I am delighted to announce that UHD has named Faiza Khoja, Ph.D., as the associate vice president for Academic Affairs. Dr. Khoja's expertise in organizational management and leadership will be an excellent asset to the Office of the Provost. Her involvement with numerous University and College-wide committees and community service efforts, as well as her innovation in the classroom and scholarship endeavors demonstrate her willingness to serve and enthusiasm for excellence.

Dr. Khoja has several years of experience in strategic planning and budgeting, policy analysis and implementation, curriculum assessment, new graduate degree program development, accreditation maintenance, academic standards adoption and regulatory governance, to name a few. She has chaired the College of Business (COB) Strategic Planning Committee for four years, and spearheaded the planning process for the College. She also co-chaired the Assessment Committee for the COB, working with faculty and administration to develop an assessment plan. The Strategic Planning and Assessment Committees are the two most critical components in the AACSB accreditation process, and she played a pivotal role in both these important committees during the accreditation period.

Moreover, Dr. Khoja has participated in curriculum development in partnership with the respective advisory boards for both the Master in Business Administration (MBA) and the interdisciplinary Master of Arts in Non-Profit Management (MNPM) graduate programs, since their inception. She has also served as the chair of the MBA Curriculum Committee for two years and collaborated with the chair of the MBA Assessment Committee and the MBA director to develop the program and maintain academic standards.

Dr. Khoja's community involvement is also evident in the fact that she has served as chair, vice chair and secretary of the Board of Directors of a federal credit union. During her time on the Board, she has been responsible for planning and budgeting portfolios, ensured the compliance of the credit union with the national governing body, and developed and maintained external partnerships in the community. She was also the founder and CEO of a non-profit special needs school for four years.

Dr. Khoja has taught strategy capstone courses at both the undergraduate and graduate levels in the COB and MNPM program. For two semesters, she has provided students in her MBA courses with an exceptional "shark tank" experience, where they are required to pitch a business idea to a panel of entrepreneurial judges.

She is an ardent researcher and has published in both academic and practitioner journals, such as the Journal of Business Strategies, Journal of Small Business Management, Journal of Managerial Issues, Journal of High Technology Management Research, Ivey Business Journal, and Journal of Knowledge Management Practice in areas of intra-firm social networks, intra-firm competition, buyer-supplier relationships and developmental economics, to name a few. She has also been the recipient of several internal and external grants.

Dr. Khoja received a doctorate in Strategic Management at the University of Houston, a Master of Business Administration degree at Southeastern University, and a bachelor's degree in Commerce at the University of Karachi.

Please join me in congratulating Dr. Khoja on her appointment as associate vice president for Academic Affairs.

From Ed Hugetz, UHD interim senior vice president of academic affairs and provost