Fielding’s 45th: Call Across the Globe

On March 11, Fielding community members celebrated the 45^th anniversary of the university’s founding with a Call Across the Globe featuring talks by key Fielding leadership.

The call was the second of 45+ Gatherings that are taking place all around the world this year in celebration of Fielding. The first was March 10, graciously hosted by HOD alum Dr. Ilene Wasserman. If anyone would like to host a gathering, from very small to large, contact Alumni Relations Director Hilary Molina at hilarymolina@fielding.edu. As our founder Frederic Hudson often remarked, “Whenever two or more of us are together, we are Fielding — a collection of ideas that matter.”

President Katrina Rogers

President Katrina Rogers welcomed about 80 faculty, students, alumni, staff, and trustees from all over the world, ranging from Shanghai to California, from New York to Florida, from Canada to Copenhagen to India. She spoke of the essential vision of our founders to invent a graduate learning model that spoke to the needs of mid-career professionals to advance themselves intellectually while remaining within their communities and continuing their work.

Designed for working adults, our model endures to this day. As we move ahead, we continue to embody this idea of the scholar-practitioner, in which knowledge serves to advance practice, and likewise, practice informs inquiry and new knowledge creation. Some new program examples include our strategic initiatives in leadership development academies for women in the STEM professions with a focus on women of color, currently housed in Washington, DC, under the direction of Dr. Orlando Taylor, vice president of strategic initiatives and research. President Rogers also called out our newly designed logo, a refresh for the university’s next chapter.

Interim Provost & Senior Vice President Monique Snowden spoke next, offering insight on the following academic topics:

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  Interim Provost Monique Snowden

  Clinical Psychology doctoral (re specialization) program remains the only APA-accredited program of its kind, offered in a hybrid distant format. Our dedicated Clinical Psychology faculty, motivated students, and skilled alumni have evidenced Fielding’s unique capabilities and success with respect to effectively blending online and in-person program delivery. Fielding’s reach and impact in Clinical Psychology is bar none in terms of preparing students who are lauded by site supervisors as some of the best practitioners at sharpening their clinical skills in required practica and internships. In addition to attaining licensure throughout North America, program graduates have secured and completed competitive and prestigious postdoctoral fellowships.

• Human and Organizational Development programs: The multidisciplinary faculty have guided and facilitated the learning of students from around world. In this programmatic space, Juanita Brown’s World Cafe was skillfully conceptualized, Barnett Pierce’s Coordinated Management of Meaning strongly advanced, and Malcolm Knowles’ Andragogy wonderfully embraced. Fielding’s HOD presence is noticeable and notable in the Academy of Management, International Leadership Association, Organization Development Network, and Academy of Gerontology in Higher Education. Our concentrated efforts in the domain of Creative Longevity and Wisdom are bolstered by last year’s acceptance of Fielding into the Age-Friendly University Global Network. HOD alumni from both our doctoral and master’s programs continue to lead, advance and transform corporations and non-profits—including NGOs.
• EdD Education Leadership for Change program: The founding dean and faculty’s understanding of and commitment to educational equality and equity remains a strong characteristic of the program almost 25 years after it launched. The program’s social justice ethos is carried forth by students, alumni, and faculty who have chosen the noble work of being administrators and educators in schools, colleges and universities, and human service organizations. To that end, we are grateful to and proud of our collaboration with the Navajo Nation. In 2018, Fielding was ranked #1 by Diverse Issues in Higher Education for Native Americans who earned an EdD degree. On other fronts, our EdD faculty are among colleagues representing over 100 schools participating in the Carnegie Project on the Education Doctorate. The project is “a critical examination of the doctorate in education through dialog, experimentation, critical feedback, and evaluation.”
• Media Psychology programs: The research and practice of media psychology faculty, students, and alumni reveal and effect “the ways in which cognition, emotion, and instinct … influence human responses to different media stimuli and alter technological impact.” Fielding is a pioneer of the field. We can proudly proclaim that OUR media psychologist are “Creating the Path While Walking It.” You can catch them at “forums such as Media Week, Digital Hollywood, and academic conferences such as tje Pop Culture Association and the American Psychological Association.” On that note, we are proud that a Fielding doctoral program alumna served as President of APA Division 46, Society for Media Psychology & Technology.
• Infant and Early Childhood Development programs: In 2014, Fielding acquired the IECD doctoral program from the Interdisciplinary Council on Development and Learning. That acquisition involved transitioning approximately 60 students and program faculty to Fielding for a teach-out approved by WSCUC, our regional accreditor. We also requested and received approval for IECD to be a new doctoral program offering at Fielding, by which students would earn a multidisciplinary degree with an emphasis in mental health and developmental disabilities. Unlike many infant and early childhood development programs anchored in schools of education, our offerings in this programmatic domain are distinguished by a relationship-based approach that integrates brain development and culture.
• Certificate programs: Fielding’s Postdoctoral certificate in Neuropsychology, Postbaccalaureate Certificate in Clinical Psychology, and Certificate in Evidence Based Coaching have well-complemented our verticals in psychology and HOD. Fielding has experienced solid success in the continuing education space, and we have plans to build our capacity for greater impact and reach.
• And finally, School of Leadership Studies and partnerships: Standing up and developing SLS has multiple purposes, one being the pronouncement of Fielding’s leadership in doctoral education. In addition to the strategic initiatives and extramural funding mentioned by President Rogers, particularly with respect to partnering with Historically Black Colleges and Universities, we are evidencing our faculty’s leadership in providing and supporting collaborative doctoral education. Fielding offers the Organizational Development and Leadership specialization track in the University of the Virgin Islands’ Creative Leadership for Innovation and Change doctoral program — UVI’s first doctorate program. In addition, Fielding offers the Urban Entrepreneurial Leadership concentration in the University of District Columbia’s Urban Leadership & Entrepreneurship program, one of only two UDC doctorate programs, both approved in 2018 for Fall 2019 launches.

