Professor of Education Pamela Eddy will be William & Mary’s inaugural associate provost for faculty affairs and development, Provost Peggy Agouris announced today.
In the newly developed role, Eddy will be responsible for faculty advancement; diversity, equity and inclusion efforts; professional development and training; annual faculty programs; faculty grievances; and the Faculty Handbook. She will also serve as a liaison to the Faculty Assembly and on university-wide or provost-appointed committees.
Eddy, whose areas of expertise include leadership and faculty development, will take on the new position in January 2023, following a previously planned sabbatical.
“I am excited about the opportunity for engaging with faculty to support their work,” said Eddy. “This new role on campus taps into my expertise as a scholar of higher education leadership and faculty roles and allows me to help move evidence-based strategies into action.”
As associate provost, Eddy will coordinate, administer and assess programs and processes that support faculty advancement and career development, including recruitment, mentoring and promotion processes. As part of that work, she will work closely with Chief Diversity Officer Chon Glover on DEI programs and services related to recruitment and retention.
Eddy will also work closely with the Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation on educational programs for faculty, and she will participate in initiatives to enhance faculty engagement and wellness with the goal of fostering a positive academic culture.
In addition to coordinating the faculty grievance process, Eddy will assess faculty workload policies and practices based on data collected via surveys.
In addition to serving as a liaison to the Faculty Assembly and helping to facilitate communication between faculty and the administration and among other groups, Eddy will also be responsible for maintaining the Faculty Handbook and interpreting it as needed to provide guidance.
“I am very excited to welcome Pamela to the Office of the Provost, and anticipate greatly her work in meeting faculty needs at William & Mary,” said Agouris in her message.
A nationally noted scholar on organizational leadership in higher education, Eddy has published a dozen books and authored numerous academic journal articles and book chapters. In addition to leadership and faculty development, she is an expert on gender in higher education, internationalization of higher education, mid-level leaders and supporting student success.
She has taught at W&M for 14 years in the School of Education, mentoring myriad graduate students. She initiated the joint higher education/Master of Business Administration program with the Raymond A. Mason School of Business and led the design of the higher education concentration within the Executive Ed.D. program.
Eddy has received numerous awards, including W&M’s Plumeri Award for Faculty Excellence, a Reves International Faculty Fellow Award and a Fulbright Research-Lecture Award. In 2020, she was among 12 faculty selected from across the commonwealth to receive the State Council of Higher Education for Virginia’s Outstanding Faculty Award. That same year, she organized the first-ever convening of higher education programs in Virginia, with the theme of “Equity and Inclusion Along the Educational Pathway.”
Eddy served as the president of the Council for the Study of Community Colleges from 2011 to 2012. She currently serves on the editorial boards for the Community College Journal of Research and Practice, Community College Enterprise and Innovative Higher Education. She is also editor-in-chief of New Directions for Community Colleges.
After earning her undergraduate degree from Allegheny College, Eddy went on to receive a master’s degree from Cornell University and a doctorate from Michigan State University.
Erin Jay, Senior Associate Director of University News