Overview
The mission of the MAC ALDP is to identify, develop, prepare and advance faculty as academic leaders in the Mid-American Conference universities. The program provides an opportunity for WMU faculty to gain valuable knowledge and experience in academic leadership by working closely with select administrators from other colleges and universities in the MAC.
Key outcomes of the program include:
- Articulate the complexity of the structure and operations within an institution and across institutions;
- Describe the impact of the external influences on the role of leaders in a higher institution. This should include, but is not limited to, federal/state regulations and mandates, accreditation, and community influence;
- Identify best practices in academic leadership;
- Assess one’s own leadership potential, including strengths and weaknesses, and identify leadership pathways;
- Communicate the importance of inclusive excellence.
Up to four outstanding individuals are selected each year to serve as Western Michigan ALDP Fellows under the mentorship of the Office of Faculty Development. The program has three basic, required elements: (i) a university-level development program led by the associate vice president for the selected WMU fellows, (ii) participation in multiple MAC-wide workshops for all program participants that will include up to two in-person meetings on other MAC campuses (as conditions allow), with the remainder to be held virtually; and (iii) completion of a portfolio that documents and allows for reflection of the experience. The workshops will address topics such as conflict resolution, budgeting, accreditation and accountability.
The goal of this program is to expose faculty who are interested in administration and those who have recently moved into an administrative role as chair or associate dean (within the last three years) to the challenges and rewards of institutional service and to prepare them for potential leadership positions within the academy. Whether or not a Fellow ultimately chooses to pursue an administrative position in the future, the program will, at a minimum, provide them with a better appreciation for and understanding of how universities operate.
Selection Process
May 16
application deadline
Academic Deans and the Executive Board of the Faculty Senate are invited to nominate up to two individuals for an ADLP Fellowship. To be eligible, a nominee must be a tenured faculty member. Master Faculty Specialists are eligible. Nominees are expected to possess strong leadership capacities as well as an outstanding record of achievement in their current and past positions, along with an expressed interest in administrative service.
The nomination must take the form of a letter no more than two pages in length that describes the leadership qualities of the nominee and elaborates upon their contributions to the academic department, unit or division. Each nomination should be accompanied by an application completed by the nominee.
Deans and the Executive Board of the Faculty Senate are responsible for getting the following application material to the candidates they select.
The nominating letter and application should be submitted electronically:
The application deadline is May 16, 2026, and decisions will be announced shortly after.
Fellowship Year
Throughout the year, the Fellow will have the opportunity to meet with the other Western Michigan Fellows and the Office of Faculty Development to discuss relevant professional literature and to design a leadership portfolio to be completed during the spring semester. The portfolio will include several leadership artifacts, including leadership philosophy, CV and leadership goals. The goal of the portfolio is to assist the Fellow to reflect and gain insight on their future leadership goals. The MAC-ALDP Liaisons (who are upper level administrators in other MAC institutions) will provide input on the Fellows’ portfolios.
In addition, all Fellows are required to attend the MAC ALDP Workshops scheduled during the year. These workshops are hosted by MAC institutions and will follow a format designed to maximize interaction among the Fellows. Case studies, group discussions and other group activities will be incorporated into the workshops. All expenses for the workshops are covered by either the MAC or WMU.
Questions regarding the Academic Leadership Development Program should be directed to Ramona Lewis, director of the Office for Faculty Development.
MAC ALDP Fellows
Dr. Lisa Coons
Lisa Renée Coons’ preferred labels oscillate from composer to sound artist, from mentor to collaborator. Her recent creative endeavors cross disciplines, media, and vocabularies – but all are based in collaboration and themes of environmentalism, power dynamics, and narrative. She has been fortunate to work with richly-diverse artists, including the International Contemporary Ensemble, Spectral Quartet, Mark DeChiazza, The American Composers Orchestra, Ensemble Dal Niente, Between Feathers, Iktus Percussion Quartet, Dither Electric Guitar Quartet, Illinois Modern Ensemble, Eric KM Clark, Hannah Addario-Berry, the NODES Project, Violin Futura, the Machine Project for the Hammer Museum of Los Angeles and the California E.A.R. Unit. Her recent work, “Five Essays on Caramoor,” was installed on the Caramoor Festival Grounds in the summer of 2025 as part of their permanent collection. She has held fellowships from the Hartt School, MacDowell Colony, Yaddo, and the renowned Other Minds Festival.
