BW’s Office of Honors and Scholars will receive new leadership next year after losing its 2 highest profile directors.  

Associate Dean of the Office of Honors and Scholars, Amy Lebo, and its associate director Margaret Stiner are both leaving Baldwin Wallace after this semester.  

BW’s Chief Academic Advisor Stephen Stahl said students will probably not experience any changes in the next year. He said he wants students’ input moving forward.  

“Next year we want to keep it as similar as possible, and just would hope that students would speak up to provide their input into the strengths and weaknesses of the program,” Stahl said.  

Lebo, after working at BW for 15 years, is departing becoming the new Director of Scholars at Emory University. Lebo said she is taking the position because Emory is a great institution and she wants to be closer to family. Lebo said the work she will be doing at Emory will be similar to her current work at BW. 

Stiner started work at BW in 1987. She said that she wants to travel and will be working with College Now Greater Cleveland, a program for first generation college students. Stiner also said she wants to work in the medical field.  

 “I started working with students when I was an undergrad, and I see myself continuing to do that for the rest of my life,” Stiner said.   

Lebo’s role as the director of the Honors and Scholars program will be quickly replaced by a current full-time faculty member that will be the interim director for one year.  Stahl said they are quickly trying to fill the position by the end of this year.  

“We’re trying to find the balance between speed and care,” Stahl said.  

Stahl said that applications were sent out April 1, and faculty members only have until April 15 to complete the form. From there, Stahl said they will spend 1 week conducting interviews, and will announce the interim director the week following.  

Stahl said a few current faculty members have already showed interest in the position.  

“What we’re going to be asking for is understanding of an honors program, experience, and of having administered some things,” Stahl said.  

Stahl said what they’re most looking for in a new Honors program director is the right attitude.  

“We don’t want this individual to make changes,” Stahl said. “What we want this individual to do is to have conversations about what changes might be.”  

Lebo, for her part, said she wants changes to come.  

“I hope someone comes in and they do change things, because there’s a new set of eyes seeing things that I’ve maybe grown used to,” she said.  

According to Stahl, next year there will be a new position of a “core director” who he hopes can participate in conversations about students staying in the honors program.  

“One of the issues Dr. Lebo has been working on is, ‘how do we get more students to complete the program?’” Stahl said.  

Lebo’s other two positions, as the director of the Prestigious Fellowship Program, and director of the Summer Scholars programs, will be managed under the direction of different offices.  

Associate Provost Lisa Henderson will now be running the Prestigious Fellowship Program. The program prepares students to apply for high-level academic programs such as Fulbright scholarships.  

“Before we gave Dr. Lebo [the leadership of the Prestigious Fellowship program] we’d had a dozen years since we’d had anybody receive a prestigious post baccalaureate scholarship,” Stahl said. He said Lebo has done a “great job” with this program.  

Stahl said the Summer Scholars Program, which allows students to do original research work under the direction of a faculty member, will be under the direction of Dean of Graduate Studies and Research  Swagata Banik.  

“We leave feeling really good about what’s happened in the past 10 years, and the ways we’ve been able to contribute to student opportunity,” Lebo said of the future of these programs under new care.