Two Vanderbilt University faculty have been named as SEC Academic Leadership Development Program fellows for 2016-17. Geoffrey Fleming, associate professor of pediatrics and assistant professor of anesthesiology, and Leslie Welch Hopkins, assistant professor of nursing, are joining the program along with faculty and administrators from the other 13 SEC universities.
The SEC Academic Leadership Development Program is a professional growth initiative that seeks to identify, prepare and advance academic leaders for roles within SEC institutions and beyond. It has two components: a university-level development program designed by each institution for its own participants and two three-day SEC-wide workshops held on specified campuses for all program participants.
“It is our strong belief that helping to prepare administrators for the next phase of their careers has the potential to impact all of higher education, both now and in the future,” said SEC Commissioner Greg Sankey. “Our universities make a significant investment in these individuals, and we are proud to work with them through this program.”
Fleming, chair-elect of the Faculty Senate, will serve his SEC fellow term during the 2017-18 academic year. He is also a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit physician in the Department of Pediatrics. He has served as director for the Graduate Training Program in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine since 2009 and has been extensively involved in both undergraduate and graduate medical education. In addition to numerous Vanderbilt committee roles, Fleming has chaired multiple committees for national professional organizations. In his first year on the Faculty Senate at Vanderbilt, he has been extensively involved in rewriting the Faculty Manual as well as serving on multiple committees as an ad hoc representative of the Faculty Senate.
Hopkins directs the School of Nursing’s Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program, currently ranked at No. 6 in the country by U.S. News & World Report. She also co-directs the school’s Women’s Health/Adult-Gerontology Primary Care Nurse Practitioner program. Hopkins’ practice experience ranges from rural family practice settings to an urban, nurse-managed, and indigent care clinic. She is currently part of the inter-professional team at the Vanderbilt Medical Group Urgent Care clinics in Williamson County, Tennessee. In addition to teaching and practice, she is the current Faculty Senate vice chair-elect and a member of the VUSN executive committee. Her research interests include chronic disease management and multi-morbidity.
The SEC Academic Leadership Development Program is part of SECU, the academic initiative of the Southeastern Conference. The SEC supports and promotes the endeavors and achievements of the students and faculty at its 14 member universities.
By Amenah Anthony-Hunter
