Florida Tech Hosts ACE Fellow

Associate Professor from TCU Spends Academic Year on Campus 

MELBOURNE, FLA. — Joddy Murray, an associate professor at Texas Christian University, is spending the 2014-15 academic year at Florida Institute of Technology as a Fellow of the American Council on Education.

The prestigious ACE Fellows Program, established in 1965, is designed to strengthen institutional capacity and build leadership in American higher education by identifying and preparing promising senior faculty and administrators for responsible positions in college and university administration.

Murray said he is eager to grow as a leader.

“Certainly, the opportunity to learn from one of the top 200 universities in the world makes Florida Tech an ideal place for me to gain administrative and leadership skills,” Murray said. “I’m fortunate to be able to work on specific projects beneficial to FIT, as well as gain some general leadership experience commensurate with my particular goals for my fellowship year. Most of all, I have been made to feel welcome as part of the Florida Tech team, and I am extremely grateful for that.”

Murray was nominated by TCU Chancellor Victor Boschini. His selection of Florida Tech as his host institution is a testament to the university, agreed Margarita Benítez, interim assistant vice president of ACE’s Emerging Leaders Group and the ACE Fellows Program.

“Selection as a host institution is a sign of the outstanding reputation and commitment to excellence at Florida Tech,” she said. “An ACE Fellow chooses an institution for its rigorous academic environment, high-quality efforts to educate students, and willingness to invest in the future of higher education senior leadership.”

Established in 1965, the ACE Fellows Program—the longest running leadership development program in the United States—focuses on identifying and preparing the next generation of senior leadership for the nation’s colleges and universities. It combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, visits to campuses and other higher education-related organizations, and placement at another higher education institution, to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single year.

Murray will work with the top officers at Florida Tech. He is interested in learning about leadership, internationalization and “the broader experiences students have outside of the regular curriculum,” he wrote in his ACE Fellows Statement of Interest.

“We are very pleased that Dr. Murray selected Florid Tech as his host institution,” said Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer T. Dwayne McCay. “Our dedication to leadership and our programs are both of the highest caliber, and we are confident that he will spend his time here engaged and depart with improved skills and knowledge that will make him an even more successful academic leader.”

Nearly 2,000 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program since its inception, with more than 300 having served as chief executive officers of colleges or universities and more than 1,300 having served as provosts, vice presidents and deans.

This year, 30 emerging college and university leaders earned ACE fellowships.

###