Tuesday, December 16, 2014

This Year’s Work of the NCPEA Executive Board on Behalf of Its Members


Marc Shelton 
NCPEA past-president
George Fox (OR) University

As we head into the final half of the final month of 2014, I thought it appropriate to use this month’s NCPEA Talking Point to reflect on the year’s work of the executive board on behalf of our member professors.  Each summer conference includes a keynote presentation by the executive director and the current president summarizing the state of the organization.  The purpose of this address each year is to provide members with the highlights of initiatives that elected members, NCPEA’s consultants, and the executive director have prioritized as topics of emphasis during the previous regular meetings of the executive board, as well as ongoing work on the day-to-day business of NCPEA.
First, this serves as a reminder of recent initiatives of past presidents and the continued work on those important topics.  Fenwick English (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill), who was recently re-elected to the NCPEA Executive Board (EB), focused on expanding the voice of professors from Historically Black Colleges and Universities, Hispanic Serving Institutions, and Native American Tribal Colleges and Universities during his presidency.  The executive board continues to work on this then-presidential initiative with the leadership of two current affiliate members, professors Mariela Rodriquez from the University of Texas at San Antonio and Tawannah Allen, Fayetteville (NC) State University.  A recent recommendation to the EB included seeking to extend the role of the current affiliate members beyond the original 3-year period, while identifying prospective affiliate members representing professors from all institutions to facilitate future transitions with training for board service.
An initiative of past-president Carol Mullen (Virginia Tech) was to advance the work of NCPEA as an international organization encouraging worldwide college and university professors of educational administration to prepare leaders for service in schools around the world.  Rosemary Papa (Northern Arizona University) was selected as the first NCPEA International Ambassador and serves as an affiliate member.  This work continues under Rosemary’s leadership with action to pilot a partnership between NCPEA and the Flagstaff Seminar: Educational Leaders Without Borders.  This collaboration includes EB members serving as a sub-committee to advise and monitor the partnership during the three-year pilot.  In a recent email to over seventy professors, Rosemary invited members of FS:ELWBs to prepare to “increase co-hosting responsibilities” with the NCPEA Executive Board in Washington, D.C. (2015), Detroit, Michigan (2016), and San Juan, Puerto Rico (2017).  The EB worked on a Memorandum of Understanding between the two organizations during 2014 to prepare for the first joint conference at the Sheraton Pentagon City, August 1-7, 2015.  Dr. Papa concluded with, “Part of our strategy is to ensure some funds are generated to help scholars world-wide to attend.”  The EB approved a line item within NCPEA’s 501 (c)(3) non-profit budget, so donations can be made to fund support for increased participation from professors around the world, in addition to extending NCPEA membership to international professors based on the World Bank ratings for individual countries.
Established in 1947, the National Council of Professors of Educational Administration (NCPEA) continues its commitment to serve the interests and needs of professors of educational administration and practicing school leaders.”  NCPEA has historically been a professional organization for individual members and to serve to benefit its members as teachers, scholars, and leaders in service to others. To this vision’s end, the NCPEA Executive Board has worked to expand the promotion and tenure opportunities and to extend the reach of ideas of our member professors through NCPEA Publications, our sponsored, peer-reviewed journals and NCPEA Press, sponsored, peer-reviewed books.  The EB continued the work to create “industry-standard” publications through approving a reorganization of the executive director’s responsibilities and charging Brad Bizzell from Radford (VA) University, as NCPEA director of publications to work with Jim Berry, NCPEA executive director, to propose software and hardware upgrades to accomplish this goal.  This represents an important future direction for the organization and acknowledges the work that Ted Creighton, professor emeritus at Virginia Tech, accomplished in positioning NCPEA’s publication arm.
As an organization of and for member professors, NCPEA continues to recognize the work of its members’ shaping the field of educational administration through the annual Living Legends Award.  The EB recently expanded this recognition of selfless service through a periodic and timely Distinguished Service Award.  NCPEA board members participate with past recipients of Living Legends awards to identify a professor deserving of this level of recognition and encourages nominations to be sent to the executive director for the Distinguished Service Award.
“The mission of NCPEA, as a professional academic organization, is to advance the field of educational administration, both in leadership and management, through research, teaching, and service, as a means to prepare aspiring and practicing educational administrators.”  The NCPEA Executive Board completed its strategic planning session at the summer conference in Camarillo, California, hosted by CAPEA and Gary Kinsey from California State University Channel Islands, in preparation for the long-range planning for membership held every five years.  The Whithers Session provided members with an opportunity for input and information for NCPEA’s direction from new initiatives identified in 2014, ahead of the next Washington, DC Summit held every five years on the “5’s and 0’s.”  One sub-committee is actively meeting to work on membership proposals ranging from institutional membership (see the upcoming NCPEA December Newsletter from Jim Berry) to student ambassadors and current practitioners – who may be transitioning to professorial roles.  Another initiative, leading to an EB sub-committee, proposed an inaugural application process to grant a total of $5,000 to quality proposals seeking to implement the mission and vision of NCPEA to “advance the field” and “serve the needs” of educational administrators and professors (see the upcoming newsletter).  The EB identified this as a strategic initiative aligned to our non-profit status with the Internal Revenue Service.  This is a tangible way to give back to the field a portion of revenues from the annual conference and our publications through recognizing and encouraging deserving work to improve the preparation of future leaders and the professional development of current leaders aligned to the NCPEA’s mission and vision.  Hopefully, this grant amount will continue to grow as NCPEA members expand their reach through presentations at our conferences, publishing through our journals in NCPEA Publications, and books in the NCPEA Press.
The work of 2014 culminated officially with our final meeting of the EB on December 15th and it will continue into 2015 under the leadership of NCPEA president Carleton Holt (University of Arkansas).  But we know that it actually continues immediately day-to-day with the quality and consistent work of Jim Berry, our executive director from Eastern Michigan University.  On behalf of the NCPEA Executive Board, thank you for you work to serve the organization, its members, and others in your roles throughout the United States and the world.  We are committed to the quality preparation of educational leaders and this work is best accomplished through professors in programs who seek to be accountable to those that we serve with and to those we serve.  The National Council of Professors of Educational Administration is a great place to learn, to share what we learn with our colleague professors, and to use what we learn and share to better prepare aspiring and practicing educational administrators.  May you be blessed throughout the upcoming holiday season and have a prosperous New Year 2015, one in which you and our organization thrives.