Mission

The mission of the Office of Faculty Development is to cultivate faculty success and well-being through professionally sustaining programs.

Vision

The vision of this office is to

• support faculty through a mentoring program with special attention given to an onboarding program or early mentoring program for assistant professors;
• cultivate a high rate of successful tenure and promotion decisions;
• foster a positive work climate and a responsiveness to work/life concerns; and
• strengthen the retention of faculty demonstrating high levels of professional accomplishment.

PROGRAMMING

Faculty Mentoring Program

The College of Education’s Faculty Mentoring Program is a formal college-wide program that brings together junior and senior level faculty from across our six departments. Incoming assistant professors and clinical assistant professors are matched with two mentors at the advanced assistant, associate, or full professor levels. The goal is to match faculty with one colleague from their home department as well as one mentor outside their home department to offer multiple points of support and varied perspectives. Incoming associate or full professors are matched with one mentor at rank or higher, unless requested otherwise. Mentors and mentees are encouraged to connect throughout the academic year and are provided with resources (see Dialogue Sparkers below) to build generative, meaningful, and sustaining relationships.

PROGRAMMING

The following details some of the programming offered by the Office of Faculty Development.

Faculty Mentoring Program

The College of Education’s Faculty Mentoring Program is a formal college-wide program that brings together junior and senior level faculty from across our six departments. Incoming assistant professors and clinical assistant professors are matched with two mentors at the advanced assistant, associate, or full professor levels. The goal is to match faculty with one colleague from their home department as well as one mentor outside their home department to offer multiple points of support and varied perspectives. Incoming associate or full professors are matched with one mentor at rank or higher, unless requested otherwise. Mentors and mentees are encouraged to connect throughout the academic year and are provided with resources to build generative, meaningful, and sustaining relationships.

If you are faculty in the College of Education and you would like to participate in this program, please contact Kelly Guyotte.

First-Year Faculty Support

The Office of Faculty Development offers specific programming to support all incoming first-year faculty in the College of Education.

First-Year Faculty Breakfasts

Throughout the academic year, we host four First-Year Faculty breakfasts, two in fall semester and two in spring semester. These breakfasts serve 3 primary purposes: 1) to cultivate opportunities for ongoing connection with one another, 2) to dialogue about how things are going and troubleshoot any issues that arise through a group mentoring format, and 3) to help faculty become acquainted with the College of Education senior-level administration including:

• Joyce Alexander, Dean
• Joy Burnham, Senior Associate Dean
• David Hardy, Associate Dean for Research and Service
• Nicole Swoszowski, Associate Dean of Undergraduate Education

COE Grant Writing Fellows Program

The Grant Writing Fellows Program is a competitive fellowship program that was initiated to support external grant seeking of those working toward tenure and promotion. The goal of this program is to enhance and extend the culture of grant writing support and success, helping faculty members at the 3rd and 4th year on the tenure track with grant-getting aspirations to achieve their goals.

Applications for the upcoming academic year are typically due in February. 

2025-2026 Grant Writing Fellows

Dr. Kevin Crombie, Kinesiology

Dr. KC Culver, Educational Leadership, Policy and Technology Studies

Dr. Hee Jung Gong, Educational Leadership, Policy and Technology Studies

Dr. Daniel Pimentel, Curriculum and Instruction

2024-2025 Grant Writing Fellows

Dr. Shena Crystel Sanchez, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

Dr. Courtney O’Grady, Special Education

Dr. Jewoong Moon, Educational Leadership, Policy and Technology Studies

2023-2024 Grant Writing Fellows

Dr. Chunhua Cao, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

Dr. Marissa Filderman, Special Education and Multiple Abilities

Dr. Kristen Lamb, Special Education and Multiple Abilities

Dr. JoonHo Lee, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

Dr. Kaiwen Man, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

Dr. Macarena Suarez-Pellicioni, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

2022-2023 Grant Writing Fellows

Dr. Elroy Aguiar, Kinesiology

Dr. Emily Lund, Educational Studies in Psychology, Research Methodology, and Counseling

Dr. Jee Suh, Curriculum & Instruction

Dr. Lee Winchester, Kinesiology

Elevate Research Grants

The College of Education is pleased to offer the opportunity for associate professors to apply for College of Education Elevate Research Grants. These grants are intended to serve much like start-up funding for new faculty; however, they might be thought of as ‘start-over’ funding since they support existing associate-level faculty. Elevate Research Grants support tenured faculty or promoted renewable contract faculty with research norms who are seeking to explore innovative research projects or to pursue new, timely, and/or interdisciplinary lines of research. Faculty should provide a compelling rationale that this grant will elevate or jumpstart research productivity toward full/clinical full professor and will lead to publications, presentations, external funding, and/or new collaborations. The maximum funding amount is $10,000. Faculty will receive information about these grants at the end of fall semester each academic year with deadline often around February.

WHOLE PERSON FACULTY DEVELOPMENT

Because academics carry myriad experiences, roles, and responsibilities both inside and outside of the academy, the Office of Faculty Development seeks to support faculty as whole people. Each academic year, the Office of Faculty Development seeks to respond to current faculty conversations and needs and offers a series – often in partnership with an outside academic coach – that engages faculty with a particular topic or focus. Previous series have focused on rhythms of academic life, cultivating the leader within, flourishing