Summati
THE
n Weekly USPS Publication Number 16300
T h is C om mu n i t y N ewsp a p er is a pu bl ica t ion of E sca m bia / S a n ta Rosa B a r Assoc ia t ion
Section A, Page 1
Vol. 17, No. 3
Visit The Summation Weekly Online: www.summationweekly.com
January 18, 2017
1 Section, 12 Pages
in our development. I think I have the ability to get us through the next few years and make us even stronger. What are some of the short and long-term goals you’d like to accomplish once in office? Short term: maintaining our commitment to the highest quality education possible for our students. I want to continue investing in our students’ futures -- their abilities to get good jobs when they graduate. Longer
and I would certainly hold our academic programs up against the best, some- including many of engineering programs, logistics and daily training and management program and anything in health-
By Hana Frenette
DR. MARTHA SAUNDERS TAKES THE HELM OF UWF Discover what Dr. Martha Saunders has in store for the University of West Florida as she discusses her own past with the university as a student and staff member, why she decided to make the leap to president, as well as the short and long-term goals she aims to achieve in office. On Jan. 1, Dr. Martha Saunders took over the helm of the University of West Florida, as she becomes the sixth president of the university. Saunders has served as provost and vice president since 2013 and has ample experience in university leadership. She served as the chancellor at the University of WisconsinWhitewater from 2005 to 2007 and president at the University of Southern Mississippi from 2007 to 2012. Saunders began her career at UWF in 1984 as a professor in the Department of Communication Arts, where she then became coordinator of the Public Relations Program. After becoming the director of the University Honors Program, she was named dean of the UWF College of Arts and Sciences. She believes UWF is well on it’s way to establishing a national and international voice in higher education, and she’s already working on a set of long-term goals for the university. You began your career at UWF in 1984 as a professor in the Department of Communication Arts- which courses were you teaching, what was your specialization, your passion? I taught all of the public relations courses -- including introduction to public relations, public relations case studies, public relations research and writing for public relations. My research focus was on crisis communication and I published frequently on that topic. You have a master’s degree in Journalism from the University of Georgia and a doctorate in
communication theory and research from Florida State Universitywhat drew you to journalism, and what were some of the topics and issues you enjoyed discussing? I have a number of journalists in my family and always was drawn to reporting the news. There was never a question in my mind that journalism was going to be my profession. I took a slight detour as life took me in other di-
rections, but I landed squarely back in communications in the end. Were any immediate family members really inspiring to you? I had a cousin, his name is Charles Dunagin, and he wrote for the McComb Enterprise Journal, and he spent his early days the covering civil rights movement in Jackson, Miss.-- for which he managed to have a cross burned in his yard; covering that kind of news was risky. Another cousin, Charles’ brother Ralph Dunagin, also worked as a syndicated car-
toonist in Orlando for the Orlando Sentinel. At any point did you aspire to work in a newsroom or for a publication? Yes but the timing never worked out for me. My very first job as a teenager was as a stringer for the Hattiesburg American. I was sure I was going to be a journalist, so it made sense to work for them. They hired me to report on high school news for something like a flat rate $25 a month.
Leonard Lowery was the editor at the time. Did you begin your career at UWF with leadership, or presidential leadership as an eventual goal, or did you see yourself predominantly continuing to teach? I had no thoughts of leadership at the time. I was thrilled to be a fulltime faculty member and loved every minute of it. You served as chancellor at the University of WisconsinWhitewater from 2005-2007, and were president at
the University of Southern Mississippi from 2007-2012what did you take away from those roles that you feel you will bring to the University of West Florida? I have a clear understanding of the role of a university president and the demands on individuals in those roles. A university president has to be all things to a lot of different constituents. I believe I have the breadth of experience to know
which hat to wear and when to wear it. When did the idea of becoming the next president at UWF become a possibility or a goal? It became a possibility when Judy Bense announced she was stepping down. It had not been a goal for me until then and I did a great deal of soul-searching before applying. Why did you want to become president? I wanted to finish the work I had started. UWF is on am important trajectory with a lot of good things happening. We’re also at a fragile point
term: upgrade campus facilities, establish stronger presence in downtown Pensacola & Fort Walton Beach, stronger partnerships with the state colleges, and increased online programming. You mentioned there are a lot of good things happening for UWF right now-What are some of the biggest wins and for the University in the past few years and how would you like to build off those? We’ve established some programs for which I believe we can be known for. I’ve been in lots of places,
“UWF is on an important trajectory with a lot of good things happening. We’re also at a fragile point in our development. I think I have the ability to get us through the next few years and make us even stronger.” slated to be certainly nationally and even internationally known. I think we were an early adopter in distance learning--30 percent of our learning is online, and I believe we can leverage that to do even more and perhaps extend the reach of the university globally. Northwest Florida is the last part of Florida to truly be developed and there’s room for new industry to come in, plus we have lots of space, with the university in the center of it. I believe the university can be a key element in growing the economic development of this region. What leaders do you look up to or admire? So many come to mind: Diana Natalicio, president of University of Texas at El Paso has inspired me for years. She’s a long-serving president with an incredible understanding of changes in higher education.