Ashbaugh Named CUSP Director

Ashbaugh Named CUSP Director

Published: May 15, 2012

Ashbaugh Named Director for the UW Bothell Center for University Studies and Programs (CUSP)

Dr. Leslie Ashbaugh, respected UW Bothell lecturer and 2012 Distinguished Teacher of the Year, has been named as director of the Center for University Studies and Programs (CUSP) for a five-year term.

Susan Jeffords UW Bothell vice chancellor for Academic Affairs says Ashbaugh brings a distinguished career and wealth of experience to the position.

“Leslie’s career has been hallmarked by her continued commitment to student learning, the creation of interdisciplinary learning and scholarly environments, and a dedication to preparing students to live and work in global contexts,” Jeffords says.

Ashbaugh joined the UW Bothell School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences as a lecturer in 1998, and was soon recognized as an outstanding teacher and colleague. Recently she was honored as the UW Bothell 2012 Distinguished Teaching Award winner.

Ashbaugh’s contributions extend beyond the UW Bothell classroom as well, through the annual course she leads in Zambia, where students learn about issues of global development through study and work in the rural outposts of eastern Zambia. Ashbaugh will assume her role as director June 16, and will begin working collaboratively with Gray Kochhar-Lindgren on the leadership transition.

Ashbaugh says she looks forward to her new role.

“Our campus is poised to embrace an era of rapid growth and continued transformation, and it is a privilege to dedicate my leadership capacities and my commitment to undergraduate teaching to further the work that has been ongoing for the past seven years in our first-year and pre-major programming at UW Bothell," Ashbaugh says.

Ashbaugh earned her Ph.D. in anthropology from Northwestern University in 1996 and joined UW Bothell after serving on the faculty at Seattle University for several years.

CUSP is designed to support first-year and pre-major students succeed at UW Bothell, and, more broadly, to succeed in life. All the incoming students participate in the Discovery Core, an innovative curriculum that introduces students to the university, interdisciplinary and interactive practices in and out of the classroom, project-based learning, and the construction of an electronic portfolio. As part of the UW Bothell learning community, they learn the skills that will help them navigate the 21st century workforce and to make creative contributions to their local, regional, and global communities.