The UCF Women’s Research Center has moved onto campus from its former home in Research Park and has a new interim director.
The center is now in the Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning in Classroom Building 1, Room 207H.
Biology Professor Linda Walters has been named interim director after Professor Leslie Lieberman retired as director earlier this year.
“The center did great work when it was in Research Park,” said Executive Vice Provost Diane Chase, who oversees the center. “Dr. Lieberman provided some outstanding leadership before she retired. Now it’s time to evaluate and figure out how best we build on her accomplishments.”
The center opened in 2001 to elevate the prominence of UCF research relevant to women and to enhance the research capacity of UCF faculty women. Goals included promoting research opportunities, building partnerships and bridging research in a variety of disciplines.
Those goals are still relevant, Chase said, but the center is looking to broaden its role to support research about and for women, and to encourage the development of women on UCF’s faculty.
That’s why the move to the Faculty Center for Teaching & Learning is ideal, Walters said.
“There is so much going on there already,” she said. “We will be building on those programs and offering seminars and other opportunities to enhance the resources available to faculty.”
Among the new projects already in the works are a successful-women seminar series showcasing successes within and outside academia, including Chase as the first speaker; one-on-one mentoring sessions with faculty; a revamped web site full of relevant resources that all faculty will find useful, and think tanks and discussion sessions aimed at helping shape the future of the center.
Walters is especially interested in making the center a resource center for as many faculty members as possible.
Running the center is only part of Walters’ duties. She will continue to teach and conduct research for which she has earned national recognition. She’s won numerous grants for marine-conservation research and Volusia County honored her commitment and passion to education, research and the environment by declaring Nov. 6 as Dr. Linda Walters Day.
A search for a director will be conducted in about 18 months. For now, Walters said she’s excited to help shape the center’s mission for the next decade.
For more information about the center, drop by, call 407-823-4240, or email linda.walters@ucf.edu or frances.ragsdale@ucf.edu