Lowery named co-director of GPS program

Associate Prof. J. Vincent Lowery (Humanities) has been named co-director of the Gateways to Phoenix Success (GPS) Program. Lowery will support the continued growth of GPS, as it expands to serve 275 students for 2018-19. He will be working with Denise Bartell, the current director of GPS. Lowery teaches an array of ethnic studies courses for the Humanities and History programs, and in recent years he has devoted more attention to supporting the campus’s first-year population in the classroom, teaching in both the First-Year Seminars and GPS Programs. The GPS program provides an intensive year-long learning community for historically underrepresented first year students, significantly improving retention, academic achievement, high impact experience participation and on-time graduation for students who participate. In his role as co-director, Lowery will assist with student recruitment, program development, staff training and organizational management. This is an interim position, pending formal announcement of the position for the next academic year.