ADVANCE Leadership Journeys

ADVANCE Leadership Journeys

ADVANCE Leadership Journeys is a cohort program to encourage and support the leadership development of mid-career faculty (associate professor and higher, tenured and fixed-term) seeking to enhance their skills and advance into senior leadership, research, and teaching positions.

Faculty join a multidisciplinary cohort of mid-career faculty for monthly workshops and engage in self-discovery of leadership values, strengths, and skills. Faculty develop their professional goals and establish peer support. Each workshop includes self-reflection activities, interactive discussion, and small group activities. Throughout ADVANCE Leadership Journeys, participants are given space to build community and deepen their leadership identity.

The program showcases respected and accomplished academic leaders across the University. Featured leaders contribute pre-recorded interviews sharing their leadership journeys, challenges, and successes, and each workshop features a leader for live Q&A with the cohort. Featured speakers represent a breadth of academic leadership roles and disciplines.

As part of the ADVANCE Leadership Journeys experience, faculty have the opportunity to conduct or plan a leadership change project, which they will lead and for which they will provide recommendations. Ideally, the project will be informed by individual leadership values, instill a sense of purpose, and benefit both the participant’s professional advancement and the effectiveness and efficiency of their unit or department. Project guidelines are available here.

Formerly Women ADVANCE Leadership, ADVANCE Leadership Journeys continues our mission to support mid-career faculty and provide a welcoming space for career exploration, self-discovery, community-building, and empowerment. ADVANCE Leadership Journeys welcomes all faculty regardless of age, color, disability, gender, gender expression, gender identity, genetic information, national origin, race, religion, sex, sexual orientation or veteran status. In particular, we encourage individuals, regardless of gender, gender expression, gender identity, and sex, to participate in this program.

ADVANCE Leadership Journeys is made possible through collaboration between Targeting Equity in Access to Mentoring (TEAM) ADVANCE, the Center for Faculty Excellence, and the University Office for Diversity and Inclusion. TEAM ADVANCE was developed and supported by an National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant (NSF Award 1760187) to promote accessible and effective mentoring and faculty development across the University. The grant concluded August 31, 2023, with TEAM ADVANCE programs sustained by the CFE.