With a focus on providing enhanced service to WVU’s colleges, developing new professional graduate programs and strengthening the University’s doctoral offerings, two experienced leaders have assumed new roles in the Office of Graduate Education and Life.
Jessica Queener, previously the director of graduate studies at the Eberly College of Arts and Sciences, was selected to be the assistant provost of graduate education policy following an internal search process. She will serve as a primary point of contact for academic leadership, faculty and students and focus on policy development and management of compliance issues, tuition waivers, fellowships and scholarships, and conflict resolution. She replaces Greg Elkins who left OGEL to pursue other interests.
Allison Dagen has assumed the role of assistant provost of graduate academic affairs, following three years as a Provost Academic Leadership Fellow in OGEL. She will continue to support graduate program development and evaluation and help to identify policies and processes to enhance graduate programmatic assessment. Dagen will collaborate with graduate associate deans, faculty senate, WVU Online and the Office of the Registrar to conceptualize, develop and implement new academic programming. She will continue to contribute as a tenured faculty member in the College of Education and Human Services.
“Both individuals bring a wealth of experience to graduate education leadership, as Dr. Queener has worked with a large diversity of graduate programs and Dr. Dagen has been supporting OGEL over the last several years,” said Interim Associate Provost for Graduate Academic Affairs Richard Thomas. “I look forward to working with them as we explore new ways to better serve our colleges, develop new programs and continue to strengthen graduate education at WVU.”
Since 2018, Queener has led graduate education efforts in the Eberly College, handling all policy and process development and communication related to tuition waivers, recruitment, advising, retention and graduation. She was responsible for facilitating academic appeals and managing student inquiries and complaints. Queener also assisted in the oversight of graduate catalog copy and graduate program curriculum and led efforts to strengthen departmental best practices related to student success. Prior to this, she served as an advising specialist, recruiter, academic adviser, and graduate teaching assistant in the Eberly College. She has also led study abroad experiences and created curriculum for and taught courses global internships, cultural studies, literature and composition. Queener holds her master’s and doctoral degrees in English from WVU and a bachelor’s degree from Hobart and William Smith Colleges.
Dagen is a professor of literacy education in the College of Education and Human Services, where she has taught since 2002 and served as coordinator of the master’s in literacy education program. She was selected as a Provost Fellow in 2018 to support graduate academic affairs with a focus on graduate curriculum and the University’s Graduate Council. Her research interests include professional learning opportunities for literacy educators and emergent literacy practices, and she has been actively engaged with the International Literacy Association since 2003. Dagen has led the WVU Women’s Leadership Initiative for the past two academic years and has served on multiple University and college committees focused on research and publications, promotion and tenure and scholarship awards. She joined the WVU faculty in 2002 after earning her doctoral degree in instruction and learning/reading from the University of Pittsburgh, where she was an instructor and graduate assistant.
Dagen and Queener’s appointments were effective as of July 1 and 12, respectively.