The planning team for the trip includes Professor Janet Lawrence, and CSHPE Assistant Director Melinda Richardson. In addition, professors Michael Bastedo, Stephen DesJardins, Sue Dynarski, Julie Posselt, and Awilda Rodriguez will also be traveling with the group. The support of Director Michael Bastedo, and assistance of Ben Alcott, and the help of many others have made this opportunity possible.
Please see below for brief biographies of the planning team members:
Janet H. Lawrence teaches courses related to academic affairs in higher education and international and comparative postsecondary education. Her current research focuses on university professors and includes recent inquiries into the factors that lead international faculty in STEM fields to stay or leave their universities, faculty perceptions of organizational politics and how they affect decisions to engage in shared governance, professors’ organizational commitment and participation in campus service, and features of campuses that foster and inhibit faculty engagement in interdisciplinary research. In addition to her articles, she coauthored Faculty at Work (Johns Hopkins University Press) with Robert Blackburn in which they proposed and tested a social-cognitive model of faculty motivation to engage in teaching, research and service. Lawrence has held elected offices in major national educational associations (AERA and ASHE) and has served as an associate dean of the School of Education and Director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education at the University of Michigan. She received her BS in Education from Tufts University, MS in Education from Smith College, and PhD in Education with a concentration in social psychology from the University of Michigan.
Melinda Richardson is Assistant Director of the Center for the Study of Higher and Postsecondary Education (CSHPE) at the University of Michigan. She is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the Center, and supports the planning and implementation of program initiatives. Her past experiences include positions within central administration at U-M and at Stanford University, as well as K-12 classroom instruction and group travel coordination. Melinda holds a master’s degree in Education from the University of Michigan.