 “Manchester College students know that when they enroll here, our outstanding faculty members will help them learn. They will learn about new approaches to things they thought they already understood. They meet students from around the world. Some will study in other countries. They learn from their professors, choir directors, coaches, residential hall assistants, and friends. Manchester is the perfect place to ask hard questions and grapple with complicated issues. It's the place to develop both ability and conviction.” |
President Jo Young Switzer assumed the leadership of Manchester College on Dec. 1, 2004. For the previous 11 years, she served the College as vice president and dean for academic affairs. But Dr. Switzer's commitment to Manchester College stretches much further … to when she studied here for her 1969 bachelor's degree in English.
With a Ph.D. and master's degree in communication studies from the University of Kansas, she also has taught at Manchester College and at Indiana University Purdue University Fort Wayne (IPFW).
She has chaired the national deans' task force for the Council of Independent Colleges and serves as a consultant evaluator for the Higher Learning Commission of the North Central Association. In addition, she provides consultation to colleges on assessment, curriculum development, and preparation for accreditation. She served on the Academic Council of BCA, a study abroad consortium headquartered in Elizabethtown, Pa., and has traveled widely in her advocacy for study abroad.
Dr. Switzer is the co-author of Interviewing: Art and Skill (Allyn & Bacon, 1995), two instructors' manuals, and numerous published articles and book chapters on communication. She has made more than 50 academic presentations related to teaching, applied communication, gender, and higher education and scores of presentations about higher education to more general audiences.
She has received several impressive teaching awards, including the Outstanding New Teacher Award from the Central States Communication Association and the F.A.C.E.T. Award from Indiana University. Her most cherished award, however, is from an organization for disabled students at IPFW.
Dr. Switzer is a lifelong learner, just as she hopes Manchester's students will be. In winter 2003, she completed sabbatical research on women serving in college and university presidencies.
She and her professor husband Dave studied Tuscan cooking in Italy, and she also enjoys contemporary fiction. The Switzers have three grown children, all graduates of liberal arts colleges.
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