CWU Dean of Graduate Studies selected for national leadership program

In the ever-shifting landscape of higher education, keeping leadership abreast of evolving best practices is key to staying mobile and adaptive as a university.

To this end, members of the senior leadership team at Central Washington University regularly engage in professional development opportunities. This year, CWU Dean of Graduate Studies, Research and Strategic Initiatives Rodrigo Renteria-Valencia was selected for the Becoming a Provost Program (BAPA), which kicked off in June with a two-day, 37-member-cohort gathering in Washington, D.C.

The Becoming A Provost Academy (BAPA) is a national program that delivers insight into university management from the perspective of a provost through a year-long series of virtual and presential seminars. The program is co-led by the American Association of State Colleges and Universities (AASCU), and the Academic Leadership Institute (ALI).

The convening saw Renteria-Valencia forming connections with colleagues from across the country in an effort to gain perspective on the hurdles facing universities everywhere.

“I’m pretty excited to be a part of this,” he said. “It has already been extremely productive to tap into the national understanding of the challenges that higher education is experiencing and how that reflects on the job of a provost.”

Renteria-Valencia’s nomination for the program was supported by CWU Provost Patrick Pease, a requirement for acceptance into the cohort.

“President Wohlpart and Provost Pease are adamant in sustaining and supporting professional development for their teams, which has been a hallmark of their tenures,” he explained. “That’s what made this a real possibility for me.”

Since joining CWU in 2015 as an Anthropology lecturer, Renteria-Valencia’s time in Ellensburg has been marked by a hunger for service and an eagerness to affect positive change on an institutional level. In his resulting familiarity with senior members of the university’s administration, he realized that his work to better the institution meant he would eventually join their ranks.

“In all those foundational years as faculty here, I constantly interacted with senior leadership, especially through my service work,” Renteria-Valencia said. “In that context, the possibility of a shift towards senior leadership became more obvious to me based on that understanding of leadership as a form of service.”

In the coming year, Renteria-Valencia will deeply engage with key leadership from a whole host of universities, with the ultimate goal of fostering a provost-level perspective on the operations of a university as a whole.

“As with any learning opportunity that lets us join national conversations, the networking is the most important aspect of this experience,” he said. “It’s the most meaningful way to learn other strategies, challenges, and approaches while comparing notes with colleagues who have faced them before. When you’re intentional about learning from others, you can bring that insight to your own institution.”

The experience will culminate in another in-person gathering next summer at the annual AASCU conference, where the cohort will present the results of their work over the year and pull together all the disparate lessons they’ve learned through their interactions with one another.

Renteria-Valencia knows that this multi-faceted, holistic approach to fostering innovation will help him better navigate the road ahead in his current position as dean of strategic initiatives and co-facilitator for the Adaptative University Framework.

“The pressures that higher education is experiencing is bringing new elements to the role of a provost, where innovation plays a critical dimension,” he said. “Thus, along with innovation, academic and inclusive excellence are the three dynamic pillars that currently organize the position of a provost—all of which align very closely to my own role as a dean.”

Renteria-Valencia is the second member of the CWU administration to go through the BAPA program, following in the footsteps of Interim Associate Vice President for Faculty Success Elvin Delgado. As the world continues to change, Renteria-Valencia sees this continuous development of CWU leadership as a vital component to student success.

“As provosts, as vice presidents, as deans, we are constantly learning national standards and practices to better situate our own reality within a larger ecosystem,” he said. “Opportunities like the Becoming a Provost Academy are fundamental in better serving our university and our students.”