On July 20, the UCF Board of Trustees honored Pegasus Professor of Visual Arts and Design Stella Sung as one of the three new Trustee Chairs.
The Trustee Chair appointments are designed to retain and attract exceptional faculty, and offers an annual stipend of $50,000. To be considered as a Trustee Chair, candidates must hold the rank of Professor, be recognized as a “foremost scholar” in his or her chosen area of expertise, and must have a positive impact on others at UCF.
Dr. Sung is a professor of music in the Department of Digital Media and the director of the Center for Research and Education in Arts, Technology and Entertainment (CREATE). She’s also a composer of concert music, film, ballet, opera and video global audiences.
As a recipient of one of the first, 3-year Composer-in-Residence “Music Alive” awards funded by New Music USA, the Andrew Mellon Foundation, and the League of American Orchestras, Dr. Sung had the honor to work with the Dayton (OH) Performing Arts Alliance from 2013-16.
“One of the reasons that the funders decided upon a 3-year award was to support a longer period of time for exploration, expansion, development, and implementation to produce artistic works and collaborations with deep, long-lasting and impactful outcomes,” she said.
According to Dr. Sung, the University Trustees Chair award provides that same opportunity for sustained growth and development for projects and initiatives that might not otherwise come to fruition without additional long-term financial and institutional support.
“As director of CREATE, there are several initiatives that I would like to implement; these include more outreach to our surrounding downtown community in bringing UCF faculty, students and staff closer together with community partners, new collaborations in research/artistic/educational projects with other Colleges, and presenting impactful initiatives that could reach further and deeper into the core of what a university is about; the quest for knowledge and scholarly understanding, curiosity and exploration, inventiveness and innovation, honor of traditions and what humans have learned from the past and bring to the present, and life-changing educational pursuits.”
Dr. Sung is one of the two professors from the College of Arts and Humanities to receive this award. Music Professor Jeffrey Rupert was honored as a Trustee Chair last year.