Two Indian-Americans among 46 selected for ACE fellowship

Houston: Two Indian-Americans are among 46emerging college and university leaders selected by American Council on Education for its prestigious fellowship, the longest-running leadership development programme in the US.

Ritu Raju of Houston Community college in Houston Texas and Sundeep R Muppidi of the University of Hartford in Hartford (HCC) Connecticut were named Fellows as part of the ACE Fellows Programme 2017-18 class.

Ritu is the division chair of speech, communication and sign language at the community college. She has been at HCC since 2006.

Sundeep is a professor of communications and an associate dean for academic planning and curriculum at the university's College of Arts and Sciences.

"Fulfilling higher education's 21st century mission depends upon a visionary, bold and diverse global community of institutional leaders, and the ACE Fellows Programme 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 programme has made such a vital contribution for more than a half century to expanding the leadership pipeline for our colleges and universities," Broad
said.

Since its inception in 1965, the ACE Fellows Programme has strengthened institutions in American higher education by identifying and preparing nearly 1,900 faculty, staff and administrators for senior positions in college and university leadership through its distinctive and intensive nominator-driven, cohort-based mentorship model.

Of the Fellows who have participated to date, more than 80 per cent have gone on to serve as chief executive officers, chief academic officers, other  cabinet-level positions and deans following their fellowship.

The 2017-18 class will kick off its work this fall as ACE prepares to celebrate its 100th anniversary in 2018. The 2017-18 Fellows Class represents the diversity of
America's higher education institutions by gender, race/ethnicity, institution type and disciplinary background.

More than half the members of the 2017-18 Fellows are women and half are minorities. Ritu has served as a graduate instructor at Sam Houston State University, an adjunct professor at the University of Houston-Downtown and an academic liaison at the Society for Technical Communication.

She earned her bachelor's from Bangalore University and a bachelor's in interdisciplinary studies from the University of Houston-Downtown, a master's from Sam Houston State University and her doctorate from Texas Tech University. Sundeep has been with the University of Hartford since 1998.

He has also served as the secretary-general of the Asian Media Information and Communication Center and adjunct associate professor at Nanyang Technological University.

Sundeep earned a bachelor's from Osmania University, a master's from the University of Hyderabad, a doctorate from Bowling Green State University and a management development programme certificate from the Harvard University.