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The need for strategic planning to ensure future leaders led to the development of the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) Leadership Academy. Leaders envisioned an approach to identify and strengthen future leaders from within the organization. Based on transformational and servant leadership precepts, the Academy includes a proven curriculum, mentorship, and projects at the affiliate and national levels to develop leadership skills of participants. The skills learned in the Academy are applicable in all family and consumer sciences (FCS) settings and beyond including, but not limited to, secondary and higher education, business, research, and Cooperative Extension. The development process of the AAFCS Leadership Academy serves as a best practice model for professional leadership development.

COVID-19 ignited a revolution in retail. Family and consumer sciences (FCS) professionals, including students of retail and consumer sciences, can be the change agents that create the post-pandemic retail future. Massive disruptions to traditional retail practices for both consumers and retailers will result in changed retail environments as the United States and the world recoil and enter a new era changed by the global pandemic. Consumers have experienced panic and product availability anxieties, especially in food and grocery products. Shelves have been devoid of toilet paper, antibacterial products, and flour. Online shopping, including delivery and store pickup, is the new reality, with online sales at full-assortment grocers up 325% for March 12 and 13 in the midst of the panic (Melton, 2020). Retailers, especially grocers, have scrambled to maintain inventory and boost employment to feed the population, while non grocery brick-and-mortar retailers closed their doors and lost revenue to pay employees, leases, and outstanding invoices. How long until familiar times return--or will they? Forging ahead and influencing the post-pandemic retail world presents an opportunity for FCS professionals and consumers.

Universities are under pressure to produce work-ready graduates. This study analyzed 130 job advertisements to identify skills required by environmental science employers in Australia. For degree-related criteria, the most frequently required were content knowledge, a tertiary qualification and experience. Other desired skills were an understanding of environmental legislation, and an ability to undertake Geographical Information Systems (GIS) analysis, fieldwork, ecological surveys and species identification. For generic skills, more than half of advertisements required strong interpersonal, communication, writing and project management skills. It was concluded that universities should prioritize skills that occur most frequently in advertisements, and students should be given opportunities to participate in work experience. This would involve nurturing oral and written communication and teamwork skills, while equipping students with the ability to undertake ecological surveys in the field, identify important plants and animals, and conduct data analysis using GIS approaches. Senior undergraduate and postgraduate programs should include content on environmental policy and legislation, and the opportunity for students to hone their project and time management skills.

Funded through a grant from Texas Workforce Commission, DesignHER Code Camps were created to use the fashion interests of underserved middle school girls as springboards to interest them in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM). Results were generally consistent with the achievement of camp goals--(a) increase the interest of middle school girls in coding and other STEM fields, and (b) provide hands-on experiences related to the fashion industry that simultaneously foster interest in STEM-related careers--although changes in interest in STEM careers were not statistically significant. This type of experience contributes to the growing recognition that FCS content can play a vital role in the development of STEM concepts for youth.

To track the quality of instruction delivered at the University of Western Australia, the university surveys all units using its Students' Unit Reflective Feedback (SURF) metrics, and faculties use these metrics to benchmark student satisfaction. Consequently, teaching staff are actively encouraged to adopt teaching practices that will increase the average levels of these metrics. Using a 'before-after' approach, we compared these metrics before and after the implementation of improved teaching practices that addressed specific weaknesses identified through student responses for two undergraduate units. Despite the implementation of improved teaching practices, SURF scores did not increase significantly for the two units assessed, due possibly to the components of the academic programme covered by the SURF questions, the field-based nature of the units, and the difficulty in measuring an increase in the SURF scores of units which already score highly. This poor sensitivity of the SURF metrics to the implementation of improved teaching practices could have implications for their use for performance assessment by the university.

Exit interviews of university graduating seniors have been used to a very limited extent when evaluating academic programs. It is our belief that developing and implementing an exit interview plan stimulates faculty dialog and improves ongoing feedback for department program assessment. From 2001 to 2007, the Accounting Department at Towson University has conducted exit interviews with all graduating seniors as part of the annual internal department assessment activities. The exit interviews have served to assist the Department of Accounting in evaluating its performance as judged by the students served. The positive comments assist to reinforce the quality activities of the department, while the negative comments permit the department to become aware of areas of perceived weakness that are in need of improvement. By receiving annual feedback from a valuable, relevant source, the department is able to continuously monitor, adjust, and improve its performance.

The field-dependent cognitive styles of 44 professionals in customer service occupations provided a benchmark to interpret data for 239 secondary marketing education students. Results suggest that males have greater access to analytic traits such as restructuring skill, problem-solving interest, and skill with abstractions. (Contains 38 references.) (JOW)

Leadership planning is essential to an organization's survival. This study evaluates the success of the American Association of Family & Consumer Sciences (AAFCS) Leadership Academy measured by participant benefits, the influence on participants' personal and professional satisfaction, and changes in leadership roles within AAFCS before and after participation. A 33-item web-based questionnaire was sent to AAFCS Leadership Academy participants in cohorts from 2013, 2015, 2017, and 2019. Results showed that the respondents found the AAFCS Leadership Academy beneficial in developing personal and professional leadership skills that enabled them to serve in a leadership role related to employment (73%) and in enhancing their career path or goals (73%). The findings further revealed that respondents reported increased levels of personal (73%) and job (50%) satisfaction as well as increased capability in personal empowerment, networking, and service within AAFCS. The recognized need for a continuing stream of competent leaders to drive and support the future of AAFCS inspired the creation of the AAFCS Leadership Academy. Although planning efforts to engage new professionals in leadership development began earlier, the first AAFCS Leadership Academy launched in 2013 as a pre-conference event for the AAFCS Annual Conference. Since then, the AAFCS Leadership Academy has been offered bi-annually in 2015, 2017, 2019, and 2021. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]