Alongside her creative research, teaching and service are essential aspects of Dr. Coons’ professional life, as she strives to constantly learn and evolve alongside her artist-citizen students. As an associate professor of music composition and technology at Western Michigan University, she mentors students at various levels of their artistic development, with widely varying voices and goals, through teaching, collaboration, funding applications, community building, and opportunity creation. She has worked with regional outreach programs like the Grand Rapids Symphony Orchestra Mosaic Scholars program, SEMINAR summer camp for high schoolers, and Portage Public Schools’ Orchestra Program. She has grown through years of service to both Western Michigan University and diverse professional organizations including the Society of Electro-Acoustic Music in the United States, the Society of Composers, Inc., and New Interfaces for Musical Expression, among many others. Dr. Coons was a founding member of the San Francisco-based collective known simply as The Collected. For more information visit lisarcoons.com.
Edward Eckel
Edward Eckel is chair of the University Libraries faculty at Western Michigan University (WMU). From 2006 to 2025, he served as the library liaison to the College of Engineering and Applied Sciences and the College of Aviation at WMU. He has a B.S. degree in biology from Cornell University and a Master’s in Library and Information Science (2001) from Drexel University in Philadelphia. Between professional positions and staff positions, he has 30 years of experience in academic libraries.
His research articles have been published in Science & Technology Libraries, Science and Engineering Ethics, Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship, College and Undergraduate Libraries, Reference and User Services Quarterly, and Internet Reference Services Quarterly.
His research interests have focused on the following areas: plagiarism in engineering writing, undergraduate and graduate student research and citation practices, and the use of social media in libraries. He was the editor-in-chief of the peer-reviewed journal Issues in Science and Technology Librarianship from 2021-2025.
Dr. Kristina Lemmer
Dr. Kristina Lemmer is a full professor at Western Michigan University in the Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department. She is a Presidential Innovation Professor and a Distinguished Faculty Scholar. She participated in the WMU Dream Fellowship to learn about academic leadership in 2021. Her area of research focuses on experimental plasma engineering, especially related to spacecraft propulsion. She serves as the chair of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Electric Propulsion Technical Committee and on the board of directors of the Electric Rocket Propulsion Society. Dr. Lemmer has received many significant federal grants for her research, including the Young Investigator Program grant from the Air Force Office of Scientific Research (AFOSR). In addition to continued funding from AFOSR, she has received funding from NASA, NSF, USSF, and MSGC. She has advised 4 Ph.D. graduates and numerous Master’s graduates. Dr. Lemmer also serves as the faculty mentor for the Western Aerospace Launch Initiative (WALI), a student organization dedicated to designing, building, and testing spacecraft. WALI delivered its first payload for launch integration with a spacecraft bus in July 2025, and the spacecraft is manifested to be launched in February 2026.
Dr. Bianca Nightengale-Lee
Dr. Bianca Nightengale-Lee serves as the Director of the Lewis Walker Institute for Race & Ethnic Relations, as well as interim chair of the Teaching Learning and Educational Studies Department, at Western Michigan University. Her research explores the confluence of race, literacy, and culture, as it relates to socially conscious and humanizing curricular development. With articles published in Multicultural Perspectives, The Journal of Literacy Research, the Oxford Encyclopedia of Research, as well as the Bloomsbury Handbook of Hip Hop Pedagogy, her work examines Afro-Indigenous pedagogical frames that characterize the preservation of liberation, identity, and self-expression for Black and Brown students. Her authentic and humanizing approach has garnered awards from the Journal of Literacy Innovation, The National Council of Teachers of English, The American Association of Colleges of Teacher Education, and the Literacy Research Association. As a critically engaged community scholar, her work nests within academic, school, and community based settings, where she works alongside teachers, community stakeholders and youth to develop pedagogy relative to the lives, and literacies of our most vulnerable student populations.