At Wake Forest University, faculty members play a pivotal role not only in their teaching and scholarly pursuits but also in their contributions to academic and administrative leadership. This encompassing involvement, spanning from committee, area, department and program chairs to senators and faculty board representatives to associate deans, deans, associate and vice provosts, and provosts, holds immense significance in advancing our academic mission university-wide. The Office of the Provost is dedicated to acknowledging and equipping faculty for these indispensable leadership roles. In collaboration with HR, the Professional Development Center, and various other avenues both within and beyond WFU, we actively support a range of programs and initiatives designed to nurture and enhance faculty leadership development.
PDC’s Leadership Development Program
Hosted by the Professional Development Center, Wake Forest’s Leadership Development Program (LDP) is open to administrative senior leaders and tenured faculty members who are in leadership roles, or who have a desire to attain one in the future. The cohort of faculty and staff meets for monthly sessions throughout the academic year that focus on critical leadership/management topics, as well as individual coaching to focus on personal desired outcomes. The next cohort of the LDP will begin accepting applications in the spring for the 2024-2025 academic year program.
New and Coming Soon!
Look for details on these new programs coming in 2024 in future Provost’s news.
- New Leaders Institute. In addition to the LDP for more advanced leadership development, the Professional Development Center is piloting in Spring 2024 a New Leaders Institute for faculty and staff new to or seeking first-time formalized leadership roles. Contact Associate Provost Anne Hardcastle for more information.
- The Provost’s Office is excited to announce a generous gift from longtime Wake Forest friends, Marc Miller ‘77 and Chris Horsman, aimed at enhancing faculty leadership development opportunities. The Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs will use these funds to support programming for aspiring faculty leaders and will roll out plans in 2024.
The ACC ALN, Atlantic Coast Conference Academic Leaders Network, is a leadership program hosted collectively by ACC universities and sponsored by ACC Provosts with the goals of building internal leadership capacity, diversifying the leadership pool, facilitating succession planning, and developing internal networks and collaborations. The program consists of three on-site sessions over the course of the calendar year, each hosted at a different participating university campus. These sessions are designed to build academic leadership awareness and effectiveness in the context of higher education and facilitate conversations over a range of topics that support leadership growth in key areas across multiple spheres of influence.
Through this program, academic leaders can further their knowledge of interpersonal leadership styles, build equity-minded leadership capacity, and develop their ability to lead and navigate complex challenges in higher education in a setting that provides exposure to multiple disciplines, organizational roles and structures from a variety of institutions. Faculty in the ACC ALN have an opportunity to grow in community with other academic leaders from Wake Forest as well as build relationships and network with representatives from other ACC institutions.
The ACC Academic Leaders Network builds upon existing campus programs by creating distinctive learning opportunities while capitalizing on networking and collaborative opportunities to further develop our leaders along a range of dimensions, in ways that no single university can accomplish on its own.
Wake Forest University’s 2023 ACC ALN cohort of faculty leaders:
- Rodrigo Castro, Director of Public Services, ZSR Library
- Amanda Griffith, Professor of Economics and department chair and Associate Dean for Academic Planning, Wake Forest College
- Kevin Jung, Professor of Theological Ethics and Moral Philosophy and Associate Dean of Academic Affairs, School of Divinity
- Tanya Marsh, Professor of Law and Senior Associate Dean, School of Law
- Jennifer Rogers, Associate Professor of Counseling and Associate Dean for Students, Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Contact WFU’s ACC ALN Liaison, Associate Provost Anne Hardcastle hardcaae@wfu.edu, for more information. The ACC ALN seeks faculty participants who have received some foundational leadership training and who have 1-2 years experience in their current leadership role. Nominations for the 2024 ACC ALN should include a CV and letter of support from the nominee’s supervisor or school dean to be submitted to Associate Provost Anne Hardcastle by December 1.
NCFDD (National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity)
The Provost’s Office encourages faculty to explore and use the resources available through Wake Forest’s institutional membership in the NCFDD (National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity). Through this membership faculty gain free access to organized and on-demand NCFDD programs in “four key areas to help achieve extraordinary writing and research productivity while maintaining a full and healthy life off campus.” Over 150 WFU faculty have participated in NCFDD programs like the webinars “Every Semester Needs a Plan,” “Building a Publishing Pipeline,” and the popular “14-Day Writing Challenge.” The NCFDD is a nationally-recognized, independent organization that provides online career development and mentoring resources for faculty, post-docs, and graduate students. Access these resources by activating a Wake Forest membership with a wfu.edu email account.