2015-16 Cohort

Carolyn Ashton

Associate Professor, 4-H Youth Development, College of Health.

LDPE Project Summary:

My LDPE leadership project was a research project in which I gathered information about the work/life balance in current 4-H Faculty via several different methods (focus group, questionnaire). The next step is to examine the results so as to help inform policy suggestions for the organization. The goal is to maintain a happy, healthy and productive workforce.

After my mentorship, I am trying to approach leadership, communication and supervision with greater intention.

Kyle Whitehouse Cassady

Coordinator of Career and Academic Success, Division of Extended Campus

Rose Jepson-Sullivan

Statewide leadership team for SNAP-Ed, Extension Service

Mike Knutz

Youth development faculty member, 4-H Youth Development

LDPE Project Summary: For my leadership project, I worked on guidelines and a framework to build a statewide Oregon Master Naturalist Program (OMN) leadership committee made up of representatives within OSU Extension and other statewide organizations. As demand for the OMN Program increases, there is great need to build capacity into the program and leverage support so that it remains a sustainable initiative for OSU Extension. The guidelines also call for regional teams that will help plan and implement OMN programming. This regional planning approach aims to decentralize OMN, and equip County Extension Service and local partners with the tools they need to provide OMN for their clients and make an impact in their communities. By having statewide leadership and building local support, OMN becomes a more resilient program that makes a difference in Oregon.

LDPE has encouraged me to be more thoughtful and proactive in using and developing these skills.

Marilyn Lesmeister, PhD

Associate Professor, College of Health

Johanna “Hanna” Lounsbury

Project Manager, Professional and Continuing Education (PACE)

Melanie Mitchell

Acting Director of Professional and Continuing Education (PACE)

Project Summary:

My LDPE leadership project was the creation and implementation of a 7-Phase Team Development Model to improve the culture and team performance of OSU Professional and Continuing Education. As the leader, I flexed my leadership muscle and took on one of the largest challenges, developing my team. I developed a road map for progressing my team from creating to sustaining while I balanced commitment, skill sets, communication, expectations, and end goals. I weaved training and activities throughout the 7 phases to push my team and I to the limits.

Orientation: Mission and image of success; defining our purpose.
Trust Building: Who are the PACE team members, their leadership style, skill sets, competencies, as well as communication style under conflict.
Goal Clarification: PACE's targets and team member's roles
Commitment: How we work together. All in mentality!
Implementation: Who does what, when, where?
High Performance: Our team turns the corner and begin to sequence work becoming a seamless supportive unit.
Renewal: Just when we have it all figured out, things will change. A new member will join the team or an important member will leave. Or perhaps there will be changes coming from the external environment which will cause us to question whether what we are doing in the past will enable us to be successful in the future. It will be time to re-orient and begin the cycle again.

The LDPE program refined my self awareness and gave me an opportunity to further practice my servant style leadership. Additionally, it gave me a platform to demonstrate empathy, show humility and validate that leaders who help rather than simply tell others what to do, produce far better results.

Shanna Northway

Agriculture/4-H Youth Development Faculty, OSU Extension, Grant County

LDPE Project Summary:

The Professor of Practice position (PoP) is a very new position to Oregon State University, because of this there are many questions and concerns around the promotion of this position. My project was designed to understand concerns from faculty currently in PoP position, start a conversation with the Program Council around promotion of PoPs, and create a FAQ's document that will help current and newly hired PoPs better understand the expectations around scholarship and promotion.

After LDPE, I think about how my biases may impact my leadership, communication, and supervision of others. Be aware of my tendencies. I think most importantly is to commit to giving myself time to improve myself and grow. Just because this year is over does not mean that my journey of learning to lead better is over. In fact I feel like the door has just been cracked open, it is now up to me to allow myself the time and energy to continue to improve myself.

Jason O’Brien

Oregon Master Naturalist Program Coordinator, Forestry & Natural Resources Extension Program, Department of Forest Ecosystems and Society

LDPE Project Summary:

For my leadership project, I worked on guidelines and a framework to build a statewide Oregon Master Naturalist Program (OMN) leadership committee made up of representatives within OSU Extension and other statewide organizations. As demand for the OMN Program increases, there is great need to build capacity into the program and leverage support so that it remains a sustainable initiative for OSU Extension. The guidelines also call for regional teams that will help plan and implement OMN programming. This regional planning approach aims to decentralize OMN, and equip County Extension Service and local partners with the tools they need to provide OMN for their clients and make an impact in their communities. By having statewide leadership and building local support, OMN becomes a more resilient program that makes a difference in Oregon.

By seeing my leadership and personality scores, I can begin to mitigate and leverage them toward changes in my overall approach to work. One specific thing that I can point to is that I now have the opportunity to delegate more as my program expands, and I find that I'm reflecting upon some of the things learned throughout this experience.

Jennifer Oppenlander

Education Coordinator, Co-County Leader, OSU Open Campus, Jefferson County

Silvia Rondon, PhD

Associate Professor, Entomologist Specialist, OSU Extension Service

Tianhong Shi

Instructional Designer, Division of Extended Campus

LDPE Project Summary:

For my project, I researched innovative ways to disruptive from within, which include:

Building a culture that promote educational innovation (office or no office; create the culture, sustain the culture, and make innovators thrive on OSU campus)
Offering learning experiences/training to existing customers with better quality teaching and coaching and supporting: Who do we serve? How do we currently serve them? How can we serve them better?
Exploring and building new customers/ creating new service opportunities: Which groups are we underserving? (International students; work professionals; and high school students; Large enrollment courses? Make the current programs better, get better reputations (quality improvement; help apply for awards)
Courses/ certificates/badges/stackable badges
Helping faculty do research and publish research in online teaching.
Helping online students complete degree: beginning of program support; continuous support; mid of program encouragement/celebrate; graduation ceremony; help students find jobs; (E-portfolio )

The two areas I focused on are improving training of online instructors in Quality course design and improving students learning through support system, learning tips, badges and e-portfolio.
To better train online instructors, I designed a web portal that includes why certain instructional strategies and instructional objects are important to student success, and examples of these instructional strategies. I am also testing out the idea of learner peer supporter, badging system and e-portfolio to see how they can motivate students into better learning.

Through LDPE, I appreciated being able to work on my strengths while realizing on my weaknesses; collaborative innovation and supportive servant style is the leadership style that I will be focusing on developing. I realized that someone with a different perspective can be greatly helpful in brainstorming for ideas, solutions, and there are positive ways to handle conflict and I need to grow in the area of conflict resolution.

Stephen Ward

Multimedia Tech Designer, Extension and Experiment Station Communications (EESC)

LDPE Project Summary:

To work closely with Extension in a region to deliver educational and promotional material that is focused on using local citizens, businesses, and artisans who can speak to topics or issues that are important to that region and tie-in with Extension related expertise. The approach includes identifying what topics and issues are of most importance to that region, finding a target audience, and utilizing popular media channels for that audience. First iterations would primarily utilize web-based video as the main delivery method.

For me, before LDPE, I tended to take a "one-man-band" type of view on a lot of projects, but the LDPE process has changed my approach to realizing that I need to delegate and depend on other colleagues more often. My approach towards communication has also changed in that I am more forthright and direct with what I need communicated or help with. The most valuable component for me was the ability to learn from and collaborate with a mentor and coach on a project that I would not have normally gotten to attempt.

Victor Yee

Assistant Director, Course Development & Training, Division of Extended Campus