Tanya Custer is the recipient of the Visionary Leadership in Education Award. The award recognizes an individual who has demonstrated the ability to skillfully establish or administer an educational initiative or role at UNMC or a national organization.
- Name: Tanya Custer
- Title: Associate professor and director of distance education, UNMC Department of Allied Health Professions Education, Research and Practice, College of Allied Health Professions
- Joined UNMC: 2006
- Hometown: Gretna, Nebraska
You are the recipient of the Visionary Leadership in Education Award, which is given for establishing or administering an educational initiative. Tell us about the benefits of the initiative you oversee.
I have helped establish and now administer three online programs through the UNMC College of Allied Health and Graduate Studies: the Bachelor of Science in Medical Imaging and Therapeutic Sciences Degree Advancement Option, the Health Professions Teaching & Technology Master’s Program and the Healthcare Delivery Science Master's Program. All three programs are completely online and add significant value to both students and our university. The goal of the innovative online programs is to provide practicing healthcare professionals with knowledge to advance their careers in leadership, administration and health professions education.
Describe your proudest moment as an educator. It is difficult to select a proudest moment, although over the past year, one of my proudest moments was the day we accepted our first cohort of students into the newly approved Healthcare Delivery Science Master’s Program. The process of developing a new program and working through the approval process is long and tedious. Our team worked diligently throughout. Receiving a campus-wide award and being acknowledged for this innovative work ranks high on the proudest moments list, as well.
What advice would you give other faculty members who want to have an impact in education?
I was fortunate to be a part of the UNMC iLead Class of 2020. At the end of the program, graduates are asked to give a short presentation on their final projects and what we learned from the program. The last slide of my presentation included the following four leadership principles:
- Leaders don’t work in silos;
- Leading through a pandemic is HARD work;
- In uncertain times, you must make reasonable risks; and
- Leaders think BIG.
The establishment and administration of the online programs in the UNMC College of Allied Health Professions required a degree of risk, hard work, perseverance and teamwork. For educational leaders who want to have an impact, it is important to remember these principles. Leaders must think big when establishing educational initiatives, they must build a team of collaborators and they must take reasonable risks.