Provost Office Staff
Carol manages platforms associated with student success management, faculty activity reporting, student course surveys, and more.
- EAB Navigate360
- Class Climate
- Interfolio Faculty Activity Reporting
- Modern Campus Curriculum (aka Curriculog)
Project Management Professional (PMP)®
Dr. Furuness has been teaching at Butler University since 2007 and was promoted to rank of professor in 2021. During her career at Butler, she has taught in the University Core, Honors program, and College of Education. She has served as a Faculty Senator and has been on many university-level committees, including co-chairing Faculty Affairs and the UCC. She also spent four years living on campus as a Facutly-in-Residence.
She has taught and co-taught face-to-face, hybrid, and online courses for undergraduate and graduate students related to foundational learning theory, curriculum theory, adolescent literature and content literacy, history of American Education, teaching methodology, curriculum design, leadership, and educational research methodology. She has advised 20 master’s theses, more than a dozen undergraduate honors theses, co-authored and co-presented articles, book chapters, and conference presentations with alumni, and designed the Teacher Led Teacher Ed professional development support course with seven Butler alumna. Dr. Furuness has also served on disseration committees for alumni pursuing doctorates.
By academic preparation, Dr. Furuness is a former middle–high school English teacher and curriculum theorist with expertise in curriculum studies and pedagogy approaches associated with different curricular approaches. A curriculum theorist is concerned with the development and implementation of curriculum and seeks to understand what is worth teaching, learning, and assessing and to whom it is of worth. As a scholar in the field of curriculum studies, Dr. Furuness seeks to both create and to question curriculum through the lenses of systems thinking and historical analysis to better understand who benefits and who doesn’t when any curriculum is enacted. While specifically trained in critical theories related to pedagogy and research, Dr. Furuness’s scholarship in teaching and learning has focused primarily on moving beyond critique and deconstructing toward the creation of curricula generated through shared vision building and mission alignment.
In her roles as Director of Academic Operational Excellence and Director of the Center for Faculty Excellence, Shelly seeks to be of service to her faculty and staff colleagues as a thought partner and internal curriculum consultant for individuals, programs, departments, and colleges working on systemic projects and resource alignment related to curriculum planning and development, high impact instructional practices, and meaningful assessing cycles with an eye toward immediate and enduring impact on all current and future students.
Jay Howard is Professor of Sociology and Dean of the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences at Butler University in Indianapolis. For two years (August 2017-May 2019), he simultaneously served as Acting Dean of the College of Communication. Prior to coming to Butler, he served as Interim Vice Chancellor and Dean (2007-09), Assistant Dean for Budget and Planning(1999-2002), Head of the Division of Liberal Arts, and Professor of Sociology at Indiana University-Purdue University Columbus (IUPUC). He earned a BA in Sociology from Indiana University South Bend (1988), and an MA (1990) and PhD (1992) in Sociology from the University of Notre Dame.
Research
Dr. Howard’s research interests range from the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning to religion and popular culture. His most recent book, Discussion in the College Classroom: Getting Your Students Engaged and Participating in Person and Online, was published by Jossey-Bass (2015). His Advice Guide, "How to Hold a Better Class Discussion," in The Chronicle of Higher Education is available online. https://www.chronicle.com/article/how-to-hold-a-better-class-discussion
First Contact: Teaching and Learning in Introductory Sociology, co-authored with Nancy Greenwood, was published by Rowman and Littlefield in 2011. Other publications in the scholarship of teaching and learning include: "The Sociology Literacy Framework and Students’ Views of Learning in Introductory Sociology," Teaching Sociology (with Jess Butler, 2018), "Student Reading Compliance and Learning in the Social Sciences" in Learning from Each Other (2018), “The John F. Schnabel Lecture ‘Sociology’s Special Pedagogical Challenge,” Sociological Focus (2015), “Where Are We and How Did We Get Here? A Brief Examination of the Past, Present, and Future of the Teaching and Learning Movement in Sociology,” Teaching Sociology (2010), “Teaching and Learning and the Culture of the Regional Association in American Sociology,” Sociological Focus(2007), “The Role of the Introductory Sociology Course on Students’ Perceptions of Achievement of General Education Goals” Teaching Sociology (2007), and “Just-in-Time Teaching in Sociology or How I Convinced My Students to Actually Read the Textbook,” Teaching Sociology (2004). He is editor of Discussion in the College Classroom: Applications for Sociology Instruction (2004) published by the American Sociological Association Teaching Resources Center.
His book, co-authored with John M. Streck, Apostles of Rock: The Splintered World of Contemporary Christian Music (University Press of Kentucky,1999) was named a 2000 Choice Magazine Outstanding Academic Title.
Professional Roles
Dr. Howard served as Deputy Editor of the American Sociological Association journal, Teaching Sociology (2003-09). He is a Fellow of the P.A. Mack Center at Indiana University for Inquiry on Teaching and Learning. He served as the 2006-07 President of the North Central Sociological Association and as an elected member of the Bartholomew Consolidated School Corporation Board of Trustees (2004-2010).
Dr. Snyder is the Executive Associate Dean (November 2025) of the College of Health Professions (CHP). She is a tenured professor and Distinguished Fellow Member of the AAPA. She graduated from the Butler University physician assistant program in 1997 and earned a PhD in Health Sciences from Nova Southeastern University in 2014. She earned an MBA from the Lacy School of Business, Butler University in May 2026.
Dr. Snyder has served within the Butler University PA program as the Academic Coordinator, Clinical Coordinator, Program Director, and Chair of the Department. She was the founding Chair and Program Director of the Doctor of Medical Science Program in the Department of Medical Sciences. In 2020, she assumed the position of Associate Dean Academic and Administrative Services of the College. While at Butler University, she has served as a University Faculty Senator and on the College and University Professional Standards Committees.
Dr. Snyder has been active in the national professional organizations of the PA profession. She currently serves as a Board of Trustee for the PA Foundation, the philanthropic arm of the American Academy of PAs (AAPA). Dr. Snyder served as the chair of the Research and Strategic Initiatives Commission of the AAPA from 2024 – 2026 and also the co-chair of the Doctoral Education Commission of the Physician Assistant Education Association (PAEA) from 2024 – March 2026. She serves as a volunteer site visitor for the Higher Learning Commission.
Dr. Snyder has served as Director at Large and President of the Board of Directors of the PAEA. She has served as a volunteer site visitor for the Accreditation Review Commission on Education of the Physician Assistant. She has served on several Reference Committees and the Standing Rules Committee within the House of Delegates, AAPA. In addition, she has chaired or served on numerous other committees and workgroups in both the PAEA and AAPA.
Dr. Snyder remains active as a member with her state physician assistant organization. In the past, she was elected to positions within the Indiana Academy of Physician Assistants as President, Secretary and on numerous occasions as a Delegate to the AAPA House of Delegates.
Dr. Snyder graduated from the FBI Indianapolis Citizens Academy in October 2025. She received a Scholarship Star by Butler University in 2020-2021, and again, in 2023 – 2024. She was awarded the PAEA Master Faculty of the Year Award in 2019 and the President’s Award in 2011 by the Student Academy of American Academy of Physician Assistants.
Dr. Snyder has worked in both family and emergency medicine as a physician assistant. She has presented and published several peer reviewed publications on clinical, professional, and research topics associated with the PA profession and education.
