Numerous new faculty and staff additions and changes have taken place at Union in recent months. 35 new faculty and staff members have joined Union and seven employees have changed job titles in the past three months alone, a significant increase at Union from previous years.
John Carbonell, associate vice president for human resources, said that one major reason for the increase in new faculty and staff is the need to fill a number of retirements that have occurred over the last year. Filling other positions had also been held off for financial reasons.
Although the quantity of employees has increased, quality has not been sacrificed. Carbonell said that Union has a selective hiring process, with a selection committee of three or more people on staff participating in the selection process.
“We really look at three things: the education that the person has already received, their professional experience and then their commitment to the type of Christian worldview that we want them to incorporate in their teaching for faculty or in their work for staff,” Carbonell said. “We look at those three things within the whole person.”
Carbonell also pointed out the significant increase in employee diversity, pointing to the 15 new faculty who have joined Union since January.
“I think we achieved more diversity in this last group,” Carbonell said. “A third of them are people of color. Eight of the 15 are women. We want to continue to work in that direction.”
Since January, Union has hired new faculty from a wide range of academic fields, including Dr. John Foubert as the new dean of education, Dr. John Kinchen as the chair of the department of music and Dr. Micah Fern as an assistant professor of biology. Carbonell said that the major qualities that new faculty members share are real-world experience and Union’s mission statement and commitment to integrate faith and learning.
Kinchen, who was the assistant dean for the center of music and worship at Liberty University, is able to integrate worship into the formal study of music. Fern, who comes from north Florida, has experience working at the U.S. Department of Agriculture as a wildlife specialist. Dr. Linda Campbell, an associate professor in the department of education on the Germantown campus and an alumni of Union, has a “well-rounded level of professional experience” as an assistant principal, a principal and an administrator at the Tennessee Department of Education.
Stephen Neu, coordinator for service and mobilization in the Office of University Ministries, graduated from Union in May and joined the staff in August. Having served as a student employee in the OUM before graduation, Neu is one of the more familiar faces among the new employees.
“The transition from student to staff has been interesting but manageable,” Neu said. “I think I was pretty nervous about coming in to having my first real job and having just no idea what I was going to be doing. But because I worked with the OUM before and knew the people I’d be working with and I really enjoy what I’m doing, it wasn’t quite as threatening as I actually thought it was going to be. The office has done a really good job of kind of helping that transition. They’re really gracious as far as understanding that I’m still learning, that this is all still a really new process for me. They’re really gracious in what they say to me and how they’ve approached me and what we’ve talked about.”
In addition to new faculty and staff, the following employees received new titles over the past three months. On Aug. 1, Renee Anderson received the title of director for simulation and interprofessional development and assistant professor. On Sept. 1, Ken Litscher received the title of dean of student life/director for residence life, Mary Milton received the title of residence life coordinator and Rebecca Edgren received a title change to program coordinator. On Oct. 1, Julie Bradfield received the official title of senior director for University Ministries and Chris Rowland received the title of academic secretary. On Oct. 19, Tanya Enfinger received a title change to housekeeping- day shift.
A full listing of faculty and staff additions in the past three months can be found here.
