Pat Folsom, University of Iowa, Iowa City, IA

Past Involvement in NACADA:

Years in NACADA: 13 years

National Offices Held and Accomplishments Achieved While in Office:

Regional Activities/Offices Held, including accomplishments achieved while in office:

• Hosted Spring 2006 Region 6 conference — Participated on planning committee; read conference proposals.  

Committee/Task Force/Advisory Board Activities and Accomplishments:

Commission/Interest Group Activities and Accomplishments:

• Current Member — Advisor Training and Development Commission (Conference Proposal Committee member), Advising Administration Commission (read conference proposals for Fall 2006 national), Assessment of Advising Commission, High School to College Advising Interest Group

Other:

• Presenter, NACADA Region 6 Conference, Iowa City, 2006
  • "Creating a Blueprint for Your First Year of Advising and Beyond" Pre-conference Workshop — Pat Folsom, Jennifer Joslin, Frank Yoder
• "IowaLink: A Team Approach to Retaining At-Risk Students" Concurrent Session — Pat Folsom, Brian Corkery
• Presenter, National Resource Center for the First-Year Experience and Students in Transition, First Year Experience national conference, February 2006, Atlanta
  • "Creating a First Year Experience Course from Scratch" — Pat Folsom, Brian Corkery, Andrew Cinoman
• Presenter, 2005 NACADA National Conference, Las Vegas
  • "Creating a Blueprint for Your First Year of Advising and Beyond" Pre-conference Workshop — Pat Folsom, Jennifer Joslin, Frank Yoder
• Presenter, 2004 NACADA National Conference, Cincinnati
  • "Creating a Blueprint for Your First Year of Advising and Beyond" Pre-conference Workshop — Pat Folsom, Jennifer Joslin, Frank Yoder
  • "The ABC's of Academic Recovery: Attitude, Behavior, Consistency" Concurrent Session — Brian Corkery, Pat Folsom, Jim McGreevey, Frank Yoder
• Presenter, 2003 NACADA National Conference, Dallas
  • "A Semester on the Brink: An Initiative for First-Year Students on Academic Probation." Concurrent Session — Brian Corkery, Pat Folsom, Jim McGreevey, Frank Yoder
• Presenter, 2002 NACADA National Conference, Salt Lake City
  • "Developing Emergency Procedures for Your Advising Center" Concurrent Session — Pat Folsom, Jennifer Joslin, Ginger Russell

• Publications
  • 2006, Pat Folsom, Editor. The New Advisor Guidebook: Mastering the Art of Academic Advising Through the First Year & Beyond (monograph). Manhattan, Kansas: NACADA, 2006 (in production).
  • 2005, Folsom, Pat, Joslin, Jennifer, & Yoder, Frank. (2005). From advisor training to advisor development: Creating a blueprint for first-year advisors. NACADA Clearinghouse of Academic Advising Resources Web site.
  • 2003, Pat Folsom and Jennifer Joslin, "Exemplary Practice" for Ongoing Advisor Training, in Advisor Training: exemplary Practices in the Development of Advisor Skills, Manhattan, Kansas: NACADA, 2003.

Platform Statement:

• Highlight your previous involvement within this unit that will help you in leading this unit. What roles have you played within this particular unit as a member thus far?  

As a current member of the Advisor Training Commission, I attend and participate in commission meetings at the national level and participate on the Conference Proposal Review Committee. I would bring to the Commission extensive experience in advisor training and development at the institutional level as well as leadership on advisor training and development within NACADA. I have served at the Academic Advising Center at the University of Iowa for 25 years, first as an advisor, then as Assistant Director and now, as Director. As an advisor, I trained new advisors and as Assistant Director, I was responsible for ongoing advisor development.

