Office of Academic Programs & Faculty Advancement

Dr. Fay Yokomizo Akindes has directed the Office of Professional and Instructional Development (OPID) since August 2017. Previously she was Professor of Communication at UW-Parkside where she taught for 20 years. She chaired the Communication Department, directed the Center for Ethnic Studies for eight years, and served as Faculty Director of Community-Based Learning and Research. She was a 2005-06 Fulbright Teaching Scholar at the University of Abomey-Calavi in Benin, West Africa, and taught at Dalkeith Palace, Midlothian, Scotland in spring 2017. She received UW-Parkside’s Stella Gray Teaching Excellence Award in 2004 and was a Wisconsin Teaching Fellow in 2000.

Among her publications is Diversity in the College Classroom: Knowing Ourselves, Knowing Our Students, Knowing Our Disciplines co-edited with Eugene Fujimoto and Roseann Mason. The book is based on a four-year Diversity Summer Institute at UW-Parkside that was partially funded by the UW System.

She received a Ph.D. in Mass Communication and an M.A. in Telecommunication Management at Ohio University. Her doctoral dissertation, Hawaiian-Music Radio as Diasporic Habitus, earned the 1999 Outstanding Dissertation Award by the National Communication Association’s International and Intercultural Communication Division. Prior to graduate school, she worked in broadcast marketing and promotion in San Diego (NPR) and Honolulu (CBS-TV and PBS). Dr. Akindes was born, raised, and public schooled on Molokai. She telecommutes from Kenosha.

Dr. Barbara Bales serves as the Director of PK-20 Strategic Initiatives and Educational Innovation in the UW System Administration Office of Academic Programs and Faculty Advancement. She brings stakeholder partners together to recommend, plan, and develop strategic policies and programs to build an equitable and seamless sequence of PK-20 educational opportunities for Wisconsin students. She conducts research that examines relationships among teacher education policies, preparation programs, teacher professional development, and students' opportunities to learn, particularly among those historically underserved. The findings offer a research base from which to recommend and execute strategic initiatives and innovations to address the state’s PK-20 equity gaps in educational opportunity and achievement. She also supports the development and implementation of academic programs across their lifespan on select campuses.

She also holds an Associate Professor position at the University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee in the Department of Curriculum and Instruction, where she served as Department Chair, Director of Graduate Programs, and Director of the Center for New and Professional Educators. She is active in the World Educational Research Association, American Educational Research Association, and American Association of Colleges for Teacher Education. She also served on the Editorial Boards of Urban Education and The Journal of Urban Teaching, Learning, and Research.

She earned a Ph.D. and M.S.in Curriculum and Instruction at UW-Madison, each with a minor in Educational Policy. She received a B.S. in Education from the State University of New York College at Cortland. Other experiences include 18 years in higher education; 17 years as a middle school health and science teacher in Syracuse, New York and Bettendorf, Iowa; multiple summers with Upward Bound and the UW-Madison P.E.O.P.L.E. programs; as well as many innovative professional development and licensing programs for teachers and school administrators.

Dr. Diane Treis Rusk provides consultation to University of Wisconsin (UW) universities in developing academic degree programs to meet current workforce and student demand and in applying UW System academic program policies and procedures. She serves as the principal system resource on matters relating to the assessment and credit award for prior learning. Since joining UW System Administration (UWSA) in 2009, she has served many cross-functional roles, leading major projects and policy development in areas of the recognition of prior learning, credit transfer including the Universal Credit Transfer Agreement (UCTA), and degree completion.

Throughout her career, her mission has been to develop, operationalize, and evaluate solutions to best serve Wisconsin students and families. Before joining UWSA she directed and managed precollege, credit outreach, and non-credit programming at UW-Richland and UW-Madison. Outside of higher education, she led and provided direct services to families, and she implemented economic and community development initiatives at the county level. She earned her Doctor of Education from Vanderbilt University, and an M.S. in Human Ecology and a B.A. in Political Science from UW-Madison.

Diane Waters, Program Associate, joined UW System’s Office of Academic Affairs--now named the Office of Academic Programs and Faculty Advancement (APFA)—in September 2000. Before joining APFA, she began employment with the Wisconsin Department of Veteran’s Affairs in June 1993 and worked in the records department. In her current position, she assists with travel arrangements, travel expense reports, purchasing and invoice payment, and also assists with the Regents (Academic Staff Excellence, Diversity, Teaching Excellence, and University Staff Excellence) Awards, and Alliant Energy (Erroll B. Davis, Jr. Achievement and James R. Underkofler Excellence in Teaching) Awards. In addition, she assists with planning and executing various events and meetings, including the systemwide governance meetings for the Vice President’s Office, and events and meetings for the Office of Professional and Instructional Development. She received her certificate in event planning from Madison Area Technical College in 2009.