The Civic Engagement Cluster:
A Case Study of Building Interorganizational Collaboration

Appendix G - Dr. Liesa Stamm's Introductory Letter to KFHET Members

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To my new colleagues:

I am eager to join you in working with various aspects of the Kellogg Forum on Higher Education Transformation. I look forward to learning more about the various KFHET initiatives and to working with NERCHE and the Cluster Project Advisory Board to begin implementing the Civic Engagement Cluster project. I thought it would be useful to provide you with information on my background in higher education and specifically in institutional change.

My "professional journey" began as an anthropologist. I taught in the Department of Anthropology at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee, as well as in the University's International Relations program for which I developed a course on social change utilizing ethnographic film. I initially studied anthropology at Bryn Mawr College and did my doctoral work at the University of Illinois. My areas of specialization include Middle Eastern and North African Culture and the Culture of Islam. I did field research in Tunisia where I focused specifically in documenting and analyzing women's roles. Based on this research I developed a theoretical approach to understanding women in traditional societies which I have termed Women's Domestic Power. I also conducted several field research projects focused on social change and on traditional and changing health care practices. These studies were conducted on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota and in rural Mississippi.

For a number of years my professional focus has emphasized promoting and maintaining quality higher education through my position in the Academic Affairs Division of the Connecticut Department of Higher Education. Most specifically related to the KFHET initiatives is the leadership I have brought to facilitating multi-institutional task forces and advisory groups focused on developing recommendations for curricular and institutional policy changes. I have managed the work of multi-institutional groups, for example, in developing statewide plans for the articulation of associate degree and baccalaureate degree programs in nursing education and in early childhood education. Centered on the theme of "Making Teacher Education a Whole University Responsibility," I worked with these institutions to develop leadership teams which included representatives of education, arts and sciences faculty and administrators. I also convened and facilitated several statewide task forces comprised of the institutional leadership teams to begin the development of recommendations and guidelines for restructuring curriculum, teaching and institutional policies and procedures to better support interdisciplinary collaboration. I brought to this initiative my own long-time experience in interdisciplinary collaboration in teaching, research and publications.

My work in promoting multi-institutional change in Connecticut through these and other initiatives reflects my commitment to better utilizing the expertise of higher education in addressing issues of societal concern. As a representative of higher education with a number of state planning and policy development initiatives, I have had an opportunity to both involve institutions of higher education more actively in improving conditions for citizens of Connecticut, and to encourage institutional changes in the preparation of professionals to work more effectively with the diverse populations which they serve.

I look forward to meeting you to learn more about your own individual involvement in higher education and institutional transformation.

Managing Institutional Change and Transformation

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