By Amanda Mlekush
The Beaver College of Health Sciences has unveiled its new five-year strategic plan designed to guide the mission, vision, values and strategic actions of the college from 2023-2028. The plan is available online on the college’s website.
The process to create a new strategic plan, which builds off the strategy of Appalachian State University’s five-year plan, was a collaborative one that involved listening to the ideas of faculty, staff and students, said Dean Marie Huff, PhD.
“It is only fitting that we listened to the ideas and suggestions of our faculty, staff and students to chart the college’s strategic direction for the next five years,” said Dean Huff, who led a number of the listening sessions held to stimulate discussion. “Our key stakeholders were instrumental during this process and will ensure that we meet our goals and aspirations of our new strategic plan.”
In addition to creating the strategic plan, the college also analyzed and tweaked its mission, vision and values to reflect its evolution.
“We streamlined some of our values based on feedback from our faculty, staff and students,” said Huff. “Through this process, it became clear that some values shared some of the same characteristics or had become less aspirational as we have grown and matured as a college. One new value, advocacy, really speaks to who we are and what we try to do on behalf of those we are working with.”
In addition to several general listening sessions open to anyone in the college, the strategic planning committee, organized by Dr. Lauren Renkert from Social Work, included five committees organized by strategic priorities.
The subcommittees included:
Strategic Priority 1 Providing Exceptional Educational Experiences
Chaired by Associate Dean Denise Levy, PhD; joined by committee members Enid Aguirre, Carole Greene, Amanda Hege, Dr. Daniel Theriault
Strategic Priority 2 Advancing Research Innovation and Creativity
Chaired by Associate Dean Gary McCullough, PhD; joined by committee members Dr. Dana Brackney, Dr. Laura Chapman, Dr. Martie Thompson
Strategic Priority 3 Advancing Local, Regional and Global Engagement
Chaired by Dr. Adam Hege; joined by committee members Dr. Tammy Haley, Amanda Mlekush, Jennifer Perry Brown, Dr. Jennifer Womack
Strategic Priority 4 Advancing Diversity, Equity and Inclusion
Chaired by Jessica Guggenheimer; joined by committee members Dr. Jordan Hazelwood, Dr. Marco Meucci, Dusty Roberts, Jony Apolinar Soriano
Strategic Priority 5 Investing In Faculty and Staff Excellence
Chaired by Dr. Ben Sibley; joined by committee members Dr. Susan Lane, Steff McDaniel, Dr. Ashley Parks, Lynn van Ess
Strategic Priority 6 Resilience Resilience and Sustainability
Chaired by Dr. Lauren Renkert; joined by committee members Dr. Ashley Goodman, Lainey Hunnicutt, Dr. Becki Turpin
For the college, the next step is putting the new strategic plan into action. Toward that end, volunteers are participating in the strategic priority areas to map out action plans.
“Now that it is approved, our strategic plan allows us to create opportunities for our college to continue improving in the ways we train our students and serve our communities,” said Huff. “I’m looking forward to seeing what the next five years will bring.”
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