From a Distance...

 
Online Newsletter for Arkansas Distance Learning

From the ARDLA President
by Valerie Wilson

Wow…here it is mid-March already and I feel like it is at least June!

Greetings…I must say that I am honored to have been asked to fill the shoes of Chris Boyett as your ARDLA president. It is my desire to do the Association the best job that I can and not to disappoint you. Chris had some very specific goals as your entering president and it is not my intent to deviate from that in any way. One of his goals was to start an ARDLA newsletter and that has happened already! This is actually the second issue. Hats off to Karen Liebhaber for the excellent job and for all the hard work that she obviously put into publishing our newsletter.

The board and committee chairs have already started meeting and are hard at work preparing for the conference and addressing other Association issues. We are still looking for members to serve on the Vendor Committee (Chris Robbins (crobbins@asmsa.org), chair), Membership Committee (Tonya McKinney (TmcKinne@uca.edu), chair) and Publications/Publicity Committee (Karen Liebhaber (karenl@blackrivertech.edu), chair). If you would like to serve on a committee, you can contact the applicable committee chair or me via e-mail at vwilson@sautech.edu or by phone at 870-574-4514.

Just a few other things…

• With the guidance of Ralph Malone, we are in the process of redesigning our web site and we hope to go live with it by April 1.

• The conference theme has been chosen—Global Connections: Arkansas Without Boundaries—and the Conference Committee will soon be putting out call for proposals for the conference.

• A special committee, the Agency Committee, has been formed called. Max Kolstad is the chair and, among other things, this committee will allow ARDLA to support other agencies’ programs and get the Association involved in areas in which it is not traditionally present. I will keep you posted about the progress of this committee.

Thanks to Max for agreeing to chair the group.

Again, I am honored to serve as your president this year and look forward to working with everyone!

About the Author 

Valerie Wilson is the Vice Chancellor for Information Technology at SAU Tech.  She earned her A.S. in Business Administration from SAU Tech, a B.S. in Industrial Technology from Southern Illinois University, and an M.B.A. from Henderson State University.  She is a 1996 graduate of Leadership Camden Area, 2007 graduate of Leadership Arkansas’ inaugural class, and a Blackboard Certified Trainer. 

Valerie is active in many civic and professional organizations including president of the Camden Area Chamber of Commerce Board of Directors, Executive Director of the Camden/Ouachita County Community Housing Development Organization, Inc., past president and current personnel/nominating committee chair of the Board of Directors for the Boys and Girls Club of Ouachita County, president of the Ouachita County Single Parent Scholarship Fund Board of Directors, president of the SAU Tech chapter of the Arkansas Association of Women in Two-Year Colleges, and chair for the Junior Leadership Scholarship Fundraising Committee. 

Valerie is very active in Shady Grove Baptist Church where she is also deaconess, church typist, director of all choirs, vacation bible school superintendent, and assistant Sunday school teacher for the young adult class. 

Valerie and her husband Travis have four children, Travis, Santresa, Michael and Tracey; five grandchildren Jaquestin, Amauryae, Sydnee, Aerial, and Isis; and four god children Corey, LaYonda, Dekerrion, and Amyia.

ARDLA Home | Current Issue | About Us | Archives | Writer's Guidelines | Editorial Calendar