Dean’s Update 7/28/21
FAREWELL FROM DEAN FOX
Ten years ago I wrote my first Dean’s Update addressed to the college’s employees, our alumni leaders, and FACS Extension agents. Now the time has come for me to say thank you and bid farewell as the 7th Dean of the College.
As I expressed to those who could attend yesterday’s zoom Virtual Retirement Celebration, to all of the wonderful people whom I have had the opportunity to work with over the past decade - Thank You.
The times we shared, supportive friendships we forged, and the incredible successes which we have enjoyed have been an extraordinary part of my life.
I have so many fond memories of the college and UGA and all our successes – together!
I am very proud of what we have achieved, and these have been times I will never forget – growing our research, increasing enrollments, revising our academic majors, even changing the name of three departments in the college along the way, and importantly, enhancing and expanding our reach to the citizens of Georgia.
We formed an External Relations team, met our $10 mil campaign fundraising goal, and we reorganized a unit to create the Student Success and Advising Center. Thank you to those who contributed to the scholarship fund my husband Wayne and I established a few years ago in support of our outstanding students.
I am also very proud of the enthusiastic, engaged, and high functioning FACS Alumni Board. Several past presidents of the Alumni Board joined us yesterday – thank you Kenneth Ivory, Beth Schuler, Sandra Derrick, Lauren Coheley, Theresa Glasheen, and I might have missed one or two more.
I also recognize how much service I provided the university over the past 10 years. Service on search committees, chairing program reviews, leading the review of the Graduate School, currently chairing the Quality Enhancement Plan (QEP) for reaccreditation, and co-chairing a UGA Strategic Planning committee along with Dean Dale Greene. I learned a tremendous amount from university leaders and my colleague deans. I will always cherish their supportive friendships.
Now, what many of you may not have stopped to think about is how over the past 10 years I’ve helped hire well over 60% of the current faculty, all of the department heads and associate deans, and countless staff. Thank you to all the faculty and staff. You are terrific!
So, now the next transition is for you all – “Y’all” – to recruit and help Provost Jack Hu hire the 8th dean of the College of Family & Consumer Sciences.
I am grateful to all who joined me yesterday in celebrating not just 10 years at UGA, while that might be all you know of me – but 40 years of a fulfilling career in higher education that spans 4 land-grant universities – and 20 of those years as an associate dean or dean!
So, you see, the time is simply right for me to not “hang up my boots” as the saying goes, but to “lace up my hiking boots”! Those who know me and Wayne understand how much we enjoy hiking, particularly in the mountains. We have many plans and we will embrace the newfound freedom hiking, traveling, and time in Oregon with friends and family.
In the meantime, let me thank Sheri Worthy for stepping in to the interim dean role, and Jamie Cooper for assuming the interim associate dean position starting next week. Enormous thanks to Lynn Parham, Janet Fowler, Carol Halstead and Cal Powell, who along with Sheri and Allisen Penn orchestrated a great retirement celebration and surprised me with a heartwarming video and a portrait to hang in Dawson 216 alongside other deans who led before me.
In summary, I wish all of you every success for the future.
Everyone, please stay safe and maintain the commitment and the passion to improve the lives of individuals, families and communities!
Here is the link to the Retirement Celebration and tribute video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_PlvJxqBZOg
OLYMPIANS FROM FACS
UGA has 26 current or former athletes competing in the Olympics, and I know at least five of them are FACS grads and one is a current FACS student:
Fredia Lim (2021 dietetics/culinary science and nutrition), diver for Singapore
Chanice Porter, long jump, Jamaica
Keturah Orji, triple jump, USA
Cejhae Greene, 2018 consumer economics, 100-meter sprint, Antigua
Garrett Scantling, 2016 financial planning, decathlon, USA
Elija Godwin, current HDFS major, relay sprinter, USA
Go Dawgs!
Sincerely,
Linda Kirk Fox
Professor and Dean Emeritus
The College of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Georgia embraces a commitment to diversity by modeling for the state and nation a community of individuals and programs which seek to reduce prejudice, disparities, and discrimination and build a supportive environment for all.