BOONE—Dr. Leslie Sargent Jones has been named director of the Heltzer Honors Program at Appalachian State University. She will begin her new duties June 2.

Jones comes to Appalachian from the University of South Carolina where she served for seven years as associate dean at the South Carolina Honors College. Jones also held the rank of associate professor in the Department of Pharmacology, Physiology and Neuroscience at USC’s School of Medicine.

Jones has a Ph.D. from Northwestern University Medical School and was a postdoctoral fellow at Duke University.

“I am excited about the appointment of Dr. Leslie Sargent Jones as the new director of the Heltzer Honors Program,” said Dr. Dave Haney, vice provost for undergraduate education. “As she continues the excellent work of Dr. Lynn Moss Sanders and previous directors in growing and improving the program, Dr. Jones will bring a variety of experiences and talents to the position, including her work in student research, her experience in a large and established Honors College, and her enthusiasm for taking our honors program to the next level of achievement.”

Jones believes that an honors program benefits the entire university community. “An honors program can be a laboratory school for the creation of innovative courses, programs and pedagogical techniques,” she wrote in her philosophy of honors programs. “The institution as a whole benefits… as faculty explore new avenues of instruction, and all students share in the results.”

She views an honors program as an agent for change in society. “Attracting and educating the best and brightest students brings changes to the institution; these academically gifted students themselves precipitate change by demanding the best and questioning dogma,” she wrote.

“My administration has placed a high priority on attracting and educating academically strong students, and I am pleased that a director as qualified as Dr. Jones will help lead this effort on behalf of the Heltzer Honors Program,” said Dr. Stan Aeschleman, Appalachian’s provost and executive vice chancellor. “I also want to thank Dr. Lynn Moss Sanders for her excellent leadership over the past four years.”

Lynn Moss Sanders has been named director of the university’s First Year Seminar program, an interdisciplinary experience that is part of Appalachian’s new general education curriculum, which will be implemented in fall 2009.

Both programs are housed in the newly established University College. The Heltzer Honors Program offers promising and highly motivated students opportunities to broaden and enrich their academic experience by providing honors classes and co-curricular experiences in many fields.

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