working with MAET ten years ago in the summer of 2005 as a graduate assistant, co-teaching with Punya in our East Lansing summer cohort. (In 2007, I moved into the role I have now of MAET co-director.) It has been a tremendous decade watching the field grow and watching the thousands of students I have taught & advised define the field in their own contexts. MAET has given me the opportunity to see the world – our community has welcomed me into their countries, classrooms, and homes. I would not be the teacher, scholar or person I am without MAET. I have been privileged to help grow the program into what it is today – and to work with exceptional educators and colleagues who inspire me and those around them every single day.
This opportunity came about quickly and I’ll be working to be sure that a smooth transition plan is in place as I move into my new role. (MAET students, instructors and colleagues I will keep everyone posted on that plan once it is formalized!) There will still be ways that I will be connected to MAET, so this is certainly not a final goodbye, but certainly a transition to a new relationship.
Thanks again to all of you who have supported and inspired me over the past 10 years – I’m looking forward to this new opportunity to continue to serve MSU – Spartans Will!
-Leigh
Job Description:
The Office of MSU Global seeks a Director of Innovation Advocacy to work with faculty innovation fellows and related projects to inform the conception and design process and expedite the adoption of innovative models and frameworks across academic units.
The Director provides administrative support to the Asst. Provost and Executive Director of MSU Global. The Director exercises independent judgment, and handles a highly diversified mixture of responsibilities in several specialized areas.
The most important responsibility of the Director will be to create an environment that supports idea generation and allows for the disruption and expansion of those ideas. The Director must have a passion for hatching, developing and executing ideas as well as an ability to effectively “stretch” the thinking of our faculty partners and clients.
His or her responsibilities would include, but not be limited to proactively seeking out and meeting with potential faculty partners; creating, co-developing and effectively disrupting and expanding ideas and concepts; project plan development and execution; working on collaborative faculty program development teams; securing internal and external funding; overall support for innovative activities of faculty and students.
The Director will also have responsibility for building and expanding networks across the university with faculty and organizations that have innovative interests or agendas. This responsibility would also transfer to external organizations where and when appropriate.
Congratulations Leigh!