Each year, NERCHE invites individuals to become Visiting Scholars with the Center.  The Scholars are faculty or administrators, usually drawn from the local or regional area but occasionally from other parts of the country, who are associated with the Center for a semester or a year.  Fellows, usually on leave or in transition, bring a range of experience and perspectives on problems and issues facing institutions of higher education.

NERCHE is pleased to welcome Armand Carriere, "Bonie" Bagchi Williamson and Patti H. Clayton as Visiting Scholars for 2008-2009:

Armand Carriere was the founding Executive Director of the Worcester UniverCity Partnership, a unique collaboration among the Colleges of Worcester Consortium, the City of Worcester, MA, and the local Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce and Worcester Business Development Corporation. The purpose of this collaboration was to engage the colleges and universities of the area more actively in the general development of the City of Worcester.

Prior to his work in Worcester Mr. Carriere served as the Associate Deputy Assistant Secretary for University Partnerships at the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in Washington, DC. The Office of University Partnerships (OUP) is HUD’s primary vehicle to encourage and expand the efforts of colleges and universities that are striving to make a difference in their communities.

A native of Woonsocket, RI, Mr. Carriere has a B.S. in Business Administration from the University of Rhode Island and a M.A. in Student Personnel Work from Ohio State University. He now resides in Fox Point, Wisconsin with his wife of 35 years.

Nivedita "Bonie" Bagchi Williamson

Most recently, Dr. Williamson served as Vice President for Co-Curricular Life at Fisher College. She also worked for several years at Boston University in Residence Life and at the Educational Resource Center (ERC), where she headed the Writing Center. Her intellectual interests span both literature and higher education, including world, postcolonial, and modern literature; race, class, and gender; narrative and genre; the dynamics of disempowerment and empowerment; diversity; college student development; college effects; student success; and faculty issues.

At NERCHE, Dr. Williamson will be exploring faculty development and workload issues. She also hopes to research and explore issues surrounding South Asian women in Higher Education, particularly in Student Affairs.

Patti H. Clayton is an independent consultant (PHC Ventures: www.curricularengagement.com) and a Senior Scholar with the Center for Service and Learning at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis. Previously, she served as founding Director of the Center for Excellence in Curricular Engagement at NC State University and in that capacity led institutionalization efforts, faculty learning communities, engaged graduate and undergraduate education initiatives, and a range of intra- and inter-institutional collaborations, all focused on community-engaged teaching, learning, and scholarship. Her scholarly interests include critical reflection and assessment, student and faculty learning, instructional design and curriculum development, student leadership in service-learning, and transformational partnerships. Her work has appeared in Teaching and Learning through Inquiry, Students as Colleagues: Expanding the Circle of Service-Learning Leadership, Higher Education and Civic Engagement - International Perspectives, Advances in Service-Learning Research, Innovative Higher Education, On the Horizon, Creative College Teaching, To Improve the Academy, the Journal of Applied Learning in Higher Education, and the Michigan Journal for Community Service Learning. She serves as co-editor with Bringle and Hatcher of the forthcoming book Research on Service Learning: Conceptual Frameworks and Assessment.

Patti co-authored the white paper "Democracy and Higher Education: The Future of Engagement" with John Saltmarsh and Matt Hartley and participated in the February 2008 meeting on Higher Education and the Future of Engagement, co-sponsored by NERCHE and the Kettering Foundation. She works with NERCHE and with the Center for Service and Learning at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis to conceptualize and develop tools in support of civic learning and is serving on a NERCHE-convened leadership team to advance scholarship on and support for undergraduate student leaders, graduate students, and early career faculty in their capacity as the next generation of community-engaged practitioner-scholars.

Patti received her Ph.D. and M.S. from the Curriculum in Ecology at UNC-Chapel Hill and holds undergraduate degrees in English, Biology, and Environmental Studies from NC State.