Butler Vice President of Academics Receives National Award | Butler Community College

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Butler Vice President of Academics Receives National Award

Karla Fisher Small
Published: Monday, November 9th, 2015

Butler Vice President of Academics Karla Fisher has been named Chief Academic Officer of the Year.

Fisher received the recognition from the National Council of Instructional Administrators (NCIA) which is housed at the University of Nebraska at Lincoln (UNL).

“I'm very proud that Dr. Fisher has been named the Chief Academic Officer of the Year,” said Butler President Dr. Kimberly Krull. “Dr. Fisher has been an outstanding leader for Butler and is recognized and respected, as well, at the state and national level for her proven accomplishments and abilities. Dr. Fisher's focus is first and foremost on students and their success.”

Fisher has led the development and implementation of Early College Academies at Butler in the areas of Health Sciences, Information Technology, Public Safety, and Manufacturing Technology allowing high school students to finish industry-recognized certifications and associate degrees while completing their high school diplomas. Butler is the only Kansas college to offer this pathway for degree completion to high school students. Butler’s Early College Academies were recently recognized with a 2015 Innovation Award from the Wichita Business Journal.

In addition, Fisher was critical in spearheading and gaining approval for a Kansas Board of Regents system-wide reverse transfer agreement. Reverse transfer allows community college students who transfer to a state university with 45 credit hours the opportunity to transfer “back” university-completed hours to be used as credit toward associate degree completion. The reverse transfer agreement is not only significant for student success and completion, but it assists the Board of Regents in meeting a strategic goal of having 60% of Kansans attain a degree or certificate by 2020.

The NCIA is an affiliate council of the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC), dedicated to serving the needs of professionals involved in instructional administration in the community college. NCIA works in cooperation with the community college leadership program at UNL. The NCIA is committed to promoting professional development and enhancing the performance of instructional administrators. It serves as the national voice for the involvement of community college instructional administrators in policy planning and decision making.