Candidate for School of Communication director to present Oct. 30

By Nichole Allen
Western Herald

(Photo courtesy WMU) Dr. Leigh Ford, Associate Professor in the School of Communication and Director of Graduate Studies, in her office in Sprau Tower.

With the search for the new director for the School of Communication (SOC) well under way, students have the opportunity to meet a candidate who happens to be one of Western Michigan University’s own.

Leigh Ford, Ph.D., associate professor and director of graduate studies, began her tenure at WMU in 1999 in the communication department. Her areas of expertise are organizational communication and health communication. Ford is one of three candidates who are being considered for the director position.
Communication students are encouraged to attend a public presentation in 2028 Brown Hall at 5 p.m. on Oct.30.

Ford brings existing knowledge of the SOC to the director position. She has a connection to both the past of the department and its present.

“I bring to the position knowledge about the overall function of the university,” Ford said.

She has been the graduate director for eight years and while in that role she served on the executive committee, which gives advice to the director. She has also served in various leadership roles on several committees within the SOC.

“I have a capacity to work collaboratively with multiple WMU groups which have different needs, goals and desires,” Ford said. “[I] have a demonstrated ability to work with that diverse group of people. I have a great level of connection with this department and university.”

Due to her various committee memberships and leadership roles and as graduate director, Ford has acquired a set of skills that fit well with the role of director.

Steve Rhodes, the current SOC director, has led the SOC to a level of prominence on campus that is admirable, Ford said, and she would like to continue her commitment to the SOC, but from a different role.
“I believe that we need to continue that growth, both locally, state and nationally and in our reputation,” Ford said. “I’d like to be a part of that.”

Ford would also like to see the continued growth and development of what she sees as an outstanding faculty and SOC.

“My goal would be to do everything I can do to help make that happen,” she said.

When Ford was a professor at New Mexico State University, she worked with local women along the U.S. border who were poor, under-educated and under-resourced.

“People measure success and significance in different ways with awards and such,” Ford said. “It was the most satisfying work that I ever did in terms of making a contribution to the community, but also to scholarly literature.

She attributes her drive toward her scholarly pursuits to professors who were critical in her decision to attain her doctoral degree. Throughout her career she has had personal experiences that motivate her in terms of how she researches, teaches and works in her administrative role.

Rhodes will be retiring after 35 years as a professor, the last 10 as the  director of the SOC.

In his retirement announcement, Rhodes said he intends to remain actively engaged with both the School and the Board for as long as he has the support of colleagues, the new director, the dean, the alumni and the university.

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Posted by HeraldAdmin on Oct 29 2008. Filed under Campus, News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry

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