The Institute Faculty for 2008

Each year, the Institute brings back a core faculty who have the strongest evaluations and bring a specific contribution to the program. For 2008, members of the faculty are:

Jared Bleak is Associate Director of Duke University’s Corporate Education’s Global Learning Resource Network. In June 2003, he received a doctorate in education from Harvard University with a concentration in higher education administration and governance. Prior to that, he served as Assistant to the Chancellor of the Massachusetts Board of Higher Education. A student of Harvard’s David Kuechle, long-time instructor at the ELMI, Jared continues the tradition of Harvard’s popular case study teaching method.

Jaffe Dickerson is a shareholder and senior attorney with Littler Mendelson, LLP, the nation’s largest law firm devoted exclusively to representing management in employment issues, employee benefits, and labor law. Since serving as counsel in the Chancellor’s Office of the California State University, Jaffe has specialized in the relationships among administrators, faculty, and staff in higher education. In addition to practicing law, he offers many professional development courses. Since 1994, Jaffe has been on the Institute’ faculty because of his extensive knowledge and dynamic style.

Joni Finney is a Professor in the Graduate School of Education’s Program in Higher Education, at the University of Pennsylvania. Prior to this and for ten years, she served as the Vice President of the National Center for Public Policy and Higher Education, the nation’s most prominent “think tank” devoted exclusively to improving the policy framework for, and the public responsiveness of, higher education. Before that, she served on the staff of the California Higher Education Policy Center and the Education Commission of the States in Denver, Colorado. Joni’s specialty is the history and condition of American higher education, especially analyzing trends with an emphasis on accountability. During her career, she has dealt with presidents, chancellors, and senior leaders of colleges and universities throughout the nation.

Steve Garcia is currently the Vice President for Administration at Sacramento State University. His career reflects a remarkable ability to succeed in very different kinds of educational institutions and within the fluctuating fortunes of higher education budgets and administrative pressures. In chronological order, Steve has held senior positions in the Los Angeles Unified School District, the University of California at Irvine, the Pima Community College District (Tucson, Arizona), California State University San Marcos, and now at Sacramento State University. Steve brings to the Institute a rich and diverse experience as a campus leader and an effective manager.

Margot Gill is the Administrative Dean of the Graduate School of Arts and Sciences at Harvard University. She has worked in higher education for nearly thirty years and has taught at Boston University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She has worked with universities and the ministries of education in China, France, England, Spain, Mexico, Colombia, Ecuador, Ghana, Kenya, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. Presently, she has overall responsibility for admissions, financial aid, alumni affairs, development, physical plant, and the operating budget for the largest graduate school at Harvard.

Eric Gravenberg has served as Systemwide Vice President for Undergraduate Education at Alliant University, a large, private, and international institution whose headquarters is in San Francisco. He has also been an Associate Vice President at California State University, Sacramento, a staff member at the California Postsecondary Education Commission, and a faculty member at Howard University in Washington, D.C. Eric specializes in improving organizational effectiveness and making strategic changes within colleges and universities.

Larry Hoover has been the Director of the Mediation Dispute Center at the University of California, Davis, and is widely recognized as very effective in conflict resolution within the turbulent environment of higher education. Larry has been among the Institute’s most popular faculty members since 1997 because he combines individual self-assessments with practical material delivered in an engaging style.

Stan Nosek is currently the Vice Chancellor for Administration at the University of California at Davis, one of the senior leaders on this campus of 34,000 students. He came to UCD in 1976 as assistant director of Residence Life and, over the next thirty-one years, has served in a wide range of positions within Student Affairs, University Relations, Human Resources, Facilities, and Business Services. Stan is a past President of the Western Association of College and University Business Officers and will assume the position of Chairman of the Board for the National Association of College and University Business Officers in July 2008.

Janet and Neal Larsen Palmer are nationally recognized communications experts, who lead the professional consulting firm Communication Excellence Institute. Janet has twenty years of experience as a Professor of Communication at Southern Illinois University--Carbondale and Arizona State University. Neal has twenty-five years of experience consulting with executives and professionals in corporations and federal, state and local governments. On the ELMI faculty since 1992, the Larsen Palmers offer constructive suggestions on leadership styles and presentation techniques, in class and through video-taping.

William Pickens, the Institute’s Director since 1993, has held senior roles in universities, consulting organizations, a state coordinating agency for higher education, and one of the west coast’s largest non-profit foundations that offers both educational and social services. He has been an adjunct faculty member at UC Berkeley, teaching higher education finance and administration, and for six months was a Visiting Scholar on that campus with the Center for Studies in Higher Education. He now works full-time in the area of professional development for leaders in higher education.

We welcome your application for 2008. Please read all web pages associated with the ELMI and then, to apply, send an e-mail to whpickens@aol.com. In that email, include your name, position title, campus or agency, office address, telephone, email address, a description of current position’s responsibilities (a resume is fine if these are included), and the names of two individuals on campus who know you well now.