Butler Center to co-sponsor virtual town hall series about challenges caused by the COVID-19 pandemic

The Susan Bulkeley Butler Center for Leadership Excellence and the American Council for Education’s Women’s Network of Indiana are co-sponsoring a virtual live town hall series this fall focused on the many challenges faced by higher education institutions because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Each town hall session will feature three speakers. Sessions will take place from noon to 1:30 p.m. Each speaker will make remarks for about 10 minutes and then the town hall will be open for comments and questions.

The sessions are open to staff, students and faculty of Purdue; the colleges/universities in Indiana who are members of ACE Women’s Network of Indiana. In advance of each session, an email with a registration link will be sent in Purdue Today and to those on the Butler Center email list and the ACE Women’s Network of Indiana list. Those who would like to be added to the list to receive a registration link can email butlercenter@purdue.edu. The link to access the virtual session will be available about two days before the session.

The following sessions, all on Wednesdays, are planned:

* Sept. 2: "Leadership During the Pandemic: Challenges and Opportunities." This panel will feature Susan Marie Sciame, chancellor of Indiana University Kokomo; Jay Akridge, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs and diversity at Purdue; and Susana Rivera-Mills, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs at Ball State University.

* Sept. 23: "Community and Belongingness at the Time of COVID-19." This panel will feature Nadia Brown, associate professor of political science and African American studies at Purdue; Laura J. Treanor, provost at Vincennes University; and Carina Olaru, director of the Latino Cultural Center at Purdue.

* Oct. 14: "Networking/Collaborating in a Virtual Environment." This panel will feature Amisha Shah, assistant professor of civil engineering and environmental and ecological engineering at Purdue; Paaige K. Turner, dean and professor of the College of Communication, Information, and Media at Ball State; and Ximena Bernal, associate professor of biological sciences at Purdue.

* Oct. 28: "Gender, Race, Ethnicity, and Research Productivity During COVID-19." This panel will feature Shalini Low-Nam, assistant professor of chemistry at Purdue; Ella Ingram, associate dean for professional development and professor of biology and biological engineering at Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology; and Tiffany Lyle, assistant professor of veterinary anatomic pathology and director of the Histology Research Laboratory at Purdue.

* Nov. 4: "COVID and Self-care: Individual and Collective Care." This panel will feature Kristin Champa, vice president for advancement of Christian Theological Seminary; Sharon Bowman, chair and professor of the Department of Counseling Psychology, Social Psychology, and Counseling at Ball State; and Marie S. Morris, provost of Anderson University.

Mangala Subramaniam, director of the Butler Center, is the state co-director of ACE Women’s Network of Indiana.

Interested attendees may email butlercenter@purdue.edu for more information.

Writer: Kelsey Schnieders Lefever, kschnied@purdue.edu
Source: Mangala Subramaniam, msubrama@purdue.edu