SEC Academic Leadership Development Program Fellows

Four LSU faculty members were selected to participate in the SEC 2021-22 Academic Leadership Development Program (ALDP) Fellowship. The program introduces faculty and early career administrators to the broad landscape of university administration in order to enhance their understanding of the challenges and complexities of leadership.  

Since its creation in 2008, more than 300 faculty and academic administrators have completed the SEC ALDP, and program alumni have become deans and provosts, among other senior-level positions, at universities around the SEC and country.

A full listing of LSU SEC ALDP Fellows can be found here. 

2021-2022 SEC ALDP LSU Fellows

Keena Arbuthnot
Special Advisor to the President on COVID-19 Response and Associate Vice President for the Office of Research & Economic Development; Discipline: Education 

Keena Arbuthnot is the special advisor to the president on Covid-19 Response, associate vice president of research and economic development, and the Joan Pender McManus Distinguished Professor of Education at Louisiana State University.  Dr. Arbuthnot received her Bachelor of Science degree in Mathematics from the University of Central Missouri. She went on to get her Master’s and Doctoral degree in Educational Psychology from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, specializing in Psychometrics, Applied Statistics, and Program Evaluation. Dr. Arbuthnot began her academic career as a lecturer on education and postdoctoral fellow at Harvard University.  Dr. Arbuthnot is well known for her work in the field of education, and she has published a host of articles and publications, as well as two books: Filling in the Blanks: Understanding the Black-White Achievement Gap and Global Perspectives on Educational Testing: Examining Fairness, High-Stakes and Policy Reform. Dr. Arbuthnot has contributed to grant proposals totaling over $90 million and currently serves on the GRE Technical Advisory Committee and the NAEP Advisory Panel.  In her current role as special advisor to the president on Covid-19 Response, Dr. Arbuthnot has successfully spearheaded LSU’s Covid-19 response efforts to implement policies and procedures necessary to keep the campus safe and healthy during the global pandemic. 

Jennifer Baumgartner
Chair, Learning & Teaching Collaborative; Discipline: Early Childhood Education, College of Human Sciences & Education 

Jennifer Baumgartner is an associate professor of Early Childhood Education in the College of Human Sciences and Education, the current faculty chair of LSU’s Communication across the Curriculum, and newly appointed chair of LSU’s Learning and Teaching Collaborative. Her expertise is in the development of learners, scholarship of teaching, and socio-emotional well-being of teachers, along with a commitment to faculty development. She leads and serves on a number of committees, of which many are focused on faculty development including Faculty Instruction Committee, Technology Uber Group, and LSU’s team for the SEC Inspire conference. She has experience directing early child development laboratory schools and teaches critical perspectives in early childhood education, child development, and stress in education courses. Jennifer’s research focuses on instructional practices and teacher stress. Her work is published in several journals, including Journal of Health Psychology, Early Child Development and Care, Journal of Early Childhood Teacher Education, and Young Children. 

Lori Martin
Associate Dean, College of Humanities & Social Sciences; Discipline: Sociology and African and African American Studies 

Dr. Lori Martin serves as LSU’s Faculty Athletics Representative (FAR) and associate dean in the College of Humanities and Social Sciences. Dr. Martin served as interim director of the AAAS program for the 2017-2018 academic year and during the spring 2021 semester. Prior to that role, she was appointed associate director of the African and African American Studies (AAAS) program. In 2015, Dr. Martin was appointed director of graduate studies (DGS) in the Department of Sociology.  Dr. Martin has also served as the director of undergraduate studies for the Department of Sociology. And in 2013, she was appointed as the leader of the Department of Sociology’s Internship Committee.   

 
Kehui Xu
Interim Director, Coastal Studies Institute, College of Coast & Environment 
Discipline: Oceanography & Coastal Science 

Dr. Kehui (Kevin) Xu is the interim director of the Coastal Studies Institute and associate professor of the Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences in the College of Coast & Environment. Dr. Xu is a geological oceanographer whose research is focused on coastal restoration, sediment diversion, sediment management, coastal morphodynamics, sediment transport, sedimentary geology, and coastal processes. Dr. Xu has published a total of roughly 90 peer-reviewed journal articles. As LSU faculty, Dr. Xu has served on the dissertation/thesis committees for 21 Ph.D. and 36 M.S. students. Since joining LSU, Dr. Xu holds the James P. Morgan Distinguished Professorship. In recent years, Dr. Xu received LSU Alumni Association Faculty Excellence Award, LSU Alumni Association Rising Faculty Research Award, LSU Tiger Athletic Foundation Undergraduate Teaching Award and Phi Kappa Phi Non-Tenured Professor Award. Dr. Xu has been serving as associate editor of Estuarine, Coastal and Shelf Science, a highly-respected, international, multidisciplinary journal. Dr. Xu is the chair of Education and Knowledge Transfer of Community Surface Dynamics Modeling System (CSDMS), a modeling community with more than 2,000 people from 75 countries.