After 21 years at Northwestern, current Dean of Faculty Dr. Adrienne Forgette will be leaving to take a new position at San Juan College in Farmington, New Mexico.
Forgette came to NW in 1995 to take the position of Assistant Professor of Psychology.
“This job was God’s provision for me at a very difficult time in my life,” Forgette said. “I interviewed in July, my first trip to Iowa, and four weeks later arrived with two small children. I lived in a house I had not seen in person, sent my older child off to kindergarten and my younger child to a babysitter that I had met over the phone.”
In 2003 Forgette was offered the opportunity to lead the self-study process for the Higher Learning Commission’s 2005 accreditation visit, and from there she gradually moved into administration. In 2004 she took the role of Interim Dean for Assessment and Accreditation and then became the Associate Dean for Academic Affairs in 2006. Then in 2008 she was promoted to Dean of the Faculty.
“In [the role of Dean of the Faculty] I get to work with wonderful people who love students, learning, and serving God through their work,” Forgette said.
On March 21, President Christy announced that Dr. Forgette would be leaving.
“I am grateful for the indelible mark Adrienne will leave on NW both on the institution and in our community,” Christy said.
“As Dean of the Faculty, Adrienne has overseen evaluations of and investments in our curriculum as well as the recruiting, hiring and development of our professors,” Christy said. “She helped cast a vision for the redesign of our core curriculum into an Integrative General Education program and continues to encourage and equip faculty members to ensure the Christian liberal arts remain the foundation of all we teach students.”
In her new role at San Juan College, Forgette will serve as the Associate Vice President for Learning. “San Juan College has about 8,000 students who are very diverse. One of my priorities will be improving the persistence and graduation rates for these students,” Forgette said.
The next few years will bring other changes to the academic administrative structure at NW, with a Vice President for Academic Affairs hired soon and an Assistant or Associate VPAA or perhaps Division Chairs hired later.
“NW used to have a Vice President for Academic Affairs and an associate dean before moving to a provost model,” said Dr. Kim Jongerius, Chair of the VPAA Search Committee. “The provost had responsibility for a larger segment of the campus, not only the academic affairs division. With this change, we will return to having more than one administrator with a primary focus on academics.”
