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After years as an educator, Mary J.S. Roth ’83has a new official role: learner.
Roth, professor and head of civil and environmental engineering, received a fellowship from the American Council on Education (ACE) and is spending the year serving in an administrative capacity at Franklin & Marshall College in Lancaster, Pa. Roth is one of 38 honorees for the 2006-07 academic year.
The ACE Fellows Program prepares senior leaders to serve American colleges and universities by enabling participants to immerse themselves in the culture, policies, and decision-making processes of another institution. ACE Fellows spend an extended period of time on another campus, working directly with presidents and other senior leaders to observe how they address strategic planning, resource allocation, development, policy, and other issues and challenges. The program condenses years of on-the-job experience and skills development into a single year.
“The ACE fellowship is an opportunity for me to get a different perspective; learn new leadership and administrative skills, understand higher education in regional, state, national, and international contexts, and to bring new perspectives and information from my experience as a fellow to both my host institution, Franklin & Marshall, and to Lafayette,” Roth explains.
Franklin & Marshall is in the third year of a new strategic plan. In her role as an ACE Fellow, Roth hopes to develop an in-depth understanding of how a campus community moves from the creation of major strategic initiatives to their realization.
“Specific initiatives that I am studying include Franklin & Marshall’s initiative related to the integration of their students’ academic and residential life and their initiative to develop stronger ties with the surrounding community of Lancaster,” she notes. “I am enjoying learning about the Franklin & Marshall campus and its administration.”
Roth reports that she found the first ACE Fellow’s seminar (there are three week-long seminars throughout the year) to be “thought provoking and packed with relevant information concerning issues facing colleges and universities both in the United States and abroad.”
Since joining the Lafayette faculty in 1991, Roth has received many grants for her research. These include a Fulbright grant to study with scientists at the Norwegian Geotechnical Institute, Oslo, in 2000-01; a grant from the National Science Foundation (NSF) for research on improving methods of investigating sites located in sinkhole areas in 2002; and another NSF grant in 2004 for Roth and Laurie Caslake, assistant professor of biology, to determine whether bacteria can be used to strengthen soil that would otherwise be too weak to safely support buildings.
She has co-authored more than 15 articles and conference papers with student researchers, including Adam Faroni ’04, Sandra Henning ’05, and Ron Manney ’05. Roth and Kristen Sanford Bernhardt, assistant professor of civil and environmental engineering, received the American Society for Engineering Education’s Glenn L. Martin Best Paper Award in 2005 for their article “Undergraduate Research: The Lafayette Experience.”
Among her many honors, Roth received Lafayette’s Marquis Distinguished Teaching Award in 2002 and James P. Crawford Award for excellence in teaching in 1999. She was named Engineer of the Year for 2000 by the Lehigh Valley chapter of the Pennsylvania Society of Professional Engineers and 1999 Engineer of the Year by the Lehigh Valley section of the American Society of Civil Engineers.
Founded in 1918, ACE is the nation’s unifying voice for higher education and serves as a consensus leader on key higher education issues and seeks to influence public policy through advocacy, research, and program initiatives. By fostering greater collaboration and new partnerships within and outside higher education, ACE helps colleges and universities anticipate and address the challenges of the 21st century and contribute to a stronger nation and a better world. Its members and associates are approximately 1,800 accredited, degree-granting colleges and universities and higher education-related associations, organizations, and corporations.