Education, and Career Development Committee 2023-2024 Report
Active committee members: Randall Borror, James Stamey, Sharron Bouquin, Joe Ormond, Lisa Petersen, Stephanie Morales, Amber Meads, Elizabeth DuBose, L.E. Alexander (co-chair), Shavon Carey-Hicks (co-chair)
Committee Work Summary:
In addition to the typical primary duties of facilitating Professional Development Grants and the Carolina Family Scholarship (detailed below), the committee agreed to adopt a new name of “Leadership, Education, and Career Development Committee” as part of the official merger of the Employee Forum and University Managers’ Association (UMA), effective March 2024. Going forward, the LECDC commits to carry on some of the important work of the UMA including developing professional development programming for staff across the University to enhance leadership skills, foster strategic thinking, and cultivate a culture of innovation and collaboration.
Award Facilitation Details:
Professional Development Grants
Professional Development Grants provide permanent University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill employees with up to $500 in funding to help cover professional development opportunities. The grant covers work-related education and training and can be used for conferences, certificates, non-credit classes, or similar instructional opportunities. In other words, it covers anything related to or contributing to the professional skills of the individual employee and not already covered by other resources at the University.
The committee is responsible for creating the Qualtrics application, collecting submitted applications, scoring the applications, and following university policy regarding payments and reimbursements. Committee and Forum leadership met multiple times this fiscal year to discuss and revise the administration of Professional Development Grants. These discussions were brought about by changing University policy regarding employee reimbursements and the use of campus vouchers. Continued University policy changes will necessitate further meetings and updates to PDG award processing in fiscal year 2025. The first of these leadership meetings is scheduled for July 2024.
Between the summer 2023 and fall 2023 PDG application periods, we received a total of 159 applications (more than twice the number of applications received in calendar year 2022). In total, 44 employees were selected to receive funding for their professional development opportunity. The committee was able to award these employees with a total of $19,282.80.
Funds awarded in 2023 enabled employees to attend conferences locally and abroad, offset costs of certification exams, and purchase learning materials for continued education opportunities. The increase in award budget has been equally matched with application demand and is incredibly impactful to employees across all areas of campus.
Carolina Family Scholarship
The Carolina Family Scholarship fund was established in 2004 to provide need-based scholarships to the children of employees attending any of the 16 UNC campuses or community colleges in North Carolina.
This committee is responsible for the administration of the scholarship. We create the application, work with a committee of faculty and staff to review the applications, and then collaborate with the Office of Scholarship and Student Aid to ensure the funding is properly distributed. In the summer of 2023, we received 35 applications for this scholarship. We were able to award 8 students $2000 each, bringing that to a total of $16,000 to be used to further their education at UNC system schools or community colleges. We hope to be able to award a similar amount this coming summer.