The Associate Dean for Engagement and Outreach helps establish connections between the faculty, staff, and resources of the College with organizations of the community.  These partnerships are established based on areas of common interest and desire to improve services, address community issues, enhance the quality of life, or add to the economic strength of the community we share.

Outreach activities can bring the knowledge resources and the teaching capabilities of the college to individuals and organizations for the purpose of learning.   These learning activities can be in the form of non-credit personal and professional development, or credit courses that may lead to an academic degree.

Some partnerships may result in faculty conducting research to answer intellectual questions useful to the discipline or field of knowledge.  Such interactions enrich scholarship, contribute to the research discipline(s) and stimulate creative activity.  The partner and the faculty member both benefit from the “discovery” of knowledge.  Such work may be referred to as the Scholarship of Engagement.  Where such activity involves grant funding opportunities, coordination of those activities with the BGSU Sponsored Programs and Research office is provided.

Partnerships can also exist so as to share resources towards a common goal resulting in the benefit to both organizations.  Examples include enhancing curriculum, strengthening civic responsibility, and addressing community issues. The application of the expert knowledge of the faculty and staff of BGSU Firelands through services of professional consulting on individual an organizational needs may grow into a research project.

The Associate Dean is responsible for evaluating the College’s portfolio of academic offerings by comparing them to local, regional, state, and national occupational employment projections.

The Associate Dean for Engagement and Outreach also supervises the activities of Institutional Research, the Caryl Crane Children’s Theatre, Access Programs such as PSEO and Tech Prep and coordinates with the academic departments of the College, Technology Support Services, and the Office of Educational Outreach to support off-campus programs.  The Associate Dean represents BGSU and/or the Dean on various University and community committees.