Jessica Harris, PhD, associate professor of historical studies in the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences.EDWARDSVILLE - Southern Illinois University Edwardsville’s Jessica Harris, PhD, associate professor of historical studies in the SIUE College of Arts and Sciences, completed the 2017 Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) Institute at Bryn Mawr College in mid-July. Harris joined 68 women leaders from across the United States to partake in an intensive, residential leadership development program.

“I am extremely grateful to have had the opportunity to participate in the 2017 HERS Institute,” Harris said. “I have returned more confident in my ability to lead, and I look forward to using my new tool-kit of knowledge and skills to advance SIUE’s mission.”

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For more than 40 years, the HERS Institute has prepared women faculty, staff and administrators for leadership roles in higher education. At each of the HERS Institute locations – University of Denver, Bryn Mawr College or Wellesley College – participants gain the knowledge and skills needed to lead change on their campus and positively affect higher education. The participants selected for this year’s cohort represented institutions across the Carnegie Classifications.

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Institute sessions included: Inclusive Excellence and Identity; Managing and Leading Change: Your Role in Re-inventing Higher Education; Reframing Organizational Cultures; Fundraising, Philanthropy and Leadership; and Communications and Negotiation.

Harris joined the SIUE faculty in 2011. In addition to her tenure and promotion to associate professor on July 1, she began a three-year term as director of the Black Studies program. The Office of the Chancellor, and the Office of the Provost and Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs sponsored her participation in the HERS Institute.

About HERS

Higher Education Resource Services is an educational nonprofit providing leadership and management development for women in higher education. Since 1972, HERS has served the higher education community, preparing more than 5,000 women faculty, staff and administrators for leadership roles. The HERS Institute is offered on three campuses – University of Denver, Bryn Mawr College and Wellesley College – and deliberately seeks a diverse group of women leaders to share and learn from their multiple perspectives under the guidance of women faculty from higher education, national organizations, government, and foundations. For more information, contact Suzanne Sable at 720-273-3994 / Sable@du.edu or visit HERSnet.org.

Southern Illinois University Edwardsville provides students with a high quality, affordable education that prepares them for successful careers and lives of purpose to shape a changing world. Built on the foundation of a broad-based liberal education, and enhanced by hands-on research and real-world experiences, the academic preparation SIUE students receive equips them to thrive in the global marketplace and make our communities better places to live. Situated on 2,660 acres of beautiful woodland atop the bluffs overlooking the natural beauty of the Mississippi River’s rich bottomland and only a short drive from downtown St. Louis, the SIUE campus is home to a diverse student body of more than 14,000.

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