Julie Shaffer, PhD, is the new interim senior vice chancellor at the University of Nebraska at Kearney.
Dr. Shaffer joined the UNK Department of Biology in 1999 and was promoted to associate professor in 2004 and professor in 2010. She served as the department’s graduate program chair for seven years and online director for one year before becoming the department chair in 2017. Previously, she was co-chair of the department along with fellow biology professor Kim Carlson, PhD.
“I harken back my success to INBRE,” Dr. Shaffer said.
Dr. Shaffer described how one of the mentors she was assigned when she first joined the NE-INBRE program in 2001 helped her recognize her leadership skills and build her confidence.
Her mentor, Jack Morris, PhD, emeritus professor of biological sciences at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, would visit Dr. Shaffer at UNK every four months to talk about her progress.
He encouraged her to work with her skill set — leadership, organization – things that would put her in administrative roles.
“Even back then he was telling me I have the tools to be in leadership,” Dr. Shaffer said. “So, at one time I was the head of the NE-INBRE grant on our campus, then graduate program chair, then the chair and eventually I was asked to take this position.”
Today, Dr. Shaffer is responsible for overseeing all the academics that happen at UNK, including academic planning, faculty support and policy development.
Dr. Shaffer is on hiatus from the NE-INBRE program because of her new interim position but if she stays the senior vice chancellor, she would potentially be in an advisory role in the next grant cycle, she said.
Along with the mentorship she experienced in the NE-INBRE program, Dr. Shaffer said that being a faculty member first and then a department chair department have helped her to understand how the academic institution is run and how to lead people and best communicate with others.
But it is her scientific background that she said is proving invaluable to her leadership position.
“As a scientist, you have to remain calm,” Dr. Shaffer said. “You create a plan in a logical way to look at all the potential outcomes and how you might deal with those outcomes using problem solving and critical thinking.”
Another skill set, Dr. Shaffer said, she will be using.