Dr. Lara Duke, the recently appointed dean of the University of the Fraser Valley’s health sciences department, spoke with The Cascade to discuss her history, path to leadership, and goals for the department. Her dedication to building a vibrant and inclusive learning environment and her love of teaching have all contributed to her success as a dean.
“I want to do my best to get to know the people, the faculty, and staff to support the work that they’re doing for UFV students,” said Duke, who thinks of these responsibilities as her primary goal. The dean believes she can successfully support the department’s efforts to meet the students’ educational requirements by forging these ties. Despite the fact that the dean’s role entails making important decisions for the benefit of students, it’s important to emphasize the distance from regular classroom activities. As a result, administrators actively look for feedback and ideas from people who are directly involved in the teaching and learning processes.
Dr. Duke believes that her secondary goal is to support “everyone’s growth and development — students, staff, faculty, my own — so that we really have the best programming for the students that come to this university and [the] health sciences [department].” This includes developing a healthy environment where everyone prospers, learns, and contributes to their highest potential. Dr. Duke is dedicated to raising the general calibre of the programs and services provided by the department by investing in everyone’s personal and professional development.
She feels it’s important that the health sciences department provides the best quality educational programs. “There’s lots of different ways that that can unfold,” said Duke, “and that can be with high quality faculty who are teaching in that programming. It’s providing research and scholarship activities for faculty to be engaged to advance research, or advance their own teaching practice, or clinical practice, or lab-based practice.”
“There are decisions being made about how kinesiologists get hired into hospitals, wellness centres, or health care centres,” said Duke, regarding the ways that department heads need to be aware of the changes in their fields, not just academically, but in the workforce. “What are the trends and training needs of those graduates and how are we being responsive?” For Duke, those considerations are always at play.
Additionally, maintaining awareness of new developments and modifications in the kinesiology and health sciences subjects is necessary for upholding the commitment to program quality. This entails adhering to program certification requirements and changing teaching strategies to reflect the changing demands of the healthcare sector.
Duke wants to ensure that her graduates are “ready to enter the workforce with a really strong knowledge foundation, and a really strong practical skills foundation.” But she’s quick to point out that she doesn’t do that alone. “I also look for the opportunities to bring faculty along with me to have lots of input on how to make those quality enhancements in the programming.”
According to Duke, the direction of the department will draw on the professors, staff, and students’ combined knowledge and skills. They support a cooperative strategy in which the department’s future is collectively created. Duke employs a “strategic compass” framework, adopted from author Jeffrey Buller, to direct this endeavour.
“I think my vision is going to be about how to garner the collective intelligence of the folks in this group and begin to probe what’s next for the faculty of health sciences.” It’s about creating a “vision of excellence and innovation.” However, as a new member of the administration, Duke recognizes that she has to adopt a wider view as well, encouraging growth through enrollments and aligning with the university’s broader vision.
In her time as dean, Duke wants to focus on “building out the experiential learning labs” (which focus on hands-on experiences), expanding them across the various disciplines within the department. She also hopes to “enhance Work Integrated Learning placements for kinesiology, and to be “heavily involved” with the Chilliwack master plan, “a year-long consultative process led through Facilities and Campus Planning to create a vision for what is possible at [Canada Education Park].”
Ultimately, Duke wants to foster an inclusive atmosphere in which the opinions of all parties are considered when making decisions. Moreover, she hopes the health sciences department will continue to develop as a top-tier educational institution making substantial contributions to the community and the university. Whether it includes hiring more staff and professors, or wringing better materials and equipment out of the budget, this vision centres on a “holistic approach” that involves every member of the community. It ensures that the department stays forward-thinking, adaptable, and a leader in the teaching of health sciences.
Hello, I’m Gauri Sethi, a passionate staff writer at the Cascade responsible for writing content that resonates with the masses. Currently, I am pursuing business administration, but deep down, I am a person who loves expressing herself through writing.
