FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL UNIVERSITY - Key Persons
Job Titles:
- Executive Assistant
- Office Staff Member
Elizabeth Béjar, Ph.D., serves as provost, executive vice president and chief operating officer at Florida International University providing oversight and strategic direction for the university's 56,000 students, 2000 faculty, and 11 colleges and 30 institutes.
As the university's chief academic officer, Dr. Béjar leads a team of academic deans and provost senior staff toward the implementation of FIU's ambitious strategic plan and bold vision to become a top 50 public university in research excellence and student success. As CAO and chief operating officer, Dr. Béjar oversees an annual budget of $1.45 billion.
She has served as principal investigator for several grants, including a funded grant studying minority-serving institutions' models of success and a $2 million Department of Labor grant focused on the future of the cybersecurity workforce. Under her leadership, FIU received a $975,000 Department of Education grant to build on the success of completion grants and financial wellness programming to re-enroll students who stopped out during the pandemic or are at risk of stopping out.
Job Titles:
- Vice Provost, Faculty Leadership and Success Professor of Literature
Heather Russell, Ph.D., is the vice provost for Faculty Leadership and Success at Florida International University and a Professor of Literature. She is the former dean of the School of Environment, Arts and Society in the College of Arts, Sciences & Education and chair of FIU's Department of English.
She earned her Ph.D. in English from Rutgers University and specialized in African Diaspora Literature and Theory; Postcolonial theory; Anglophone Caribbean Cultural Studies; and African American Literature (mid-19th-21st centuries). Her book, Legba's Crossing: Narratology in The African Atlantic is part of a general body of work on black modernity. She is co-editor of Rihanna: Barbados World Gurl in Global Popular Culture, a cultural studies collection that theorizes gender, sexuality, race, popular culture, and economy and has published on a wide array of subjects related to African American and Afro-Caribbean scholarly concerns with essays on Quentin Tarantino's Django, Marcus Garvey and Popular Culture, and on "quilting" in African American women's literature. In keeping with her commitment to the Humanities, over the past 12 years, she has worked with various state-based affiliates of the National Endowment for the Humanities (NEH) and with the National Humanities Center. She was a lead scholar for the Florida Humanities Council's NEH-funded Landmarks in American History seminar Jump at the Sun: Zora Neale Hurston and her Eatonville Roots.
Job Titles:
- Associate Director, Faculty Leadership and Success
- Senior Director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching
Leanne Wells is the senior director of the Center for the Advancement of Teaching (CAT) at Florida International University and is the project lead for the Evaluation and Rewarding Teaching Initiative. She works closely with stakeholders across the institution to cultivate engaging and safe environments where faculty and students are agents of their success. This includes strategically planning and supporting FIU's ambitious goal of a 30:30:40 face-to-face to hybrid to online credit hour ratio that keeps student learning and academic progress at its center. Leanne also partners with FIU's STEM Transformation Institute to support departments and faculty in course level (re)design, particularly in high-enrollment, high-impact entry-level classes, and she's the principal investigator of a project exploring the impact of adaptive learning tools in Calculus for Engineering.
Before moving to CAT in 2017, Leanne was the founding director and primary architect of FIU's Mastery Math Program, which received both Bright Spots in Hispanic Education and Commitment to Action awards from the White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics. The Mastery Math Program included the opening of the Mastery Math Labs and the development of departmental courses for entry-level mathematics resulting in 20 to 40% increases in overall passing rates. Leanne also worked to introduce and develop FIU's Learning Assistant program, now the largest in the country, to provide our students with learning support from near peers and to increase the number of STEM degree seekers who also become certified to teach in public schools.
Leanne is a National Park Service mobile patrol volunteer in the Everglades National Park at Shark Valley, where she enjoys watching the ebb and flow of the River of Grass and the lives of its inhabitants. She is committed to restoring this unique ecosystem and sharing with locals and visitors alike its intricate and amazing story.
Leanne graduated with a Bachelor of Science degree in Physics and Mathematics from Salisbury University and a Master of Science degree in Mathematics from Clemson University. Post-graduation, Leanne was a Peace Corps volunteer in Botswana, where she taught mathematics, electronics, and physics. After returning to the U.S., Leanne moved to South Florida to serve as lead teacher for Miami-Dade County Public Schools/FIU's Partnership in Academic Communities (PAC). A math and science program for middle and high school students typically underserved in the STEM disciplines, PAC, and her Peace Corps experience led to her ongoing and strongly held belief that ensuring access to and equity in education, particularly mathematics education, is a social and civic responsibility. She has co-authored numerous scholarly publications and presented her work in national forums.
Job Titles:
- Office Staff Member
- Student Office Assistant
Rosario Lozada serves as director of Well-Being in Law and teaches Legal Skills and Values, Professional Responsibility, and Mindfulness and the Law at FIU's College of Law.
Engaged in well-being and leadership initiatives nationally and locally, Professor Lozada served as 2021 Chair of the AALS Section on Balance and Well-Being in Legal Education. She has led and co-facilitated faculty reading groups on social change and mindfulness with FIU's Center for the Advancement of Teaching, and she has also developed CLE workshops on mindfulness and well-being.
Professor Lozada's work has been recognized by national and state organizations. She was awarded the 2022 Florida Bar Law Faculty Professionalism Award, the 2022 Legal Writing Institute's Influential Teaching Award, and the 2021 FIU Torch Award. Professor Lozada co-developed Well-Being at FIU Law-an initiative that earned the 2021 Gambrell Professionalism Award administered by the ABA Standing Committee on Professionalism.
Professor Lozada graduated magna cum laude from Notre Dame Law School and summa cum laude from the University of Notre Dame. She attended law school as a McCafferty Scholar and received the Distinguished Graduate Student Award for excellence in academics and service. Professor Lozada clerked for the late Edward B. Davis, former Chief Judge of the Southern District of Florida, and was subsequently awarded a two-year Skadden Fellowship.
Professor Lozada is certified as a professional mindfulness teacher by the International Mindfulness Teachers Association, having studied mindfulness with Diana Winston and Marvin G. Belzer, Ph.D., at UCLA's Mindfulness Awareness Research Center, Semel Institute for Neuroscience and Human Behavior.
Born in Miraflores, Perú, Professor Lozada is a native Spanish speaker. She enjoys spending time with her family and in nature.