KOKOMO, Ind. — An Indiana University Kokomo professor of history is taking on a university leadership role as a regional faculty fellow.
Sarah Heath was appointed to the office by Ken Iwama, vice president for regional campuses and online education. In this role she will collaborate across IU campuses, leading and managing assigned projects, engaging various constituencies to develop and implement solutions to advance the university’s mission, and facilitating responses to issues facing regional campus faculty.
Heath looks forward to meeting faculty across the regional campuses, and representing them to the university.
“I want to contribute in a positive way,” she said. “This is a very challenging time for universities, and schools in general. I want to be involved in what is the most proactive response we can bring to the table that faculty agree is helpful.”
She will continue to be based on the Kokomo campus, and said she will miss teaching. However, she looks forward to using her skills in policy, writing, and collaboration to advance IU’s mission.
“We will be thinking about how regional campuses can contribute to ongoing issues in education,” she said. “The issues come quickly, and we have to figure out how to comply with new laws and do what is best in terms of our own academic training. My task is to represent the interests of the faculty.”
Heath brings skills and insights related to diversity, secondary education, and policy, and has served in leadership roles including chair of the Department of History, Political Science, and Philosophy. She contributed to the early formation of the collaborative online degrees in history and the master’s certificate in history.
She’s also served as vice president and parliamentarian for the Faculty Senate. She contributed to various inter-campus or regional programs as a liaison for secondary schools participating in the Advance College Program, and served on the statewide selection committee for the Faculty Academy on Excellence in Teaching (FACET).
She works actively as a member of the campus and community, and her contributions have been recognized with several awards, including (at IU Kokomo), the Virgil Hunt Faculty Service Award; the Claude Rich Excellence in Teaching Award; the Chancellor’s Diversity Excellence Award, and Trustees Teaching Award. At the university level, Heath has received the IU Bicentennial Medal; the President’s Award for Distinguished Teaching; and the W. George Pinnell Award for Distinguished Service.
Heath joined the faculty in 2008. She earned a Ph.D. and Master of Arts from University of Cincinnati, and a Bachelor of Arts from the College of Wooster in Ohio. She also serves on the Douglass School committee, which is restoring a former Black school as a local Black history museum.
Education is KEY at Indiana University Kokomo.
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