Part II: 3. Leadership and Organizational Development

My leadership and organizational development is evidenced by a number of indicators.  

     1.   I have successfully served as the president of the Kenyan Club at Andrews University for the period 2008-2013.  During my tenure, I managed to organize field trips for the club members and their families to the Chicago Aquarium, organized full Sabbath programs a couple of times a year (Kenyan Sabbath programs), conducted annual club elections, and established a working relationship between the club and the Kenyan Embassy in Washington, DC. I was also able to get the Kenyan embassy to bring immigration services into the field at Andrews University where Kenyans in the Midwest United States were able to renew or apply for new passports.  I was able to secure support from the embassy for an ailing Kenyan student.  The embassy provided airline tickets for the student and his son, and an escort back to Kenya, where the student succumbed to illness a week after arriving back in Kenya. 

      Additionally, I was able to arrange for the Kenyan ambassador’s courtesy call on the mayor of St. Joseph, Michigan, as well as  meetings with the Kalamazoo Regional Chamber of Commerce,   mayor of Lansing, Lansing Regional Chamber of Commerce, and    fifty companies that signed up and met with Ambassador H.E. Peter Ogego at the Van Andel arena, during which the ambassador also   made a live radio presentation.  I also arranged for a meeting between the ambassador’s delegation and the health-care providers led by the CEO of Bronson Methodist Hospital and Borgess Hospital.  H.E.  Ambassador Ogego was pleased with what he learned about Seventh-day Adventist higher education, and his daughter subsequently attended and graduated from Andrews University.  Ambassador Ogego was one of the key individuals who laid the foundation stone for Buller Hall.  Read more from the 2010 Focus magazine on page 8: https://www.andrews.edu/library/car/cardigital/Periodicals/Focus_AU/2010/2010_02.pdf 

      

      My leadership and organization development growth is also demonstrated by the roles I have played in other entities.  For example, 

      2.  I have successfully served as a PMC nominating sub-committee chair for several years.

      3.  I have and continue to serve at PMC as the assistant general Sabbath School superintendent.

      4.  I have served and continue to serve as the secretary of AHSRA, as described previously in this portfolio. 

      5.  I am currently working as the Research Integrity and Compliance Officer for the university, where my leadership and organizational skills have helped to make IRB more user-friendly.

        

Some of the courses I have taken in the PhD program have equipped me with the capacity and ability to show leadership and organizational growth. 

Resource development (human and financial)

Higher education administration appropriately develops, allocates, and manages human financial resources for promoting change and fostering healthy and strategic outcomes.  I gained knowledge from taking the following courses:

EDAL 635 Human Resources Administration:  I gained knowledge in how to reviews personnel services; policy for certified and noncertified employees; personnel functions in education; the interpersonal process in educational organizations, communications, and group dynamics for educational administrators.

EDAL 645 Educational Finance & Marketing: This course focused on financial and economic issues affecting educational institutions, including school support, costs of education, and sources of revenue, budgeting, and the organization and maintenance of the fiscal and physical resources of educational systems.   

Legal and policy issues

Higher education administration applies and understands the scope of legal and policy structure appropriate for this field.  The course EDAL 640 Higher Education Law focused on the legal aspects of the administration of higher education institutions, as well as policy issues related to student rights, intellectual property, academic freedom, admissions, employee relations, and property use.  Higher education institutions operate within a legal environment, and as result, it is important for leaders to be knowledgeable about how laws affect the institution. 

Organizational behavior, development, and culture

Higher education administration understands personal, group, and inter-group behaviors, and how they impact organizational history, needs, and goals.  I learned a great deal form taking the following courses

EDAL 674 Administration of Student Service: This course influenced my choice of my dissertation topic.  It provided me with an overview of student services in higher education and its historical and philosophical foundations, guiding theories, and professional practices. It also focused on administrative structures and processes, and the organization of student services programs in the context of contemporary issues and trends.

The course EDAL 675 College Student Development Theory like the EDAL 674, also influenced my choice of dissertation topic.  In this course I was able to explore the characteristics of college students and the theories of growth and development for traditional and non-traditional students. Emphasis was placed on understanding the immediate and long-term impact of a college experience.

EDAL 570 Principles of Educational Supervision, gave me opportunity to understand leadership in K-12.  This course was designed for principals, superintendents, and instructional supervisors concerned with the improvement of teaching and learning by professional supervision; the role, aims, principles, and practices of instructional supervision; introductory study of supervisory techniques.  In the end I was really happy I took the course.  The professor’s practical experiences which he willingly shared were very informative and engaging.