Joy McKenzie Named Vice President for Academic Affairs
Joy McKenzie has been appointed Vice President for Academic Affairs of Watkins College of Art, Design & Film after an extensive nationwide search, it was announced by President Ellen L. Meyer. A professor of photography at Watkins and a former department chair with broad administrative experience, Ms. McKenzie has served as Interim Dean since February.
“I am very pleased that Professor McKenzie has assumed this important position,” said President Meyer. “As photographer, author, faculty member and administrator, she is poised to advance Watkins to the next level of academic excellence. She played a pivotal role in the College’s initial baccalaureate accreditation and since then has proven to be a clear problem solver, showing a keen understanding of academic challenges and directions for the next phase of Watkins’ development.”
“This College has a proud and distinguished history in art, design and film education, and I am honored to serve as Vice President for Academic Affairs,” Ms. McKenzie said. “I look forward to working collaboratively with our outstanding faculty.”
In her new position, Vice President McKenzie is responsible for curricular planning, development and evaluation, oversight of all academic programs and academic support area; leadership and support of the faculty, academic budget and facilities planning, and institutional accreditation.
She joined the Watkins faculty in 1999 as a photography professor and as director of the former Division of Fine Art, which included Fine Arts, Graphic Design and Photography Departments, and developed the BFA curriculum in these areas as part of Watkins’ initial submission for accreditation to the National Association of Schools of Art and Design (NASAD). Ms. McKenzie was the Department of Photography’s first chair, from 2001-2007, and returned to the classroom full-time in 2008. Throughout her tenure, she has served regularly on institutional accreditation committees, amongst others, and was elected as president of the Faculty Senate in 2011.
In addition to exhibiting her photographic work nationally, she has also authored two textbooks: Artificial Lighting for Photographers, co-written with Daniel Overturf (Cengage-Delmar Learning, 2009), and Exploring Basic Black & White Photography (Delmar Learning, 2004).
Vice President McKenzie holds an MFA in photography from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale and a BFA in photography from the Kansas City Art Institute. She is a black belt in Wado Ryu Karate.
photo by Kristy West