Faculty Convocation 2024

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Supporting Faculty: Creating an Environment for Faculty to Be Successful

Click the link below to join the Opening Session remotely.

Opening Session Livestream

2023 Convocation Header Image, titled Braving the Climb
President Astrid S. Tuminez

Astrid S. Tuminez

President

In 2018, following a rich and storied career in business, philanthropy, and academia, Dr. Astrid S. Tuminez became the seventh president of Utah Valley University. She is the first woman to serve on a full-time basis as UVU president. Raised in the slums of the Philippines, Tuminez rose to become a world leader in the fields of technology and political science, most recently serving as an executive at Microsoft. She is also the former vice dean of research and assistant dean of executive education at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy, National University of Singapore.

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Tuminez attended Brigham Young University, where she graduated summa cum laude in 1986 with a BA in international relations and Russian literature. She earned a master’s degree from Harvard University in Soviet Studies (1988) and a Ph.D. from MIT in political science (1996). She is the author of Russian Nationalism Since 1856. Ideology and the Making of Foreign Policy (Rowman and Littlefield, 2000); Rising to the Top? A Report on Women and Leadership in Asia (2012); book chapters; numerous op-eds and essays; and articles in the SAIS Review, Brown Journal of World Affairs, Journal of Infectious Diseases, Journal of Cold War Studies, etc.

Before coming to UVU, President Tuminez served as regional director of corporate, external, and legal affairs for Microsoft in Southeast Asia. She is also the former vice dean of research and assistant dean of executive education at the Lee Kuan Yew School of Public Policy at the National University of Singapore. She and her husband, Jeffrey S. Tolk, have three children. In her spare time, she enjoys running, dancing, and martial arts.

F. Wayne Vaught

F. Wayne Vaught

Provost and Vice President of Academic Affairs

Dr. Wayne Vaught joined UVU on June 1, 2019. Prior to joining us, Dr. Vaught had a 21-year career at the University of Missouri-Kansas City, where he served as a professor and then dean of the College of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Vaught’s primary research is in biomedical ethics, with a focus on ethical issues in pediatrics. He has published several papers in leading ethics journals, including The Hastings Center Report, The Journal of Clinical Ethics and Theoretical Medicine and Bioethics. He is co-editor of Ethics Across the Professions, Oxford University Press.

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Provost Vaught is a native of Lexington, Kentucky. He and his wife, Eileen Amari-Vaught, have two daughters, Mia and Lauren. Wayne is also a basketball fan and has refereed at the high school and college levels. He loves living in Utah and enjoys, hiking, biking, camping, and all things outdoors.

2024 UVU Faculty Convocation Planning Committee Members

Kat Brown, Deputy Provost, Academic Affairs

Laurie Toro, Faculty Development

John Rees, Art and Design

Sowmya Selvarajan, Engineering Design Technology

Dianne McAdams-Jones, Nursing

Julie Hayden, Academic Affairs

Eric Russell, Emergency Services

Cindy Wilkinson, Academic Affairs

Special thank you to John Rees for providing the imagery.