Departments
Office of Assistant Vice President,
Faculty Diversity
Dr. Freeman joined the staff of ODCE in March, 2009, with the specific charge of increasing faculty diversity. A retired professor, she taught at UTD, at Stephen F. Austin State University, at Northwestern University, at Adelphi University, and most recently at the University of North Texas. She was a research scientist at Haskins Laboratories, an affiliate of Yale U, and at the UTD Callier Center. She was an adjunct professor in both otolaryngology and neurology at Southwestern Medical School, and worked as a consultant at MIT and Bell Labs. As a scientist, Dr. Freeman is best known for her research in the neurophysiological bases of stuttering and the causes and treatment of the mysterious voice disorder, spasmodic dysphonia.
After retirement, Dr. Freeman served for six years as a local pastor in the United Methodist Church. Since her retirement, she has continued to work as a consultant in speech and hearing sciences, and forensic speech science. She has over two hundred professional publications, has held grants from three NIH institutes, and served as a reviewer and consultant for two. She has served as editor, associate editor, or reviewer for most of the journals in her field, and is currently an associate editor for the Journal of Fluency Disorders.
During the 1960s, Dr. Freeman was involved in the Civil Rights Movement in Louisiana, where she participated in the racial integration of the public school system. During the 1970s she was involved in the Women’s Movement in New York City. She has spent her life working with and for the handicapped, and was involved in the drafting and passage of PL94-142, the first federal law requiring comprehensive education for handicapped children.
She accepted the position as Assistant V.P. for Faculty Diversity because of her love for UTD, her respect for the administration and faculty, and her commitment to equality and diversity.
Faculty Diversity aims to support an increase of under-represented minority and women faculty by working with each school in creating special programs and establishing networks outside UT Dallas. It will participate in and contribute to the development and implementation of a formal campus-wide mentoring program to enhance tenure and promotion of members of minority groups as well as improve the climate by developing a campus culture to level the academic playing field, value multicultural diversity, and build community.
University Administration Diversity Goals
- To provide departments with resources for targeting diverse faculty candidates
- To provide assistance to departments resulting in effective recruitment of diverse faculty candidates
- To provide assistance to departments on effective retention of diverse faculty that are hired.
- To promote the idea that diversity enhances the University
- To tie together excellence and diversity as complementary objectives
- Provide the faculty with data and evidence that enhanced diversity can in fact come hand in hand with enhanced excellence.
- Insist that merit and excellence are major criterion in diversity hiring.
- Train our search committee with practices that will rid them of cognitive errors.
- Build networks that identify excellent diversity candidates which are analogous to current networks that identify excellent majority candidates.
- Find respected faculty members who will be advocates for diversity.
- Be sensitive to issues that lead to obstacles to success that may be specific to URMs
- Interventions by Individuals Mentoring
- There is an absolutely critical need for effective mentoring of junior faculty .
- Effective mentors persistently bolster the confidence of their mentees.
- Mentors provide continuous support focused on career advancement of the mentee.
- Mentors insist on regularly scheduled meetings with mentee with emphasis on continuous quality improvement of the mentee.
- Mentors teach mentees how to self promote.
- Mentors teach mentees the unspoken rules of career advancement.
- Mentors demystify the tenure system by explaining how it works.
University Departments - Searching, hiring, and retention of junior faculty
Updated: May 26, 2009
