Dr. Bill Self, an associate professor in the Burnett School of Biomedical Science, was recently elected as the chair of the statewide Advisory Council of Faculty Senates. In the two-year post he also will serve as a member of the Board of Governors, the panel that oversees operation and management of the State University System of Florida.

Dr. Self, UCF’s associate director of Undergraduate Affairs and past chair of the UCF Faculty Senate, will assume his new additional leadership roles Aug. 4. He has been vice chair of the ACFS the past two years.

The main purpose of the advisory council is to work toward higher quality educational opportunities at the state’s four-year colleges and universities, and provide input from a faculty perspective. Dr. Self says the council typically meets three times a year, but recently has been meeting more than once a month to address issues and concerns due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One goal for the ACFS that I have is to ensure that each of the SUS institutions has a strong faculty constitution by which they can enable good shared governance,” Self says, adding that not every Senate or similar body at each campus has the same level of governance. “I am hoping we can as a group facilitate the needed conversations at each SUS to bring the entire system to a stronger shared-governance level.”

As a sitting member of the Board of Governors, Dr. Self says he’s looking forward to sharing the perspective and experience he has had as a faculty member and former UCF trustee.

“I take the fiduciary duty of the role very seriously and hope to contribute significantly to the board’s work during my tenure,” he says.

Dr. Self received his Bachelor of Science in microbiology from the University of Florida in 1993, followed by his doctorate in 1998. At the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Maryland, he studied anaerobic microbiology and biochemistry to prepare for independent research.

He came to UCF in 2003 as an assistant professor, where he has done extensive research and has also been involved in service to UCF, including serving eight years of Senate joint committees and councils and seven years as a faculty senator. Dr. Self served as chair of the Undergraduate Council for two years and three years as the Faculty Senate chair. He served as a Provost Faculty Fellow five years ago.

He has been awarded seven patents since 2009 with four more pending.

“I was very proud to serve as the previous chair of the UCF Faculty Senate and as a member of the Board of Trustees for three years, through some of our more turbulent times as a university,” Dr. Self says. “I am excited to see what UCF will become in the next 10 years and am excited to be a part of that maturation as an institution.”