The American Council on Education (ACE) has announced that Joseph Romero, chair of music and professor of classics at the University of Mary Washington, has been named an ACE Fellow for the 2017-18 academic year.
Romero has a bachelor’s degree in Classics from UMW and a doctorate in Classical Studies from Duke University. His primary research interests are in Hellenistic Greek and Latin literature and semiotics. He has deep commitments to digital pedagogy, partnering UMW Classics with Harvard’s Sunoikisis consortium, which pioneered team-taught courses in the humanities delivered in a complex digital environment. In 2015, Romero earned a share of an award for pedagogical innovation with his colleague George Meadows for developing a course on “3D Pompeii.”
He applied for the ACE fellowship because of his interest in the role of higher education in increasing economic mobility and, he said, “a fervent wish to protect the essential mission of higher education for the next generation of Americans.”
Romero is among 46 fellows nominated by the senior administration of their institutions. The program combines retreats, interactive learning opportunities, visits to campuses and other higher education-related organizations and placement at another higher education institution to condense years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single year, according to the ACE.
During the placement, fellows observe and work with the president and other senior officers at their host institution, attend decision-making meetings and focus on issues of interest. Fellows also conduct projects of pressing concern for their home institution and seek to implement their findings upon completion of the fellowship placement.
Nearly 1,900 higher education leaders have participated in the ACE Fellows Program over the past five decades, with more than 80 percent of fellows having gone on to serve as senior leaders of colleges and universities.
“Fulfilling higher education’s 21st century mission depends upon a visionary, bold and diverse global community of institutional leaders, and the ACE Fellows Program plays a key role in cultivating these leaders,” said ACE President Molly Corbett Broad. “The diverse and talented 2017-18 fellows class demonstrates why the program has made such a vital contribution for more than a half-century to expanding the leadership pipeline for our colleges and universities.”
Founded in 1918, ACE is the major coordinating body for all the nation’s higher education institutions, representing nearly 1,800 college and university presidents and related associations. It provides leadership on key higher education issues and influences public policy through advocacy. For more information, please visit www.acenet.edu or follow ACE on Twitter @ACEducation.
Congratulations Joe.
Excellent job. Great professor