Dr. E. Jane Luzar was appointed as the Founding Dean of the IUPUI Honors College July 1, 2009. Located in Indianapolis on Indiana’s health and life sciences campus, the IUPUI Honors College oversees recruitment of high ability students and provides an environment conducive to their academic success.
Dean Luzar served as the Director of the IUPUI Common ThemeProject for five years. The Common Theme Project promotes campus unity, conversation, and collaboration on timely issues that connect IUPUI to central Indiana and the world. Recognized as a high impact practice, the project has engaged the campus on themes as diverse as sustainability, social entrepreneurship, and civility. Each theme lasts two years. Relevant books are identified, authors and other speakers present to the campus, and theme related events are held for the entire campus.
Dean Luzar initiated development of the IUPUI Office of Sustainability and served as the Co-Executive Director of the Office.It is dedicated to creating a culture of campus sustainability, to making IUPUI a place where faculty, students, and staff are engaged in research, teaching, and learning about urban sustainability and its best practices. Dean Luzar has focused on sustainability in academic programs and related experiential learning.
Previous Administrative Experience
Prior to her appointment at IUPUI, Dr. Luzar was employed for ten years at the University of Florida (UF), and for 12 years at Louisiana State University (LSU). At UF, she was selected to participate as a Fellow with the American Council of Education (ACE). As the premier leadership and administrative development program for higher education, the ACE Fellows Program combines seminars, interactive learning opportunities, and campus visits at other higher education institutions.
Dr. Luzar was also selected at UF to serve in a one year, full-time assignment as a Provost Fellow. In this role, Dr. Luzar worked on a number of special assignments, including reviews of distance education and study abroad programs, development of a campus level e-Learning Initiative, implementation of enhanced communication with students, and creation of processes to improve UF academic advising services.
Dr. Luzar served as Associate Dean of the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Florida from 1999-2006. Dr. Luzar had responsibility for student services and academic programs for over 4,000 graduate and undergraduate students in CALS. She also administered the college's distance education and state-wide academic programs. As Associate Dean, she participated in academic personnel decisions, college budget development and administration, administered the CALS graduate and undergraduate scholarship portfolios, conceptualized and facilitated curricular changes, and coordinated professional development opportunities for faculty and staff in the college. She had administrative oversight over the CALS Upper Division Honors Program, and frequently taught the capstone Upper Division Honors Colloquium.
She served as the CALS academic liaison with UF's professional schools, including Vet Medicine, Dentistry, Medicine, Law, and Pharmacy, including early decision programs. Dr. Luzar actively promoted efforts to provide enhancement opportunities for students, faculty, and staff in CALS and UF. Teaching enhancement was institutionalized through development of an annual Teaching Enhancement Symposium. Through her leadership, CALS expanded service learning and leadership education opportunities for UF students, as well as new short-term international study opportunities. During her tenure as Associate Dean, new interdisciplinary graduate and undergraduate academic programs were added to CALS, broadening the college's traditional academic base to further emphasize life sciences and the environment. In her role as Associate Dean, she provided leadership and service on numerous university-level academic committees and task forces.
At LSU, Dr. Luzar served as Graduate Coordinator for the Department of Agricultural Economics and Agribusiness and founded and directed the Departmental Honors Program.