2010 Faculty Award for Exemplary Contributions in Service to the University of Cincinnati: Ann Welsh

In 2006, Ann Welsh, a

management professor

in the College of Business, won the Mrs. A. B. “Dolly” Cohen Award for her “value-added” approach to teaching. As a perfect complement to the Cohen Award, which is given to a UC faculty member for excellence in

teaching

, Welsh is now being presented with an award for her excellence in

service

to the university.

The Faculty Award for Exemplary Contributions in Service to the University of Cincinnati recognizes Welsh’s 28 years of significant and meaningful service at the departmental, college and university levels.

As her area of research is organization management, Welsh has focused her faculty service where she felt she could add the most value.

Welsh says, “In most things, I look at what we’re doing and I ask ‘Does it make sense? Are we meeting excellence standards?’”

In their nomination of Welsh, Professor of Management Suzanne Masterson and Interim Department Head B.J. Zirger wrote, “She has mentored numerous faculty in the department and college, formally and informally, helping them to explore and develop productive and satisfying academic careers.”

“During her tenure with Faculty Senate, Dr. Welsh has been vigorous advocate for increasing constituency representation on University committees to improve decision-making processes, increase transparency and build consensus,” Zirger and Masterson wrote. “One of her primary foci has been to create greater institutional capacity to continuously improve performance at all levels through use of best practices in both academic and industry. Her efforts have led to significantly greater faculty understanding and involvement in university governance and an enhanced mutual respect and appreciation for the contribution each party (administration, faculty, staff and students) makes toward the excellence of the university.”

“I really believe it is a privilege to serve my colleagues,” says Welsh. Even if those colleagues are (gasp!) in another college.

Tom Mantei, professor of electrical engineering, wrote a letter of support expressing his appreciation of Welsh’s leadership and service from early 2001 when he was head of the Department of Electrical & Computer Engineering/Computer Science in the (then) College of Engineering.

“We were attempting as a faculty to identify a set of underlying core values for the department,” he described in his letter. “Since we were not finding this to be a simple exercise, I had the temerity to approach Ann Welsh with the request that she help us. She immediately accepted and thereafter gave selflessly of her time and energy.”

Mantei says that Welsh met regularly with him and the other faculty, attended their faculty meetings on values and strategy, and shared her management expertise and experience with them.

“Her commitment to integrity and values as part of the fabric of academic life, as how we should conduct ourselves as faculty, became abundantly clear to us,” he wrote. “At one point Ann wrote to me about the anticipated benefits of our proposed values statement for the unit ‘...if everyone adheres to the values of mutual respect, openness, responsible leadership and sharing of governance.’”

Welsh says that in her heart she thinks of UC as a community of people who really do want to do good things. “In all senses of the word, it really is a collegial place.”

“Ann is generous with her time, her research findings, her strategic thinking in making connections and linkages between strong academics and corporate engagement,” wrote Anne Chasser, associate vice president in the Office of Research. “While Ann is a gifted teacher and mentor, she is also an exemplary service leader. Ann believes in the University of Cincinnati, its students, faculty and staff, and she has dedicated much of her time outside the classroom to help UC realize its goal of becoming the ‘go to’ university for innovative and collaborative thinking.”

“Like that saying of ‘It takes a village to raise a child,’ It does take all of us faculty worker bees sitting on committees like decanal and faculty search committees to make the university run smoothly,” Welsh says. “That’s the work of the enterprise.”

“Through all of these (and other) service activities, Professor Welsh has shown her dedication to excellence and the advancement of the University of Cincinnati,” wrote Masterson and Zirger. “She has been involved with curriculum, faculty development and governance-related activities, and has taken on leadership positions in many of her service-related activities. Professor Welsh has worked tirelessly to make the University of Cincinnati a stronger institution, and has had a positive impact on her colleagues in the Management Department, College of Business, and university at large.”

“It’s an honor to represent the faculty’s interest in so many venues,” Welsh says. “It’s hard work but rewarding.”

“The success of the university depends on shared governance,” she says. “Faculty have to do their part.”

