It is my honor to recommend to you Dr. Jalin Johnson as a candidate for Associate Professor. I worked closely with her for the past five years. I had the opportunity to have her to teach courses in the EDOL program, worked with her as part of the EDOL professional development programs, served with her on dissertation committees, worked with her as a member of the faculty leadership team (she was on FPC and I on GAC) along with many hours of conversations about our educational philosophies, and life in general.
Jalin is a wonderful combination of professional and engaging. She brings a calm to the room when she is there. A quiet confidence based on astute observation of what is going on. From my perspective as the one who hired, trained and reviewed the performance of all non-full time faculty in the EDOL program, I loved working with her because I knew she was going to engage with the students at a high level, was going to push them to perform at their max, was up-to-speed with all aspects of the course and she was going to be a very effective communicator. The students and faculty alike very much like Jalin.
She is truly a life-long learner. This is an overused phrase but it really does describe her. She always wanted to learn more about the dissertation process, research methodologies, best practices in working with the dissertation students and more. She also had her own perspective on the content-based courses she taught as well and was willing to share her thoughts on how to improve the program through bringing in new perspectives. Jalin also was constantly looking to grow in her own discipline. On a number of occasions I ran into Jalin making presentations regarding her work at Brandman.
Jalin is a great ambassador for Brandman. Her belief in the value of a Brandman education coupled with her professionalism, great communication skills and emotional intelligence put forward the best of Brandman faculty. I am thankful I had the opportunity to work with her and hope to maintain our connection going forward. Please feel free to contact me if you would like clarification or have questions regarding my support for Jalin.
Respectfully submitted,
Len Hightower, Ph.D.
Managing Director, the Values Institute