Delene named vice provost, will oversee planning
June 1, 2001
KALAMAZOO -- Dr. Linda M. Delene, a longtime faculty member and veteran planning and marketing specialist, has been named vice provost for academic planning and assessment at Western Michigan University.
Her appointment, effective Feb. 5, was approved May 30 by the WMU Board of Trustees. In her new position, Delene will provide organizational assistance for academic program reviews and will have responsibility for general education and program assessments, academic program planning, and marketing studies for new initiatives and degree programs.
"Dr. Delene brings to this post a wealth of experience in higher education planning and marketing," says Dr. Fredrick Dobney, WMU provost and vice president for academic affairs. "She is ideally suited to help the University plan for new initiatives and move forward with our commitment to enhance program evaluation. She will play a key role in enhancing our academic strategic plan, as well as provide leadership in the area of student learning outcomes assessment."
Delene, who first joined the WMU faculty as an associate professor
of marketing in 1977, has been a professor of marketing and director
of WMU's Service Quality Institute since 1990. She also served
from 1996 to 1998 as project director for the Haworth College
of Business's successful re-accreditation effort. From 1998 to
February 2001, she served as assistant to the provost for strategic
planning and, in that capacity, oversaw the University's preparation
for its successful
2000-01 North Central Association re-accreditation review.
Delene has been active in WMU governance at the department, college and University levels, serving in such positions as president of the Faculty Senate, and chairperson of the Haworth College of Business Curriculum Committee and its E-Business Task Force. She is a recipient of the WMU Alumni Association's Teaching Excellence Award and, in 1988, received a Distinguished Faculty Award from the Michigan Association of Governing Boards.
Delene's work on such topics as marketing and service quality in health care, higher education and public utilities has been widely published in professional journals and presented nationally and internationally at professional conferences. Since 1995, she also has served on the editorial review board for the Journal of Marketing for Higher Education.
Prior to joining the WMU faculty, Delene held research and planning positions at Kalamazoo College, Oberlin College in Ohio and Detroit's Marygrove College. She also has worked as an information systems specialist for the University of Michigan and for the U.S. Department of Defense's National Security Agency.
She earned a bachelor's degree from the University of Michigan in 1964, an MBA from the University of Hawaii in 1968 and a doctoral degree in higher education administration in 1974.
Media contact: Cheryl Roland, 616 387-8400, cheryl.roland@wmich.edu