Rate My Professor Charlene Wages

Dr. Charlene Wages serves as Vice President for Administration and Planning, Hugh K. Leatherman Professor of Public Service, and Professor of Psychology at Francis Marion University in Florence, South Carolina. She earned a Ph.D. with distinction in 1987 from Georgia State University, with a dissertation titled "Neurotoxin-induced Lesions of the Hippocampus: Effect of Preoperative Experience on Map-based Behavior." Her prior degrees include an M.A. from Georgia State University in 1979, with a thesis on "Incremental Training as a Therapeutic Procedure for Overresponding in Septal Rats," and a B.S. from the University of Georgia in 1974. Wages began her professional career holding positions such as Laboratory Instructor at Spelman College (1977-1985) and Georgia State University (1979-1980), Part-time Instructor at Georgia Institute of Technology (1980-1981) and Morris Brown College (1979-1980), and Psychophysiological Intern at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Tuskegee, AL (1978-1979). She joined Francis Marion University in 1987 as an Instructor, advancing to Assistant Professor (1991-1995), Associate Professor (1991-1995), and full Professor since 1991. In 2005, she became Vice President for Administration, later titled Vice President for Administration and Planning, overseeing human resources, administrative computing, instructional technology, inventory, payroll, telecommunications, and institutional research.

Dr. Wages' research specializations include the role of intramaze stimuli in spatial problem-solving, cholinergic blockade effects on spatial integration versus cue discrimination, problem-solving deficits in septal animals, cognitive maps in rats, and hippocampal memory mechanisms. Key publications are "Spatial problem solving by rats: Exploration and cognitive maps" (Ellen, Parko, Wages, Doherty, & Herrmann, 1982, Learning and Motivation), "Problem solving in the rat: Piecemeal acquisition of cognitive maps" (Ellen, Soteres, & Wages, 1984, Animal Learning and Behavior), "The use of intramaze stimuli in the attenuation of the problem-solving deficit of septal animals" (Ellen & Wages, 1984, Physiological Psychology), "Cholinergic blockade effects on spatial integration vs. cue discrimination performance" (Ellen, Taylor, & Wages, 1986, Behavioral Neuroscience), "The role of intramaze stimuli in spatial problem solving" (Wages, 1986, book chapter in Cognitive Processes and Spatial Orientation in Animal and Man), "Effects of applicant’s adverse medical history on college students’ ratings of job applications" (Wages, Manson, & Jordan, 1990, Journal of Applied Social Psychology), and "Gifted residential education: Outcomes are largely positive, but there are some cautions" (Dorsel & Wages, 1993, Roeper Review). Awards include the Hugh K. Leatherman Chair in Public Service (2004), Honorary Doctorate of Humanities from Francis Marion University (2004), Francis Marion University AAUP-Chapter Shared Governance Award (2001), and FMU African-American Faculty and Staff Coalition Diversity Award (2023). She has contributed extensively to governance as Chair of the Faculty (2000-2004), Faculty Senate Chair (1995-1997), SACSOC Accreditation Liaison since 2005, and through numerous committees. The Charlene Wages Shared Governance Award at FMU honors faculty governance contributions.