I tell my students, “You have incredible gifts inside of you. You know things and you have talents. How dare you keep those things to yourself.” When I tell them this, it is usually to help them to be brave enough to give a speech or to be willing to push themselves to write creatively. I remind them frequently not to play small, but to use their talents to serve others and to help others grow. 

I too have gifts inside of me and those gifts should be used in the service of others. I am incredibly fortunate to have a passion to help others, I have the education and experience to help others, and in my role at the university I have been given the opportunity to help others. It would be a shame to keep my gifts to myself. 

Service comes naturally for me because I love to collaborate, to innovate, and to help others. When making decisions about service, I don’t think of “institution building” but rather I think of people building. For me, service is an opportunity for me to share my gifts to empower others.

 My service has primarily been broken into four categories:

1.  Service to students

2. Service to faculty

3. Service to the university

4. Service to the community

Empowering my students has always been my first and primary commitment. For me that has meant everything from being an Adopt a Prof to attending student events. Because I have a strong relationship with students, they invite me to attend their performances and their events. I believe that they feel more connected to our campus when they feel like faculty care enough about them to support them outside of the classroom. I have been a speaker at academic banquets for Greek Life and headline speaker for Public Relations Society, Honors Society, and regularly speak to the Panamanian Student Society. I spoke to the NASA group, the George Washington Carver group, helped create a Teach for American recruiting video, and even led Boy Scout University, a Greek led initiative. If my student invites me and I am able, I am there to support them. 

Empowering graduate students has meant that I am a regular presenter at Graduate Teaching Assistant trainings to include Teaching Assistant Camp, the G-Step Program, and midsemester trainings. I have presented on how to make conference presentations and have judged graduate student presentations. I have contributed the graduate student handbooks on teaching and provided significant input to the resources around graduate students and teaching. I am working with the key leaders to create better resources for our graduate teaching assistants. 

My service to students matters because I believe they are my highest mission. Helping them to be supported and have what they need is essential to their success and to our success as an institution. Since many of our graduate students are teachers, I believe that helping them to succeed in both roles is crucial. When I help train our TA’s, I am impacting the many students that they teach.

Faculty success helps create student success, so I work to empower faculty. I was a co-director of the Wally Cordes Teaching and Faculty Support Center designing programs for all faculty. I have presented at the Walton College teaching support center and the Sociology and Criminology faculty support group. In addition, I am a trained peer observer and work as a Provost Faculty Mentor Circle leader. I regularly present on teaching topics at Teaching Camp, Winter Teaching Symposium, the High Impact Practices Conferences and am an invited guest around campus. I work with the Instructor Coach program and am currently developing a coaching micro certificate for our instructors on the topic of academic coaching.

 I also work to advocate on behalf of faculty. I served on the Higher Learning Commissions task force to make proposals on faculty belonging initiatives. I worked actively to help International Faculty have the support they need to thrive on campus that has led to them having a special presentation at new faculty orientation and a safe place to discuss their unique challenges. In my work with the Teaching Council, I helped make changes to the faculty evaluation system. In addition, through my work with the HLC Belonging commission, I helped to highlight faculty inequities on campus which has led to some departments changing how faculty are presented on their websites. 

My service to the university is an extension of the work that I do to empower others. I chaired the American Association of Colleges and Universities one-year ePortfolio Institute which led to the creation of portfolio.uark.edu, an Open Education Resource textbook on ePortfolios, and contributed to the creation of the PACE Micro credential for Fulbright College. I served American Association of Colleges and Universities one-year High Impact Practices Institute which led to the forming of the HIP Collaborative, the HIP website, the HIP conference, and the ongoing HIP conversations on our campus. I served on the Higher Learning Commissions Belonging Committee and contributed to the Wellness Task Force. I continue to serve as one of the representatives on the SEC Teaching and Faculty Learning Group.

 I believe that my service in each of these has resulted in significant changes that empowered our faculty and students to become better thus enriching “lives by promoting discovery, diversity, and inclusion, facilitating transformational experiences.” In addition, my high-profile presence in these initiatives helps with the national reputation of the University of Arkansas. I was invited to present to the American Association of Colleges and Universities on our OER and ePortfolio initiatives and I present at National and International conference about the work that we are doing on our campus. 

My service to the community is about empowering community members. I spoke at Fulbright Fridays at Butterfield Trail Village and created a class for the OSHER institute. Both wonderful organizations serve our community by helping donors and alumni stay connected to the university. I have spoken at the Public Relations group and at local nonprofits. I have taken my students into the local middle school to talk about bullying, into the junior high to talk about college preparation, and into the high school to talk about misperceptions about college. I took students to the town square to meet key leaders and business professionals which built long lasting relationships between the university and the community it serves. Throughout all my service activities, I help achieve the university goal to "enrich lives by promoting discovery, diversity, and inclusion, facilitating transformational experiences." 

Through my service, I share my gifts to empower others to reach their full potential.