July 28, 2009

Freeburg is interim chair of workforce education

by K.C. Jaehnig

Beth Freeburg

CARBONDALE, Ill. -- Elizabeth “Beth” W. Freeburg, associate professor in the Department of Workforce Education at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, became interim chair of that department June 16. She replaces C. Keith Waugh, who is returning to full-time teaching.

“Beth brings a wealth of experience to the position, having been a site coordinator in one of our off-campus programs and more recently associate professor and director of graduate programs for the department,” said Dean Kenneth Teitelbaum.

“She also is an accomplished scholar who is passionate about her teaching and service, values collaborative decision making and has a strong commitment to the wellbeing of the department.”

Freeburg will serve on an interim basis over the next academic year while the college conducts what Teitelbaum hopes will be a national search for Waugh’s replacement.

“This is a critical administrative position in our college because the department has so many different programs and projects,” he said.

“Having a permanent chair in place is very important.”

Freeburg joined the faculty as an adjunct in 1995, becoming site coordinator for the program at Scott Air Force Base four years later. Appointed as an associate professor in 2005, she began directing the department’s graduate programs in January.

Freeburg leads doctoral seminars and teaches research methods. Her other course assignments include workforce diversity, workforce needs assessment and human performance technology. Her research focuses on professional appearance standards, social control and normative order theory.

Freeburg’s professional memberships include the American Association of Family and Consumer Sciences, the Association for Career and Technical Education Research, and the Illinois University Council for Career and Technical Education.

Freeburg earned her bachelor’s degree from Agnes Scott College in Decatur, Ga., her master’s from Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University in Blacksburg, Va., and her doctorate from SIUC. She grew up in Princeton, W. Va.