American College on Education (ACE) president and interim provost Dr. Shawntel Landry leads a nontraditional and unique institution, where women account for 72 percent of administrative or staff roles.
Under Landry’s leadership, ACE continues to demonstrate that women leaders in higher education can simultaneously achieve work-life balance and effectively play a key role in the development of students’ mastery of learning outcomes at their institutions.
“Across students, faculty, staff, our executive team. . . you just don’t see that many women leaders anywhere,” Landry told Diverse in a phone interview. “We have a lot of conversations at ACE about the value of balancing our lives and making sure that if our personal lives are good, our professional lives will be, too.”
ACE primarily serves educators and students completing their degrees go on to serve in the education profession in some aspect. The institution’s officials and faculty members, practicing balance in their own lives, also understand that students will have families, that they may be working full-time and that students will have outside responsibilities.
Instead of leaving students to deal with outside realities such as the loss of a parent or the birth of a child, for example, ACE faculty may say, “‘Let’s get you an incomplete in this course…when can you come back?’ ‘How can we help you so that you still can go to school while you’re dealing with the realities of your life?’” Landry said.
Students have also shared stories of completing online assignments at their child’s soccer games, Landry added. “They’re not missing their life in the middle of it, and that’s what’s so important.”
ACE does not fit the traditional institutional mold as a faculty- or research-centric institution, Landry said, in part, because courses are online. Boasting a student-centric model, the institution focuses on a student’s mastery of their program outcomes as demonstrated in final capstone courses.
