Supporting Our New Faculty Colleagues
Each year, the Center for Faculty Excellence (CFE) welcomes new faculty to Purdue Northwest through New Faculty Orientation, held in the weeks leading up to the start of the fall semester. Many of you reading this article likely participated in orientation activities yourselves when you began working at PNW and may remember how valuable that time was for learning about campus resources, meeting colleagues, and becoming familiar with the culture and community of PNW.
Unfortunately, this year’s orientation was cut short when a significant storm moved through Northwest Indiana on the morning of August 11, interrupting the second day of programming and requiring us to cancel the rest of the week’s activities. As a result, our newest faculty members missed portions of the experience that previous cohorts have enjoyed. While the CFE plans to reconvene the group in mid-October to provide an overview of the information and connections they may have missed, we hope the broader faculty community will help bridge the gap in the meantime.
As you interact with our new faculty colleagues this semester, we encourage you to remember that they may not have received the same introduction to PNW that many of us did. A warm welcome, a quick check-in, an offer to answer questions, or a willingness to share your own experiences can go a long way. One of the strengths of our university is the generosity and collegiality of our faculty, and this is a wonderful opportunity to help our newest colleagues feel supported, connected, and at home at PNW.
This year’s new faculty are pictured below:
Pictured left to right:
- Tenisha Brewer, Social Work
- Courtney Hardin, English and World Languages
- Arpan Mahara, Computer Information Technology and Graphics
- James Mandeville, Managerial Studies
- Irfan Ganie, Electrical and Computer Engineering
- David Taylor, College of Business
- Meng Guo, Quantitative Business Studies
- Dantavious Hicks, School of Education and Counseling
- Paige Peters, College of Nursing
- Tyamo Okosun, Mechanical and Civil Engineering
- Alice Wong, College of Nursing
- Jenni Guzzo, College of Nursing
- Joyce Kraus, Social Work
- Susie Kinsella, College of Nursing
- Claudia Jaramillo-Barbosa, English and World Languages
- Lamise Shawahin, Psychology
- Shazi Shakil, Biology (not pictured)