Koch participates in national women’s leadership institute

Monday, September 30, 2019

Dr. Julie Koch, head of the School of Community Health Sciences, Counseling and Counseling Psychology in the OSU College of Education, Health and Aviation, recently participated in the 2019 Higher Education Resource Services (HERS) Institute at Bryn Mawr College in Pennsylvania.

Koch joined 64 competitively selected women leaders from across the United States and Canada to partake in the intensive, residential leadership program, which boasts more than 6,000 alumnae.

Recent research has concluded that women hold less than 40 percent of tenured positions, only 36 percent of full professorships (TIAA Institute, 2016) and only 30 percent of president roles at the nation’s college and universities (American Council on Education’s, 2017). To combat this undeniable gender gap, the HERS Institute was created to proactively fill the higher education leadership pipelines across the United States with dynamic women—and provide participants with the opportunity to develop their individual leadership strengths to boldly lead change on their campus and in their role, while also expanding their knowledge of the national higher education landscape to become even stronger assets to their institutions.

“While attending the HERS Institute, I was provided with the invaluable opportunity to further strengthen my leadership skills, including my understanding of budget systems, finance and administration used in higher education institutions,” said Koch. “In addition to improving these skills, I learned about important issues currently facing higher education institutions across the country, such as decreased student enrollment and changes in student demographics.”

Koch has been on faculty at OSU since 2008 and was recently promoted from associate professor to professor. This is her fourth year serving as school head. Koch received the OSU Regents Distinguished Teaching Award in 2016, and she was named a Fulbright Specialist in 2015. Her participation in the HERS Institute was sponsored by the OSU President’s Fellows’ Leadership Initiative.

As part of her participation, Koch is required to complete a self-designed leadership project for OSU that pursues organizational change on campus. Koch’s project focuses on building a network of unit administrators on campus.

“Oklahoma State University’s Leadership Academy provides professional development related to leadership at OSU, and my hope is that this new network will provide a structure for continued communication and support among unit heads.”

Founded nearly 50 years ago, HERS was created to fill leadership pipelines across the United States with dynamic women, each capable of ushering their respective institutions into a more inclusive and equitable future. Through various programs that support women in every stage of their careers, HERS provides program participants with transformational experiences and opportunities that result in stronger institutions of higher education. To date, more than 1,400 institutions of higher education are represented within the HERS network.

Media Contact: Rachel Potts | 405-744-8320 | rachel.potts@okstate.edu