Two NDSU faculty have been named Faculty Fellows for the 2020-2021 academic year in Faculty Affairs/Office of the Provost.
Melissa Vosen Callens, associate professor of practice in the Department of Communication, and Jenny Linker, associate professor of health, nutrition and exercise sciences and NDSU’s Let’s Move in Homeschool program director, were named to the positions.
Fellows in the office lead or coordinate program initiatives in such areas as faculty development, mentoring, leadership development, recruitment, retention, faculty appointment policies, promotion and tenure, inclusion and faculty affairs special projects.
"Professors Linker and Vosen Callens have a lot to contribute to our campus community,” said Interim Provost Margaret Fitzgerald. “I am pleased with their selection as Faculty Fellows.”
Vosen Callens’ project will focus on developing training modules on topics related to teaching, including backward design, universal design for learning, increasing student engagement and online learning, and creating materials on peer review of online teaching.
Linker’s project will focus on a community building program for helping faculty make connections through wellness and recreation activities. The effort will create programming intended to increase faculty retention and help in recruitment.
“Applications for the Faculty Fellows program were reviewed by a faculty committee. Following interviews with the finalists, the committee selected the Fellows for this year,” said Canan Bilen-Green, vice provost for faculty affairs and equity. “Faculty Affairs is committed to supporting career development and leadership-building opportunities for faculty as a pathway to enhancing academic governance and to promoting and nurturing a campus climate of inclusive excellence.”
Vosen Callens earned her bachelor’s degree in English education, and her master’s and doctoral degrees in English from NDSU. In 2006, she joined the faculty as a lecturer of university studies and an academic adviser. She joined the Department of Communication as an assistant professor of practice in 2014. Vosen Callens received the College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences Outstanding Teaching Award in 2018, and was nominated for the 2017 Campus Course Assessment Award.
Linker earned bachelor’s degrees at the University of Massachusetts-Amherst and Westfield State College, Massachusetts. She earned her master’s degree in physical education from Bridgewater State College, Massachusetts, and her doctorate in kinesiology at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. She received the 2020 NDSU Peltier Award for Teaching Innovation, was named the 2015 North Dakota College/University Physical Education Teacher of the Year and was part of the NDSU faculty team that won the 2016 Exemplary Program of the Year from the North Dakota Society of Health and Physical Educators.
As a student-focused, land-grant, research university, we serve our citizens.
