Business and Administration

Dr. Emmett Winn has been serving as Auburn’s Associate Vice President for Administrative Effectiveness since January 2023. In this role, he acts as the Administrative Effectiveness officer for all administrative units by recommending, planning, developing, implementing, evaluating, and improving administrative effectiveness programs and services. Moreover, he serves as advisor to senior administration on matters related to cultivating a culture of excellence in administrative effectiveness by recommending, developing, maintaining, assessing, and improving administrative effectiveness goals, results, and programs.

In addition, Dr. Winn oversees the Gogue Performing Arts Center, The Jule Collins Smith Museum, the Auburn University Airport, the Office of Sustainability, The Ombuds Office, Parking Services and Transportation Services. He also works closely with Auburn’s Facilities Management on matters related to a variety of non-academic facilities.
Winn earned his bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Communication from Auburn University and his Ph.D. from the University of South Florida. After earning his doctorate, he began teaching at Auburn. As a professor, he has educated students in courses including Introduction to Film Studies, History of International Cinema, and History of the American Film Industry, as well as several graduate courses including Qualitative Methods.

Dr. Winn is the author of the 2016 book Communication and Conflict Management: A Handbook for the New Department Chair published by Academic Impressions, the 2012 book Documenting Racism: African Americans in U.S. Department of Agriculture Films and the 2007 book The American Dream and Contemporary Hollywood Cinema both published by Bloomsbury Publishing. Dr. Winn also coedited a 2005 University of Alabama Press book, Transmitting the Past: Historical and Cultural Perspectives on Broadcasting. Additionally, Dr. Winn has published numerous scholarly articles in international, national, and regional Communication and Film Studies journals including the Journal of Communication, Critical Studies in Mass Communication, the Southern Communication Journal, the Journal of Broadcasting and Electronic Media, Film and History, and Kinema.

Winn is a member of the Phi Kappa Phi Honor Society and Omicron Delta Kappa National Leadership Honor Society. He served as the Executive Director for the Southern States Communication Association for five years and is a member of the American Association of University Professors (AAUP).

In 2023 Winn received the AAUP Glenn Howze Academic Freedom Award presented by the Auburn University AAUP Chapter in recognition of his career long advocacy and support of Academic Freedom. He was honored with an Auburn Author Award in 2015. In 2011 Winn was chosen as a distinguished alumnus by the University of South Florida and in 2013 he received the T. Earle Johnson-Edwin Paget Distinguished Service Award from the Southern States Communication Association.

Prior to being appointed as AVP for Administrative Effectiveness, Dr. Winn served as Auburn’s Associate Provost for thirteen years. As Associate Provost, Winn provided insight and leadership concerning academic and administrative issues across all colleges and schools at the University. Dr. Winn provided direct supervision to many academic areas over the course of his service including Auburn Global (international student recruitment and retention), Auburn Online, the Biggio Center for the Enhancement of Teaching and Learning, engaged active student learning (EASL) classrooms, the Jay and Susie Gogue Performing Arts Center, the Jule Collins Smith Museum, the Office of International Programs, the Honors College, the AU ROTC programs, Accessibility, Information Technology, and the Registrar’s Office. Moreover, Dr. Winn worked closely with the more than sixty department chairs, the University Promotion and Tenure committee, the University Senate leadership, and the academic unit leaders in all processes related to faculty hiring, evaluating, and issues related to the promotion and tenure process, and post-tenure review.

Dr. Winn also directed and prioritized the assignment and allocation of space for all academic units with Auburn’s Facilities Management. In this work, he represented academic interests in building renovation, construction, space management, and campus planning.

Dr. Winn consults on issues related to administrative effectiveness, international education, online education, campus planning, and conflict management and communication in academic settings. In this capacity, he has participated in training faculty, staff, and administrators from more than 100 institutions of higher education.

Dr. Abbygail (Abby) Langham assumed the inaugural Executive Director for Administrative Effectiveness role at Auburn University (AU) in October 2023. As a member of the Administrative Effectiveness leadership team, Langham leads and oversees the mission of the office to actively support quality assessment of units, programs, and services to provide evidence of continuous improvement. She leads all assessment and effectiveness efforts for administrative and co-curricular campus units. As executive director, Langham plays a key role in developing data-informed strategies for administrative units that support the institution’s accreditation, assessment, strategic planning, and data-management efforts.

An accomplished administrator, Langham brings years of extensive assessment, strategic planning, institutional research, and administrative leadership experience to the executive director role. She assumed the Executive Director position after serving as the Director of Assessment & Strategic Planning in Student Affairs at Auburn for over a decade.

In addition, Langham holds graduate faculty status and teaches master's and doctoral-level courses in the Administration of Higher Education program and the Educational Research Methods and Analysis program in the Department of Educational Foundations, Leadership and Technology in Auburn's College of Education. Outside of her full-time work and teaching responsibilities, Langham is often called on to consult and facilitate assessment and strategic planning activities both at Auburn and beyond.

Recognized for her data-informed approaches to planning and decision-making, Langham represented AU Student Affairs as a 2023 Leadership Lee County class graduate. The international professional association NASPA membership elected her to serve as a Womxn in Student Affairs Knowledge Community Co-Chair for 2022-2025. She has served as a board member for many years and was President of NASPA-Alabama from 2018-2020. NASPA-Alabama recognized Langham with the Outstanding Service to Region III Award in 2020.

Langham's demonstrated ability to provide vision, leadership, and supervision resulted in establishing an award-winning sustained culture of assessment for Student Affairs with the Campus Labs (now Anthology) All-Star Award in 2017. In addition, Langham regularly contributes to her field through peer- reviewed presentations and publications.

Langham joined Auburn in 2013 after serving as an institutional researcher in the Office of Planning and Analysis at the University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB). She also has worked at the University of Pennsylvania's Penn Center for Educational Leadership.

Langham holds a doctorate in educational leadership with a minor in higher education administration from UAB. She is an Auburn alumna at both the graduate and undergraduate levels, with a master's in public administration and a bachelor's in history.

"Establishing the Administrative Effectiveness office on my alma mater's campus is a privilege. I welcome the opportunity to apply my experiences as the first Director of Assessment & Strategic Planning in Student Affairs to this work with AU's administrative units." – Abby Langham, Ph.D