YOUNGSTOWN — One candidate for provost at Youngstown State University thinks it’s a little “cringe-worthy” that “innovation” isn’t included on the list of most overused words for this year.

Dr. Alyson Gill used one of the words on that list to describe the way “innovation” is used so loosely without a proper appreciation for what it means to be innovative in higher education.

Gill was the second candidate for the job to present to a public audience as part of the hiring process. She spoke to about 30 faculty, staff, and students in the Schwebel Auditorium in Moser Hall on Monday afternoon, where she spent the first half highlighting her experience taking on new challenges and — dare it be said again — innovative approaches as a student, parent, professor and administrator, mostly as small private colleges across the country.

Gill, whose Ohio ties include parents and grandparents who attended The Ohio State University, Ohio Wesleyan University, and Kenyon College, was most recently the provost at Lees-McRae College in Banner Elk, North Carolina.

As a graduate student at the University of California, Irvine, a Ph.D. student at the University of Memphis, and an instructor at Arkansas State University, she used 3D modeling to study the classical architectural structures and keep students in her 8 a.m. classes engaged.

“It allowed me to have different conversations about my research,” she said.

Gill recalled a conversation she had with ASU’s provost early on in her career that led to her becoming the founding director of The Center for Digital Initiatives. There, she developed 3D models and virtual tours, including for the Johnny Cash house, designed an app with the Arkansas Department of Health, and designed traveling lesson suitcases to teach kids in Arkansas schools about the Jerome Japanese Internment Camp of World War II.

During her time as Associate Provost for Instructional Innovation at UMass-Amherst, she studied negotiation and leadership and applied her knowledge to bring faculty out of their siloes to address common classroom problems together using technology.

As provost of the University of the Ozarks, Gill launched multiple technology-focused initiatives to improve accessibility and create a more engaging and intuitive learning environment for students. She also spearheaded a collaborative effort to revise the faculty / staff handbook to provide more protections and accommodations for university employees in a non-union state, and worked with the Higher Education Commission to improve the university’s accreditations.

During her time at Lees-McRae, she focused on experiential learning programs, and implemented a five-year program review process, which began with the theater program there. Gill said she was able to take an expensive and unstable program, reallocate resources, cut unnecessary expenses and revitalize the program to be a model for the university’s review process.

During the discussion period, Gill answered many questions about her views on programming, administration and board relations. Notably, she addressed the difference between participatory governance and shared governance. The former, she said, is when faculty are led to think they have a voice but really are just pushed into buying into decisions administration has already made.

“I have no idea what you’re talking about, having been at YSU for all these years,” said one faculty member sardonically. “Please, do explain.”

Gill said that when programs and courses are being reviewed, the administration should not look only at hard numbers in deciding viability, but how the courses fit into the overall curriculum and general education requirements.

“Many times, the people making those decisions are not academics themselves,” she said.

Gill also said that while she’s had good relations with trustees at previous jobs, she understands how tricky it can be and that it is sometimes about the art of persuasion.

“It is important for the board to be educated on faculty needs, and for faculty to be made aware of the board’s concerns,” she said. “It’s also important that the board be made aware of what their role is and what their role is not.”

Gill will be followed today by Carolyn Smith Keller, associate provost and professor of social sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville. Interim YSU Provost Jennifer Pintar spoke on Friday.