Dr. Stacey Jones joins the University leadership
Dr. Stacey Jones has joined the Falcon Family as the new Vice President for Institutional Effectiveness and Strategic Operations.
Jones, a former aerospace software engineer, and computer scientist, has spent a good deal of time building a broad background in higher education leadership. She comes to Fairmont University after serving as the provost and Vice President of academic affairs at Norfolk State University. She is excited about the future of Fairmont State and how she will work to better serve it and the greater community.
“Fairmont State University has incredible potential to have a broad and wonderfully powerful influence on this region and beyond. Among its strengths is access to high quality education, economically,” she said. “In the end, we’re all striving to live better lives; and to be a part of an institution that is a catalyst for life improvement is exciting.”
Higher education was always on the docket for Jones and she is happy to still be a part of it about 20 years later. Being connected in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) world, she brings a unique perspective.
“I have progressed through administrative roles in higher ed with a somewhat different perspective obtained from the combination of my work in corporate industry and STEM,” she said. “It’s part of who I am by education, experience and training; so the analytical aspect comes with me as a package."
With her new title, Jones will be working diligently to help the university move forward. Under strategic operations, she will be focusing on areas identified in the strategic plan to advance Fairmont State. Enrollment, retention and having a diverse revenue portfolio are all things she looks forward to working with the campus on.
“Enrollment it not just increasing numbers but looking at the composite of enrollment. What students are we serving best at this time? How do we want to expand, grow? Who do we see ourselves serving over the next 10 years, etc.” she said. “Retention is ensuring that our students have a successful experience at Fairmont State University with an efficient and effective route from when they first start to actually earning their degree; because it can be very costly otherwise.”
On the side of institutional effectiveness, Jones said that’s working to ensure they have the right baseline data and that decisions made across the different university units are data informed, which is not necessarily the same as data driven.
“Our students, faculty and staff are people. We want to be influenced by the data and make sure we’re collecting the data that reasonably characterizes the situation we are looking at,” she said. “We’re also nurturing, interacting with, and developing people - students, faculty and staff.”
Looking at the right data to inform decisions that affect real people, Jones said, and that’s what she sees her role as.
“Helping to ensure that Fairmont State continues to improve in individual areas, as well as overall as an institution. It’s about being reflective internally but also being mindful of our rankings amongst our peers externally,” she said. “True institutional effectiveness works to make sure we’re getting better with every cycle.”
Fairmont State University is proud to highlight Dr. Jones as part of our People of Excellence series. This series aims to highlight the impactful work being done by our students, faculty, staff and alumni.
Dr. Stacey Jones