“The balance has shifted in recent years to paid administrators,” she continues. “But we still do need faculty who are willing to serve on our incredible number of committees (God knows I’ve sat on many of them), teach and do research”

At various times, Welsh has served on and/or chaired such committees as the Planning, Academic Affairs, Bylaws and Governance Committees of the Faculty Senate, as well as chaired the Faculty Senate itself. She also has served on the All University Governance committees including the Academic Coordinating and Fiscal Coordinating Committees. She is currently serving as an at-large senator and continues on the Academic Coordinating Committee.

Welsh doesn’t see it all as one-sided sacrifice, however, saying, “I’ve gained an in-depth knowledge to pass on. The people who do this carry the institutional memory.”

John Cuppoletti, past chair of the Faculty Senate and a Fellow of the Graduate School, explained in his letter of recommendation, “Being Chair of the Faculty always came with many responsibilities to serve on university committees. With the advent of the institution of the All University Governance Committee system in 2005–2006, the duties of the Chair greatly increased.”

“President Zimpher established a framework of institutional decision-making with the FCC and the ACC,” Welsh says. “I was lucky that Monica Rimai, Kristi Nelson and Andrea Lindell were good communicators, were open to further development and had a vision for how it would work.”

Nelson, senior vice provost for Academic Planning co-chairs the Academic Coordinating Committee with Lindell, dean of the College of Nursing.

“We found her to be such a critical member of the committee that after her term as Chair of the University Faculty was completed, we asked Provost [Anthony] Perzigian to make her a provostal appointee to the committee,” Nelson stated in her letter of recommendation. “Her comments and observations are always on point and other members of the committee listen when she speaks. She has a very good sense of what makes a group function well, and this, I believe, has helped make the work of the ACC move along smoothly, efficiently, and effectively.”

Welsh still serves on the ACC. “It’s God’s work,” she says, smiling.

Bob Faaborg wrote that in his 42 years at UC, including 22 years on the Faculty Senate, he had never seen anyone who manifested the “superb management, leadership and organizational skills that Ann Welsh displayed.”

“In my judgment she was simply the most talented and effective Faculty Chair by far in the last four decades,” wrote Faaborg.

Daniel Langmeyer, professor of psychology and 2008 recipient of the Faculty Senate Service Award, appreciates what the award means. He also appreciates what Welsh’s service has meant to the Faculty Senate.

“Ann Welsh deserves the Faculty Senate Service Award not just for a career of service at the department, college and more recently university level but because of the impact she has had in the roles that she has assumed,” Langmeyer wrote. “She is not a passive chair warmer but improves the committee’s working together and what the committee’s produce. She is a model of what faculty service should look like.”

In addition to her teaching and service to her colleagues, she has also published the results of her research in the top journals of her field, including the “Academy of Management Journal” and the “Journal of Management Education.”

“A successful university infrastructure depends on faculty who are willing to research, teach and serve,” Welsh says.

Faaborg points out that UC’s success has depended to a great deal upon Ann Welsh, writing, “Ann’s work, with the help of the Faculty Senate, has literally transformed shared governance at the University of Cincinnati and greatly expanded faculty involvement at all levels of critical decision-making at UC.”

Cuppoletti wrote, “Recognizing Ann with the Faculty Senate Service Award would not only give Ann the recognition for her stellar service work, but would also elevate the status of this already prestigious award.”

More About Ann Welsh:

UC Design Innovation for the 21st Century: New Hope for the Hated Hospital Gown

UC is employing its design research capabilities to heal the many ills of the hated hospital gown. The results of a University of Cincinnati collaborative with business to design better gown options will soon be on display and may even come to market.

2006 Faculty Awards: Welsh’s Value-Added Approach to Teaching Earns Her Cohen Award

Creating a challenging, professional classroom environment has earned M. Ann Welsh her students' respect — and the 2006 Mrs. A.B. "Dolly" Cohen Award for Excellence in Teaching.

Watch a video about one of Ann Welsh's collaborative projects: Hope for the Hated Hospital Gown.