College of Education and Health Professions Celebrates Launch of WE CARE Strategic Plan

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The College of Education and Health Professions leadership team with Dean Kate Mamiseishvili (center).

The College of Education and Health Professions celebrated the launch of its WE CARE strategic plan at an all-college faculty and staff event on Aug. 18.

The strategic plan's central vision is bold: We lead with care. "The College of Education and Health Professions is uniquely poised to find synergies across its diverse programs and advance growth and innovation in education and healthcare," said Dean Kate Mamiseishvili. "The WE CARE strategic plan will propel our college to increased national prominence and greater impact in Arkansas."

WE CARE is an acronym for Wellness and Education Commitment to Arkansas Excellence. Three WE CARE priorities — Caring Culture, Impactful Research and Service to Arkansas — will guide the five-year strategic plan.

The leadership team unveiled the strategic plan website that provides information about nine goals and 27 strategies that the college will focus on to advance the priorities. The website also includes key action items that will be activated in the first year. Among them are:

• Healthy Schools Cluster Hire: To promote collaboration across its education and health programs and maximize learning and health in schools, the college is seeking outstanding candidates for five tenure-track faculty positions who are committed to advancing research in the signature research area of "healthy schools" and representing the following fields: counseling, educational leadership, nursing, exercise science and special education.
• WE CARE Speaker Series: To promote a culture of research excellence, the college will host lectures from prominent scholars with broad appeal across education and health. The WE CARE speaker series will launch on Oct. 5 with a talk from Dr. Cheryl Matius from the University of San Diego about "Birthing the Motherscholar: Research, Theory, and Practice."
• WE CARE-A-VAN Tours: To strengthen connections with partners in Arkansas, the WE CARE-A-VAN tours will include various visits to schools, clinics, stakeholders and alumni across the state. The first WE CARE-A-VAN tour is planned for Sept. 28-29.

The college will also continue to sustain action items that were launched last year and have already gained support among faculty and staff. Among them are summer research fellowships, annual writing retreats, Team Up for Education and Health Funds, and Student Field Experience Funds. The college will continue to refine the action items, evaluate the metrics and identify new actions to advance the priorities, goals and strategies.

"The success of our actions is vitally important to improve Arkansas' education and health outcomes and care for our students, faculty, staff and communities," Mamiseishvili said. "These are exciting times for the College of Education and Health Professions. We are committed to advancing impactful research, fostering a caring culture, providing transformative educational opportunities for our students and expanding service to Arkansas."