As Director, I have focused on sharing the practice-based knowledge I have gained about advisor training and development with NACADA colleagues. Our Center's advisor development program was cited as an exemplary practice for ongoing training in the NACADA monograph, Advisor Training: Exemplary Practices in the Development of Advisor Skills. For the past three years, Center colleagues and I have offered a pre-conference workshop, "Creating a Blueprint for the First Year of Your Advising and Beyond," a workshop specifically designed for advisors new to the profession. And this past year, I have served as Editor of a soon-to-be published NACADA monograph, The Guidebook for new Advisors: Mastering the Art of Academic Advising through the First Year and Beyond. The monograph provides a practice-based road map for new advisor development designed for advisors new to the profession and the people who train them.

Through these experiences I have met and worked with new professional and faculty advisors from all over the country, every institutional type and advising setting and have had the honor of working with NACADA colleagues with extensive expertise in training new advisors. I also have gained a deeper understanding of the developmental needs of new advisors and expanded my knowledge about creating and implementing advisor training and development programs. I would welcome the opportunity to further facilitate advisor training and development as chair of this commission.

• What do you believe are the most important goals and initiatives for this unit in meeting the strategic plan for both the unit and the Association?

The most important goals for the Advisor Training and Development Commission are to 1) encourage the development of strong advisor training and development programs at all of the institutions represented in our membership and 2) provide support and resources to assist administrators and trainers who seek to create advisor training and development programs or to improve their current programs.

We have been fortunate to have had strong leadership and active member participation in this commission. NACADA and Commission initiatives like Advisor Training: Exemplary Practices in the Development of Advisor Skills (Monograph #9), the advisor training video and most recently, "Ask a Colleague" have moved us toward these goals in significant and substantial ways. So, first, if elected as chair, I would continue to support these initiatives, including promoting increased participation in the "Ask a Colleague" program.

In addition, I think it is important for NACADA to recognize that advisor training and development is a critical issue facing advising (Mission 1, Strategy 1-A in the Commission's goals). For the upcoming monograph, The New Advisor Guidebook: Mastering the Art of Academic Advising through the First Year & Beyond, we surveyed NACADA members with three years of experience or less. Of those who responded, only a small percentage had received any formal training. When we have polled participants in our pre-conference workshop for new advisors, we receive similar responses-that participants have had little or no formal training. The quality of advising is at stake. Advisor training creates advisors who provide a high level of service to students and their institutions; ongoing development ensures that the quality of advising remains high and that advisors remain fresh and energized. We must facilitate the integration of training and ongoing development into advising positions and advising programs.

Because advisor training and development are issues of concern to virtually every other commission, I also would be interested in exploring potential relationships with other commissions and interest groups. The New Advising Professionals Interest Group might be a good place to start. As a commission, for example, we might seek their advice on new training and development initiatives. Or, we could consider adding a "Help" section to the Advisor Training and Development site to which new advisors could seek answers to their questions. It could be linked through their listserve or web site. More broadly, I could imagine a "topic of the month" focused on training for student populations represented in other commission groups.

These are just a few thoughts that come to mind as I ponder possible initiatives for the Commission. Most importantly, I would want to canvas our commission membership for ideas about new initiatives. I have learned through my participation in commission meetings as well as from my experience with the upcoming monograph that members of our commission are dynamic and creative folks. I would truly enjoy hearing ideas for "next steps" as a commission.

• Why are you interested in serving in this leadership position or what influenced you to run for this leadership position? 

I have had a deep and longstanding interest in advisor training and development; as I noted in question #1, a good portion of my career in advising has been devoted to advisor development. Also, as a result of conducting the pre-conference workshop these past three years, I have gained greater insights into the training needs of new advisors as well as a greater sense of urgency about the need to expand training for new advisors. And through my work on the upcoming monograph, I've gained a great respect for existing innovative training approaches and programs. I have always believed that it is important to "make a difference" in whatever I do. Bottom line, I think this commission offers a terrific venue for making a difference in the lives of trainers, new advisors and ultimately the students they advise.

• Provide any additional comments or information (either personal or leadership-related) that you want potential voters to know about you that is not covered elsewhere in your platform information.