On October 16, Dr. Liz Owens Boltz was named a 2024 Outstanding Supervisor by MSU’s WorkLife Office. Liz is the Director of three master’s programs in the College of Education: Master of Arts in Educational Technology (MAET); Master of Arts in Education (MAED); and Master of Arts in Learning Experience Design (MAXLD). In this role, Liz oversees five full-time employees and 20 instructors. These programs run 35 courses and support more than 300 students each year.
In her supervisory roles, Liz works with Department Chairs, College-level leadership team, and students in her classes. Bridging communication and needs between MSU’s academic leadership and students is a finely-tuned skill that Liz has. She works incredibly hard to know and care for students – she knows many personally – while leading with a value-guided, vision-focused direction which she believes is the key that keeps everything together. In her relationships with all these stakeholders, she balances the individual and collective care in ways that seem effortless, but we know she puts a lot of care and effort to make this happen.
Liz’s nominators shared some of the following testimonials about having her as their supervisor:
“Liz is an exemplary supervisor who trusts our team. She asks for input, carefully considers options, and then makes integrious decisions. This makes it incredibly easy for us to trust her. Liz starts every meeting by asking how we are doing, what are our stress points, and what is working well. She maintains a careful balance of being respectful of everyone’s time while also allowing us to go into tangents about life struggles. She clearly understands how life issues impact our work performance because she’s always seen us as people first. That alone makes it so much more fulfilling to work with her every day.”
“Liz critically considers power structures on campus and her equity-driven focus leads to action in a variety of spaces on campus. With a sophisticated understanding of how fixed-term faculty, academic staff, and support staff are positioned, Liz advocates for everyone—not just her supervisees—through questioning and ideating in her leadership at the department and College levels. When others may be silent, Liz raises concern and brings awareness, transparency, and possible solutions to address issues. Her perspective and voice are crucial to positive cultural change that has happened the last few years. Liz utilizes this same attention to support our learners.”
“Liz’s values well being along with professional success and personal betterment. From the beginning of my time working with Liz, she made clear that my personal growth and success was essential to her plans. Not only does Liz host frequent opportunities for my growth as an instructor, through meet ups with colleagues and experts, but Liz makes herself available to my individual areas of needed support. When I have not been able to participate in certain learning experiences, Liz has reached out to individually share resources, connect me with experts, or investigate alternative avenues for my participation. It is this personalized touch and attention to the areas of growth for those she oversees that makes clear the outstanding nature of Liz’s leadership.”
We are thrilled to celebrate Liz and her phenomenal leadership for our programs, employees, instructors, and students. We are so grateful for her direction, guidance, and support!