BEMIDJI, Minn. (July 14, 2009) — Bemidji State University Interim Vice President for Academic Affairs Dr. Nancy Erickson announced that Dr. Patricia L. Rogers has been named dean of the University’s College of Health Sciences and Human Ecology.

Rogers’ appointment began Wednesday, July 1. She had served as interim dean since July 2007 in the College of Social and Natural Sciences. She was later appointed to the position as interim dean of the College of Health Sciences and Human Ecology.

“Dr. Rogers brings expertise and experience in online learning that is critical at this time in higher education,” Erickson said. “Her skills in that area will be important not only for her college, but across the entire University.

“Dr. Rogers has developed close relationships with the Office of the Chancellor and with other institutions throughout MnSCU,” she said. “Those relationships will help BSU form critical partnerships and articulation agreements throughout the system and the state.”

“Pat has also done a lot of work with the Board of Teaching to get accreditation for our education programs,” Erickson added. “Permenant deanship will allow her continue that important work.”

“This college is wonderful,” Rogers said. “There’s a sense of interconnectedness in the departments. The chairs work well together as a team. The whole group sees how they can fit together and share their skills with each other.”

She pointed to curricular crossover in areas such as nursing and physical education, and criminal justice and social work, as an example of how the college is finding new ways for its programs to share their strengths with one another. These efforts are laying the groundwork for more integrated programming in the college in the future.

As interim dean, Rogers held a key leadership role in the University’s college reorganization, completed last summer. She currently serves as co-chair on one of Bemidji State’s Higher Learning Commission criterion committees and is a Higher Learning Commission consultant-evaluator. Rogers has also worked with the Instructional Technology and Innovations office at the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system in a variety of roles.

“There’s a common purpose in the way programs are aligned,” Rogers said of the college. “There are common goals and a common language shared among programs that span from liberal education to graduate study. Our programs understand each other very well, and are well-positioned to push learners toward their goals. They’re focused on meeting what a 21st century learner expects of a college.”

In 2000, Rogers was awarded a Fulbright Scholarship to work on distance learning course and program development in Iceland. In 2006, she was the first recipient of the Minnesota Online Council’s Pioneer Award for leadership in online teaching and learning.

Rogers consults internationally on e-learning, is the author of several articles on instructional technology and regularly presents at technology and education conferences. Some of her recent work includes the publication of “The Encyclopedia of Distance Learning Teaching, and Technology Applications,” first published in 2005, and she was the lead editor of the second edition published in 2009

Rogers joined the Bemidji State campus community in 1996 as an assistant professor in the professional education department. She left BSU in 1999 for an eight-month stint as interim System Director for Instructional Technology in the Office of the Chancellor of the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities system, returning in 2000 as a full professor. She again departed in 2006 to serve as dean of the School of Education and Graduate Studies at Valley City State University before returning in 2007 to fill Bemidji State’s interim dean position in the College of Social and Natural Sciences.

Prior to joining the Bemidji State faculty in 1996, Rogers spent 10 years at the University of Minnesota School of Public Health in the Health Studies Section in the Division of Environmental and Occupational Health.

Rogers has earned each of her degrees from the University of Minnesota, starting in 1979 with a bachelor of science in art education with a minor in theater arts. She completed her master’s degree in art education in 1982 and received her doctorate of philosophy in education in 1997.

For more information, please contact the College of Health Sciences and Human Ecology at (218) 755-2965.

ON THE WEB
• Visit the College of Health Sciences and Human Ecology at http://www.bemidjistate.edu/academics/colleges.