Meadows Named to ACE Fellows Program

Writer(s): 
Laquore Meadows, director of the Franklin County office of Ohio State University Extension.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — The American Council on Education (ACE) has chosen a local leader for its prestigious ACE Fellows Program.

Laquore Meadows, director of the Franklin County office of Ohio State University Extension, will join 45 other college and university leaders for the fall kickoff of this intensive, yearlong leadership program.

Launched in 1965, the program condenses years of on-the-job experience and skill development into a single year. According to the council, 80 percent of its fellows go on to serve as chief executive officers, chief academic officers, deans and in other cabinet-level positions.

“Laquore is an innovative administrator committed to enhancing the effectiveness of OSU Extension,” said Roger Rennekamp, director of OSU Extension. Extension is the outreach arm of the College of Food, Agricultural, and Environmental Sciences at The Ohio State University.

“Her unbridled optimism allows her to see possibilities that others may miss,” Rennekamp said. “She understands how internal and external partnerships can add value to Extension’s work with individuals, families and communities.”

As a first-generation college graduate, Meadows said being named an ACE fellow “is much more significant than an honor.”

“This is a pivotal axis point in my career,” she said. “I am immensely grateful to have the opportunity to learn in the midst of some of the brightest minds in academia.”

Fellows observe and work with the ACE president and other senior officers at their host institutions, attend decision-making meetings, and focus on issues of interest, according to an ACE news release. Fellows also conduct projects of pressing concern for their home institutions.

Meadows plans to focus on promoting collaboration between Ohio State and Central State University in Wilberforce, Ohio, which is a historically black university and was designated a land-grant institution in 2014.

“It will be my responsibility to see how we might best build an interinstitutional infrastructure that enables our partnership to realize sustained collective impact and most importantly enhance the lives of Ohioans through our combined efforts,” Meadows said.

The ACE Fellows Program plays a key role in cultivating leadership for higher education, ACE President Molly Corbett Broad said in a news release.

“The diverse and talented 2017-18 Fellows Class demonstrates why the program has made such a vital contribution for more than a half century to expanding the leadership pipeline for our colleges and universities,” Corbett Broad said.

At the conclusion of the fellowship year, fellows return to their home institutions with new knowledge and skills that contribute to capacity-building efforts, along with a network of peers across the country and abroad, the news release said.

Meadows has served on more than a dozen nonprofit, state, regional and international boards. In addition to her board service, she has won several awards for her leadership in higher education, is a published author, and has delivered over 30 professional conference presentations, symposia and workshops.

Meadows is a graduate of Tennessee State University where she received her bachelor’s degree in psychology. She later acquired a master’s degree in college student personnel from Miami University and a PhD in higher education administration from Ohio University

Writer(s): 
For more information, contact: 

Laquore Meadows
Meadows.125@osu.edu
614-866-6900, ext. 210

Roger Rennekamp
Rennekamp.3@osu.edu
614-292-7614