President James Holloway, Ph.D. Reflects On His First Year at UToledo
When I joined Rocket Nation one year ago, I was inspired by the amazing potential of UToledo to expand the futures of our students, improve the lives of our patients, and make the discoveries and create the new understandings that only a research university can achieve. My initial excitement for our university and enthusiasm for its impact in our region remains undimmed. Our future is bright!
UToledo is fueled by our curious students, passionate faculty, dedicated staff, and supportive community. We are strong and ready to grow. Over the year we have worked on three strategic launch pads for advancing our university: Advantage Toledo, Healthy Toledo and Innovate Toledo. As a new strategic plan takes shape to guide our future, each of these launch pads will provide the foundation and support needed to grow our enrollment, expand patient care, and energize our research enterprise.
When I came across President Doermann’s speech from 1928, I was struck by his emphasis on “self-directed study.” Advantage Toledo creates an environment focused on growing our enrollment through the development of universal experiential learning for all undergraduates. Under the leadership of Provost Mitchell McKinney, this is what our new signature experiential learning platform, ASCEND, will provide – a means by which every undergraduate student will benefit from the learning that comes from taking on genuine, unscripted experiences as part of their college experience. Every student. Every major.
Healthy Toledo is aimed at growing our own health-care platform and our impact on the health of the region through clinical treatment, education, and research. Under the leadership of EVP Charles Callahan, our clinical platform has served over 100,000 of our neighbors this year, and in the most recent Lown Institute ranking we are the only hospital in the region to receive the top A grade!
And under the leadership of Grace Bochenek, our new Vice President for Research and Innovation, we will soon be announcing the Rocket Research Acceleration program, a signature program within the Innovate Toledo launchpad. This investment is critical to drive growth of our research enterprise. We can do big things at UToledo, and indeed we received our largest ever grant this year of over $19M to lead a national effort in nuclear workforce training.
My number one priority remains unchanged: we will expand our student body and provide the benefits of a UToledo education to more learners. We are on the right trajectory and I am confident we will achieve significant growth in enrollment, patient care and research over the next decade.
UToledo is a metropolitan research university and academic health center proudly located in northwest Ohio. We are unabashed in our focus on professional success for our students, unswerving in pursuing research that advances human knowledge, unrelenting in seeking and delivering cures for our patients, and unafraid to declare our achievements. And we seek to serve our region in everything we do.
I’m proud and excited to continue this work, to deliver on our promise, to further our purpose, and to expand the foundation of our pride. Let’s Grow for Toledo!
James Holloway, Ph.D.
President
The University of Toledo