Outlook Magazine - Fall 2021

FOUNDATION

Donors support faculty, staff career development

VICE CHANCELLOR WILLIAM JOHNSON STOUT UNIVERSI TY FOUNDAT ION INC.

W-Stout encourages and supports professional development among the more than 1,100 faculty and staff. It has a partner in that endeavor, Stout University Foundation. The Foundation, through the generosity of donors, funds eight professorships and endowed chairs; the Chancellor’s Fund for Teaching Excellence and Student Success; the Celene Frey Endowed Fund for Non-Instructional Academic and University Staff; the Nakatani Teaching and Learning Center endowed fund; and more to help employees perform at the highest level. Pranabendu Mitra, food science, in 2020 used the Maybelle Ranney Price Professorship to conduct research on a cranberry by-product. His paper was named the best of 2020 by the Journal of the Saudi Society for Food and Nutrition. Mitra’s experience then benefited a graduate student, whose similar research received a 2021 WiSys Innovation and Commercial Relevance Award. The 2020-21 Frey Fund recipient was Darren Ward, student adviser, who used his award for Myers-Briggs Type Indicator certification for educators and career counselors. The personality test helps people understand their strengths and communication and decision-making styles. With his training, Ward can administer the test to students in the Advisement Center to help them explore majors and careers, especially first-year students, to improve retention and student outcomes. U Pranabendu Mitra, right, works with a student in a food science lab.

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ast year will be remembered as a time of challenges, opportunities, and successes at UW-Stout. When the challenges arose because of COVID, we collectively looked for solutions, and our alumni and friends responded. As opportunities appeared, alumni and friends stepped forward to provide the financial support and creative ideas to address student needs. At the end of this fiscal year, we can celebrate student successes and the dedicated work of our faculty, staff, alumni and friends who answered the call for support. Thank you! As we continue to build a strong base of scholarship support to attract and retain students, you have continued to respond. When we challenged you to participate in our annual Day of Giving, you responded to support the needs of students, provided scholarship support to allow students to study abroad, and backed our general fund for campus projects. Your support was a critical part of the university’s successful navigation of a truly unprecedented year. Throughout UW-Stout’s history, when the need has presented itself, alumni and friends have always responded. You have been an integral part of our proud past and will shape our future through your involvement in the FOCUS2030 strategic plan. We are excited about what the new year brings and confident the support for our students that was so evident last year will continue into and through the upcoming academic year.

Warm regards,

IN ACTION

Goal 2. Employee Success — Foster an equitable environment that invests in, supports, encourages, and values diverse faculty and staff development opportunities.

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