Donna Dickson Named Director of Faculty Success

Donna Dickson has been selected as the new Rochester Institute of Technology director of faculty success, reporting to RIT Associate Provost, Lynn Wild. In her new role, Dickson will support faculty scholarship and professional development, ranging from preparation for tenure review to preparing research for publication. She will begin her new position March 8.

“I’ll be collaborating with the staff of the Wallace Center to provide more centralized services for all faculty toward teaching and student success. We’ll break the mold in how faculty are supported in the university environment,” she says. The Wallace Center consists of the university’s library and academic services including online learning, academic technology, media production, faculty teaching, scholarship and support functions.

Dickson served as assistant professor in the human resource development master’s program in the RIT College of Applied Science and Technology since 2003. Prior to this, she was the assistant director of part-time studies at the university and taught at RIT on an adjunct basis. She has been with RIT since the early 1980s, working in the offices of development and cooperative education and placement. She has presented at international conferences on topics related to human capital management and employee engagement and has been nominated multiple times for excellence in teaching at RIT.

“I am delighted Professor Dickson is joining the Wallace Center team,” says Wild. “Donna is an outstanding teacher and scholar. Her expertise and experience in leadership and human resource development make her a natural fit for this position. As director of faculty success, Donna will help us achieve our goal of creating a national model for faculty success at RIT.”

Dickson, a Brighton resident, is also a business consultant. Through her consulting practice, WorkSmart Learning Systems, which has partners in Australia and South Africa, she has collaborated with global corporations such as Xerox Corp., Eastman Kodak Co. and GetingeUSA. She provides consulting support to a variety of organizations, with services that include culture audits, process improvements and workforce planning.

“I’ll be able to leverage what I learned in the area of employee development as a consultant working in multiple industries and apply it to this new position,” she says.

Some areas she will focus on include the development of mobile applications and online tools to increase student awareness related to information literacy, preventing plagiarism and enhancing student innovation.