Dr. Victoria Salmon
Associate Dean, Emerita, Graduate Studies, College of Visual and Performing Arts
Dr. Salmon is Associate Dean, Emerita, Graduate Studies, College of Visual and Performing Arts, George Mason University. She retired May 2014 from the position, but continues her work supporting CVPA. She is a member of the Arts at Mason Board and chairs the Development Committee. Dr. Salmon is also adjunct faculty to the College's Arts Management Program, working with graduate students on their capstone papers and presentations.
For over seven years, she led the growth of CVPA Graduate Programs to improve their scope, sophistication and academic rigor: admissions procedures, enrollment targets, retention, and recruitment development. In addition to the new degree programs noted above, she managed interface with the SCHEV academic reviews on current degrees: Master of Arts in Art Education, Master of Fine Arts in Art and Visual Technology, Master of Fine Arts in Dance.
To promote creative scholarship and professional recognition in the CVPA disciplines among faculty and graduate students, she created the colloquy course for all CVPA graduate students, so that graduate students and faculty could share their creative scholarship with members of the College community at a professional level.
After her decision to retire in the spring of 2014, the Dean of the College of Visual and Performing Arts proposed, and the faculty of the College, and the Board of Visitors of the University approved, her designation as an Associate Dean Emeritus.
In addition to this honor, the University established and endowed the Victoria N. Salmon Outstanding Graduate Student Award, for College of Visual and Performing Arts. These are two recognitions of which she is most proud.
Dr. Salmon coordinated the academic design of graduate and doctoral programs with a priority to integrate the scholarship of teaching and learning with graduate professional development and training; supervised the administrative aspects of graduate and doctorate programs; managed graduate admissions, student advisory responsibilities, and administrative process; structures opportunities to contribute to doctoral programs for teaching in disciplines; participated in CVPA foundation activities to promote understanding, interest and growth of key programs; contributed to CVPA international outreach initiatives; and lead faculty professional development initiatives, including working with CVPA faculty to enhance the curricular and intellectual structures of CVPA through the advancement of the ideas and practices of the scholarship of teaching and learning.
She was also affiliate faculty for Mason's Higher Education Program, and served as Chair for several dissertation committees. She was a member of the MAIS Executive Committee and served on their theses committees. She taught the thesis course for MAIS for four years.
She served as a juror for International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Conference Proposals (2009-15). Presentations include work with her colleagues in the School of Dance: “Scholarship of Teaching and Learning in the Arts: Collaboration among Faculty and Students." She continually presents to The Command and General Staff College in Ft. Belvoir VA on the topic, “Academic Writing for Professionals."
She presented “Reviewing the Past and Anticipating the Future: The Arts and International Relations” at the International Studies Association, New York, February 2009. Dr. Salmon has made numerous lectures and presentations on composition theory and thesis and dissertation writing; she has taught over 200 students how to write their theses or dissertations. She presented, “Graduate Student Writing, the New Wave/Genre,” at the College Composition and Communication Conference, March 2009. “Preparing Future Faculty” is a chapter in the Academic Cultures (MLA, December 2008).
In addition, her essay “Educating with Rita” connects film and composition theory and appears in Cinema-(To)-Graphy,(Boynton/Cook Publishers). She has published other essays, including “Chaos Theory and the Community College Composition Classroom” and “The National Center for Community College Education: A Doctoral Program with Difference.”
Dr. Salmon earned her Doctor of Arts from George Mason University in 1997. Her doctoral thesis, “Seeking Authority in Composition Theory: Leadership from the Community College Classroom,” received recognition in the 1998 CCCC James Berlin Memorial Outstanding Dissertation Award competition.
In addition to her work at GMU, she earned a B.A. and M.A. in English from Georgetown University. Dr. Salmon served on Georgetown University’s Board of Regents for six years, three as Vice Chair of the Board, coordinating the Regents’ three Task Forces: Undergraduate Learning Experience, Research and Science, and Inter-religious Dialog. She also served on Georgetown University’s College Board of Advisors for four years.
Dr. Salmon and her husband of 44 years live in Alexandria, VA. She has three children and six grandchildren.