As of Aug. 1, Sarah de Swart is director of the Faculty Development Center. She joined University Center for Innovation in Teaching and Education (UCITE) in 2001, first as an assistant director, before becoming associate director and, most recently, interim director.
“We are especially pleased that Dr. de Swart has agreed to lead the Faculty Development Center as she has immense expertise and experience with our faculty and will be able to integrate a number of programs from UCITE into her new position,” said Lynn Singer, deputy provost and vice president for academic affairs.
In her new role as director of faculty development, de Swart will continue to be engaged with faculty, designing and implementing programs around the concepts of skills development and mentorship. Some faculty-development programs formerly housed in UCITE (such as the Senior Leadership event, New Faculty Orientation, and the Mentor Fellows program), now will become part of the Faculty Development Office, and will join already established programs, such as To Tenure and Beyond, the Provost Leadership Retreat, and the NSF CAREER Grant Writing program.
Going forward, UCITE plans to focus primarily on programs related directly to teaching and learning.
She has been an integral part of the Learning Fellows, Mentor Fellows and Glennan Fellows programs, as well as leading numerous university teaching and learning sessions. In addition, she (in partnership with William Doll), has taught more than 350 presentation skills workshops across the campus in the past seven years.
De Swart is an organizational and communications consultant, certified executive coach, team facilitator and professional voice and speech coach with more than 25 years’ experience in the areas of personal and professional development.
A graduate of Harvard University with a bachelor’s degree cum laude in history and literature, de Swart holds a master’s degree in theater arts and a PhD in organizational behavior from Case Western Reserve University.
She is also a professional actress who has performed on local and national radio and television commercials and training videos.