Emory Lindquist Honors Program has new director Emory Lindquist Honors Program has new director

Annette LeZotte has been appointed the new director of WSU's Emory Lindquist Honors Program. "Her enthusiasm for Honors plus her administrative experience make her an excellent choice to lead the program into the future," said Bill Vanderburgh, executive director of the Office for Faculty Development and Student Success. "I look forward to working with her." The Honors Program reports to OFDSS as a result of last year's Reshaping process. A come-and-go reception for LeZotte will be held from 11:30 a.m.-1 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 26, in 115B Neff Hall. Please RSVP to honors@wichita.edu or 978-3375.

LeZotte's focus will be to recruit, teach, retain and graduate honors students. Her appointment will help to further the goals outlined by the provost's taskforce on the Honors Program.

"I am extremely excited about what Dr. LeZotte brings to this critical program," said Provost Gary L. Miller. "WSU continues to attract the best students in Kansas. We know that an exciting honors program will be essential to support these students."

LeZotte's immediate tasks involve continuing to implement the new honors curriculum that was approved in Spring 2010 and growing the Honors Living-Learning Community that was started in the Fairmount Towers dormitory in Fall 2010. She will also undertake initiatives to further enhance the Honors Program and to help WSU's best students become excellent researchers and writers.

"I'm thrilled to join the Honors Program during this important time in its evolution," said Annette LeZotte. "I look forward to helping students and faculty enrich their learning opportunities through the unique teaching, research and service activities the Emory Lindquist Honors Program provides."

The honors directorship is a half-time, 12-month appointment, and LeZotte will continue teaching in art history, which has been her home department since she started working at WSU in 2000. While an undergrad at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, LeZotte took honors courses that strongly affected the trajectory of her career. She earned her doctoral degree at the University of Texas in Austin, where her specialization was the history of art during the Northern Renaissance.