Division of Academic Affairs announces 2025-26 Academic Leadership Academy cohort

Members of the 2025-26 Academic Leadership Academy attended a retreat Sept. 19.

The Division of Academic Affairs has announced the 2025-26 Academic Leadership Academy (ALA) cohort. The prestigious group of fellows will work on projects to improve an aspect of campus life and build leadership skills.

"Our faculty and staff play a crucial role in ensuring Every Warrior Rises," said Dr. Laurie M. Lauzon Clabo, provost and executive vice president for academic affairs. "The Academic Leadership Academy fellows embody Wayne State's commitment to creating a supportive environment that advances this shared mission."

Launched in 2019 as part of Wayne State University's ongoing commitment to the success and growth of its faculty and staff in alignment with the Strategic Plan's emphasis on teaching, learning and student success, the ALA is dedicated to propelling the university's mission. The fellows represent disciplines and units from across campus.

"The Academic Leadership Academy fosters a culture of lifelong learning and amplifies the ideas and impact of leaders on campus," said Dr. Sara Kacin, assistant provost for faculty development and faculty success and director of the Office for Teaching and Learning. "We're excited for the newest cohort to engage in thoughtful, collaborative work that will benefit Wayne State for years to come."

Following a competitive application process, each ALA fellow identifies a project or focus area to improve a facet of campus life while building their leadership skills through the group's retreat, monthly seminars, and ongoing coaching and mentoring.

"I pursued leadership development because I believe it is essential to fulfilling the broader responsibilities of a professor in academia," said ALA fellow Dr. HyeonJoo Cheon, assistant professor of oncology in the School of Medicine. "As an early-career professor, I joined ALA to learn how to build my own structures of research, teaching and mentoring that truly reflect my values."

2025-26 Academic Leadership Academy

Robert D. Alexander-Jordan

Robert D. Alexander-Jordan
C2 Pipeline Site Coordinator / College of Nursing

Alexander-Jordan will collaborate with campus partners on an updated trauma-informed leadership framework to help faculty and staff better support students who have experienced stress or hardship.

Fay Keys

Fay Keys
Associate Professor (clinical) and Education Technology Coordinator / School of Social Work

Dr. Keys will develop and implement a visual toolkit for ethical AI integration in social work education, establishing a framework that upholds social justice principles while leveraging emerging technologies to enhance teaching and learning.

Corinne Gratson

Corinne Gratson
Assistant Professor (clinical) of physician assistant studies, Clinical Coordinator and Course Director / Eugene Applebaum College of Pharmacy and Health Sciences

Gratson will work to enhance clinical site engagement and preceptor development and support across the physician assistant program.

Jessica Back

Jessica Back
Associate Director of the Microscopy, Imaging and Cytometry Resources Core at WSU and Karmanos Cancer Institute, Assistant Professor (research) of oncology / School of Medicine

Dr. Back will develop career ladder pathways for research core technicians that are better aligned with the unique skills required for roles working with highly specialized advanced technologies and services.

Nicole Wheeler

Nicole Wheeler
Assistant Professor (clinical) / College of Nursing

Dr. Wheeler will implement a teaching and learning initiative to address incivility and bullying in academia. The project aims to embed respect and dignity into academic culture, promote the use of a new bullying/incivility incident form, and provide resources, training and workshops, while supporting policy advocacy and institutional interventions.

Varun Vohra

Varun Vohra
Senior Director, Michigan Poison & Drug Information Center / Associate Professor (clinical) of emergency medicine / School of Medicine

"Significant components of my professional duties include serving as a director of specialized health care professionals and as an academician with the clinical faculty. These roles provide me the opportunity to continue expanding my skillset in leadership development, in part through academia, which are two domains I remain passionate about. I continue to strive in bolstering the quality of my leadership so that I may influence change in my discipline, department and hopefully the institution at large."

James Jackson

James Jackson
Academic Services Officer / School of Medicine

Jackson's project is to create a series of skills-based workshops on storytelling in the sciences to equip pharmacology students with techniques and strategies to craft their scientific research into compelling narratives that resonate with grant reviewers, journal editors or prospective employers.

Jessica Martinez

Jessica Martinez
Student and Scholar Advisor / Office of International Programs

Martinez will work to create a crisis support plan to maximize existing support systems geared toward the unique needs of WSU's international student community, who interact with a variety of departments, organizations and agencies and are responsible for understanding complex and evolving rules, regulations and policies, and effectively communicating their needs across all these areas.

LaShawn Brown
Financial Aid Compliance Specialist / Office of Student Financial Aid

Brown's project will tackle the idea of "reverse mentorship" pods, in which students are matched with faculty and staff to mentor them in emerging areas, including TikTok for education, digital activism, Gen Z engagement, AI and cultural fluency.

Christine Knapp Cori Peet

Christine Knapp, associate professor of teaching in classical and modern languages, literatures and cultures and director of basic French / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Cori Peet, assistant professor of teaching in classical and modern languages, literatures and cultures and director of basic German / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Dr. Knapp and Dr. Peet are working together to lead an interdisciplinary Faculty Learning Community in which they are developing a lesson study designed to improve teaching practices across disciplines. Their project aims to lead the group more effectively, secure external funding and structure future iterations.

Neelima Thati Geoffrey Potts

Geoffrey Potts, associate professor (clinical) of dermatology / School of Medicine

Neelima Thati, associate professor (clinical) of internal medicine / School of Medicine

Dr. Potts and Dr. Thati will collaborate as clinician-educators focused on the second-year medical student course as a quality improvement project to enhance interdisciplinary coordination and collaboration amongst specialties in the teaching curriculum.

Ruth Boeder

Ruth Boeder, assistant professor of teaching in English / College of Liberal Arts and Sciences

Dr. Boeder will explore a new path of study for students to help them develop deeper skills in information management alongside the English department's existing focus on reading and analyzing texts. The new area of study supports the 21st century need for students to understand how organizations and communities create and preserve knowledge.

HyeonJoo Cheon

HyeonJoo Cheon, assistant professor of oncology / School of Medicine

Dr. Cheon will work to develop a postdoctoral mentorship system within the Department of Oncology.