The Grand Overview
A close friend and mentor of mine in college, David Dorsey, once said:
There is nothing very "high" about "higher education" if it doesn't give something back to the community from which it was taken.
Both David and this statement had a profound impact upon the direction of my life. If you learn nothing else about me as you review this portfolio, I hope that you'll take away that I see being a member of JMU, CISE, and ISAT as not only a huge honor and privilege, but also an ideal position from which I'm able to fulfill my mission and my calling as a human being. I deeply believe that the purpose of life is to share one's gifts, lovingly, and with a deep sense of gratitude to all of the people and powers that make one's life possible. I like to imagine that is the reason behind my smile in this photo that accompanies my profile on the ISAT website.
When I applied for tenure and promotion to associate, I said, and it is still true, that I am truly inspired by JMU's mission statement:
We are a community committed to preparing students to be educated and enlightened citizens who lead meaningful and productive lives.
Many things go into the decision about whether or not a colleague should be promoted to Full Professor. You'll find in this portfolio an overwhelming quantity of artifacts, narrative, and justification as to why I believe I merit the privilege of being amongst the ranks of the most senior faculty in ISAT.
Hopefully, you already know me well enough to answer the question of whether or not I deserve this promition in the affirmative. The contents of this portfolio are offered up as evidence and artifacts that will help you make the case. I have endeavored to make this portfolio easy to read, and easy to navigate. I have decided to err on the side of being overly verbose at times. I don't expect every person who evaluates this portfolio to read every word of every page, or to click every link that could be followed. What I do hope is that when you have questions you will easily be able to discover the answer. Please do not hesitate to send me an email should you have any questions whatsoever.
I have been a member of the PAC and I know just how excruciating some of these decisions can be. I sincerely hope that my case will NOT be excruciating! However, if you believe that there is anything missing from this portfolio, some artifact that you believe that I possess that I neglected to include, please ask me to provide it. When I was on the PAC we agonized about some cases where we felt a candidate had failed to include elements that we knew they possessed. Too late, in consultation with Susan Wheeler, we discovered that it is entirely within the prerogative of the PAC to request additional information from the candidate. Typically this would not be a large thing, rather something that was not included by way of oversight. I hope I have not left anything out, but if I have, I will be very prompt in providing it, if asked.
It is difficult, if not counter-productive, to try to be humble when submitting a portfolio such as this one. That being said, let me thank you one more time for taking the time and energy to review my portfolio, which I humbly (as possible) submit for your evaluation.
Sincerely,
