UNH Today

The provost’s office welcomes Kerry Johnson to the University of New Hampshire for the 2014-2015 academic year. A professor and associate dean of the School of Liberal Arts at Merrimack College in North Andover, Mass., Johnson is visiting UNH as an American Council on Education (ACE) Fellow.

The ACE Fellows program was established in 1965 to build leadership in American higher education by preparing promising senior faculty and administrators for senior roles. ACE Fellows spend a period of time at a host campus working with senior administrators on an issue of concern to the institution.

At UNH, Johnson will work with Provost Lisa MacFarlane to update the university’s strategic plan. “I’m happy to be working with the provost while she engages the campus community in this effort,” Johnson says.

Johnson says she chose UNH as her host institution for the chance to see how the many different parts of a public university—such as research, foundations, community relations, unions, and faculty senate—fit together on a day-to-day and long-term basis. In addition, “I will be able to see how UNH functions within the state university system, and UNH’s new law school and the Manchester campus will allow me to learn about the challenges of expansion and the management of branch campuses,” Johnson says.

“We’re truly delighted to welcome Professor Johnson to UNH for the year,” says MacFarlane. “The ACE Fellows program is one of the premiere programs of its kind in the country. Kerry’s experience at Merrimack will contribute much to our work over the next year, and her interest in fostering the liberal arts makes her an excellent fit for UNH. We are all looking forward to working with her.”

Aside from her work on the UNH strategic plan, Johnson will conduct some information gathering for projects she has underway at Merrimack, including an exploration into “the meaning and contours of liberal arts in the twenty-first century” and the creation of a social justice major. “UNH has a number of centers and programs that will contribute significantly to my thinking on these projects, including the Center for the Humanities and Justiceworks,” Johnson says. “I hope to visit with faculty and administrators who are involved with these initiatives and to learn as much as I can during my time at UNH.”

Nearly 2,000 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE fellows Program since its inception, with more than 300 fellows having gone on to serve as chief executive officers of colleges and universities and more than 1,300 having served as provosts, vice presidents or deans.