WSU Selects Two Associate Provosts
OGDEN, Utah – Two Weber State University professors have been selected to lead key academic initiatives as new associate provosts.
Psychology professor Eric Amsel will serve as associate provost for academic programs and assessment. Sociology professor Brenda Marsteller Kowalewski will assume the position of associate provost for high-impact programs and faculty development.
Provost Madonne Miner said the two were selected from a national pool of 20 highly qualified candidates.
“Eric has served as an exceptionally successful department chair and has been involved in numerous leadership positions in Faculty Senate, professional and student disciplinary organizations and academic campus initiatives,” Miner said. “As director of WSU’s Center for Community Engaged Learning (CCEL), Brenda has garnered extensive national attention for WSU’s commitment to connect course work with community work. Brenda has shown herself able to juggle multiple roles and to work creatively with a wide range of people.”
Beginning in April, Amsel will assume primary responsibility for leadership of regional accreditation, program review, assessment of learning outcomes and administrative oversight of general education.
Kowalewski will assume her position immediately and will provide oversight for interdisciplinary undergraduate programs, including CCEL, Honors, Bachelor of Integrated Studies and Office of Undergraduate Research. She will help guide the Teaching and Leaning Forum, a mentoring program for new faculty, and will lead policy revisions to encourage more interdisciplinary and high-impact work across campus.
Eric Amsel
Amsel joined the WSU faculty in 1996, and from the start took pride in mentoring and encouraging students to conduct undergraduate research. His students have participated in a number of Amsel’s professional research projects, which have focused on cognitive development in groups ranging from young children to practicing scientists. He has written and presented widely on changes in thinking that occur over time, including such articles as “Training the preschool scientist in waiting” and “The developing psychology of science education” published in the Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.
Amsel has received numerous awards and honors for his teaching and scholarship. In 2015, he was appointed chair of the Teaching Excellence Awards Committee of the American Psychology Association, Division 2. He is a past president of the Rocky Mountain Psychology Association and is an endowed professor in WSU’s College of Social & Behavioral Sciences. In 2006 Amsel was honored as a John S. Hinckley Fellow at WSU and was later named the Utah Professor of the Year by the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching and the Council for Advancement and Support of Education (CASE).
Prior to joining WSU, Amsel taught as an assistant professor at Vassar and the University of Saskatchewan. He earned his bachelor’s degree in psychology from McGill University in Montreal, his master’s degree from Harvard and his Ph.D. from Columbia University. He also conducted postdoctoral work at Yale.
Brenda Marsteller Kowalewski
Kowalewski currently serves as WSU’s presidential chair for community engagement as well as executive director of CCEL, a position she’s held since 2006.
CCEL helps professors and students incorporate community-engagement opportunities in their academic studies. Working in partnership with the community, WSU students and faculty have addressed a wide array of local issues, including access to education, health care and economic development, and have participated in projects with local agencies to improve the quality of life for area residents.
Kowalewski led WSU’s efforts to attain the Carnegie Foundation’s Community Engagement Classification, which demonstrates the school’s dedication to working with the community. Only 361 of the more than 3,000 colleges and universities in the United States carry the designation. WSU first earned the distinction in 2008 and, as required, renewed its classification for 2015. Kowalewski also accepted the New York Life Higher Education Civic Engagement Award presented to WSU in 2015 by The Washington Center. In 2013 she was named a Thomas Ehrlich Civically Engaged Faculty Award Finalist, one of four in the country.
Kowalewski has written and presented locally and internationally about the demands and rewards of community engagement. She also published several peer-reviewed articles on the gender wage gap that have appeared in the American Journal of Sociology and American Sociological Review.
Kowalewski earned her bachelor’s degree in sociology from Hofstra University in New York. She holds a master’s and doctoral degree in sociology from the University of Maryland, College Park.
Kowalewski and Amsel co-authored two articles about teaching and student engagement and co-edited the book “Promoting Student Engagement Volume 1: Programs, Techniques and Opportunities.” Both were honored as WSU Distinguished Professors — a lifelong academic distinction.
When they are not involved in academics, Amsel enjoys competitive curling, and Kowalewski plays and coaches lacrosse.
Kowalewski and Amsel will fill and expand the role of Ryan Thomas, who retired after seven years as associate provost. Among many accomplishments, he guided Weber State through a comprehensive Northwest Commission on Colleges and Universities accreditation review, which garnered WSU commendations for exemplary performance in five specific areas and offered no recommendations for improvement.
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Allison Barlow Hess, Director of Public Relations
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Allison Barlow Hess, Director of Public Relations
801-626-7948 • ahess@weber.edu