Next, the call’s participants were addressed by Fielding’s new Chief Diversity Officer Tomás Leal:

Chief Diversity Officer Tomás Leal

“As we celebrate Fielding’s 45^th Anniversary, I reflect on our past and our historical commitment to social justice and diversity; taking into account the efforts of faculty, students, staff, trustees and administrators over many years. I also acknowledge and am learning more about who and where we are today. As I work with all Fielding constituents to plan our work in diversity, equity and inclusion for the next 45 years and beyond.”

The goals as stated in our Strategic Inclusion Plan are aligned to Fielding’s values:

• Academic Excellence
• Community
• Diversity
• Learner Centered Education
• Social Justice
• Transformational Learning

At a high level, our inclusion goals are:

1. Build an inclusive culture, by intentionally creating a climate of inclusion for all to feel welcomed.
2. Assure the intercultural and global competence of all faculty, administration and staff.
3. Increase the diversity of faculty with targeted recruitment, hiring and retention efforts.
4. Assure the presence of curricula for social/ecological justice and diversity in all programs.
5. Increase diversity of our student body, taking into account the diversity not only in the U.S. but globally as well.

“My task is to continue the great work accomplished by the different Fielding communities, including the Inclusion Council, the Building Inclusion Collaborative (aka as the BIC), and the BIC Fellows, a group of alums who have committed to furthering the D&I work. Also, to work in partnership and in collaboration to execute on actions that will support our vision, mission and strategic goals.

“As the CDO, I will continue to unite our community around Fielding’s commitment to diversity, equity and inclusion. This commitment are fundamental principles of social justice—the very foundation of what makes Fielding great!

“I was honored to participate at the first official 45^th Anniversary event in Philadelphia, hosted by HOD alum Ilene Wasserman at her home. We had a great conversation where we learned about each other’s rich experiences at Fielding, and the work the each alum and faculty are involved in today. I learned a lot and was pleased and honored to be a part of this event. This experience supports my belief that one of the ways to change culture is through our personal stories that connect us and will bring us into the future.”

Later that afternoon, staff members at Fielding’s Santa Barbara office celebrated the university’s anniversary with a rousing round of “Happy Birthday,” balloons, and cake– red velvet, of course, to match Fielding’s brand colors.

Staff members Kai Ellison, Caroline Wedderburn, and Bryan Lopes celebrated Fielding’s 45th birthday on March 11 in Santa Barbara