Parkland College

The Center for Excellence is an agile and responsive professional development system driven by the people, and strongly supported by the administration at Parkland College. After President Zelema Harris proposed the idea for a faculty center in 1991, a team of faculty designed a system to address the ever-changing needs of the faculty and staff at Parkland.

• In 1994 a committee comprised of Parkland faculty and Department Chairs selected the first director, Fay Rouseff-Baker, who retired in June 2009 as Associate Vice President for Teaching and Learning. The PCA Professional Development Committee for Faculty Concerns became the Advisory Board to the Center for Excellence. That same year, the Mentoring Program was first piloted. This remains a successful support system to this day.
• In 1996, the Classroom Assessment and Research initiative was piloted.
• In response to faculty request, the Instructional Strategies and Techniques Workshops and the Learning Issues Seminars were begun in 1997.
• The New Full-Time Faculty Orientation program was initiated in 1998 to meet the needs of the growing number of new faculty.
• In 2000, the Faculty Academy was launched, allowing Parkland College faculty to obtain credit for attendance in approved Center for Excellence programs.
• In Summer 2003, the Distance and Virtual Learning and Parkland College Television(PCTV) merged under the Center for Excellence to ensure support for online faculty and students.
• In April 2004, the Parkland College Board of Trustees approved adding a Professional Development Coordinator for Staff and Faculty to increase and enhance staff programming, and further support faculty programming.
• In July 2009, Erika R. Hackman was named the Director of the Center for Excellence in Teaching and Learning.