The BGSU community welcomes Shirley L. Baugher as Provost and Vice President for Academic Affairs.  Dr. Baugher joins us from the University of Minnesota where she was Dean Emeritus of the College of Human Ecology and professor in the Department of Family Social Science.  Her expansive administrative experience across higher education, state and federal government and public education has sensitized her to the competing demands on colleges and universities and will help BGSU respond effectively to the changing political and economic environments at the state, national and international levels. Dr. Baugher’s demonstrated leadership coincides with the needs and commitments of the University.  She has cultivated strengths in the areas of strategic planning and positioning, development and support of teams, building public and private partnerships, creating systems for defining and supporting academic excellence, enhancing financial resources, and creating and sustaining environments to support people of diverse backgrounds and ethnic origins.

During her six-year tenure as Dean from 2000 to 2006, enrollment at Minnesota’s College of Human Ecology grew 19.5 percent on the undergraduate level and 38.7 percent on the graduate level. Staff diversity increased from 9 percent to 13 percent, and the college’s cultural diversity was further enriched through the establishment of international cooperative agreements for faculty and student exchanges.  Her efforts to improve technological support enhanced teaching, research and outreach for the college. 

From 1992 to 2000, Dr. Baugher was Chair and Professor in the Department of Family and Consumer Sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. Her governmental service was prior to that. She served as Deputy Administrator of Extension Services for the U.S. Department of Agriculture from 1990 to 1992 and earlier, as Director of Vocational Home Economic Education for the Missouri Department of Elementary and Secondary Education. She began her career in education as a public school teacher in home economics and special education.

External support for Dr. Baugher’s research projects has totaled $1.93 million, and she has been published widely on leadership in higher education, as well as on family and community diversity. She is also a published poet and a member of the American Academy of Poets. Dr. Baugher holds the rank of professor with tenure in the BGSU School of Family and Consumer Sciences in the College of Education and Human Development.

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