When I was offered the Assistant Vice Provost position this past spring, one of my main considerations in saying yes was that I would get to work with PLC. I have been in higher education for thirty years and have a background in residence life, career services, learning communities, multicultural services, and learning support programs. In addition, I have taught for a decade with leadership programs at other universities. I even previously managed a couple of ropes courses and led youth and nonprofit/corporate groups through both low and high ropes initiatives. Thus, leadership and experiential education have both been deeply intertwined within my professional career.
Let me also use this opportunity to share a little more about my personal interests too. My parents immigrated to the U.S. from Cuba, and I grew up on the west coast of Florida. I love traveling to U.S. National Parks and have been camping in over 40+ different parks. Finally, I am part of the Denver Astronomical Society and have already made plans for viewing four minutes of darkness with the total eclipse in April 2024.
Working in higher education and supporting the critical thinking process of adult learners is decidedly my chosen profession. Throughout my life journey, I have practiced a servant leadership approach and believe in developing shared visions through collaborative strategies. All of this has prepared me for this role on campus, where I can support our PLC students, faculty, staff, and alumni.
To start, we have begun the search process for the new PLC Director. We assembled a search committee with a current PLC student, a recent PLC alum, a PLC Board of Advocate representative, an outside campus staff member who is on the Center for Leadership Board, a PLC faculty member, and a representative from Human Resources. Together this group has identified in June first round candidates for video interviews. By mid-July, we will have a smaller group of finalists to conduct more in-depth interviews.
We will reach out to students, alumni, PLC staff/faculty, and campus partners to have them meet these 2-4 candidates via online options. This will allow us to get multiple perspectives and gather everyone’s feedback. Then hopefully we can bring our top 1-2 candidate to campus and proceed to a fall start date. If you have questions or really want to ensure you are involved, feel free to reach out to me. We value diverse perspectives and collective feedback to bring the right person to our PLC Community. These are exciting times for the next step with PLC!
I look forward to seeing you all in the fall,
Lory-Ann (LA) Varela, Assistant Vice Provost Academic Support & Enrichment
Lory-Ann.Varela@colorado.edu
