Professional Development

There are many paths to success as a faculty member but career goals are not easy to accomplish alone—we all need support to be successful. Professional development programs coupled with effective mentoring can provide the support for individuals to gain new skills and knowledge. We will provide programs to enhance the academic and professional development of faculty in their roles of teaching, research, patient care, outreach and public service, and leadership.

Programs planned for the next academic year include:

New Faculty Orientation: a day-long program on September 10, 2010, designed to orient new faculty to the institution, introduce them to leaders and colleagues, and start them on a path to success.

Junior Faculty Development Program (JFDP): targeted to assistant professors, this year-long program will provide an extensive curriculum in professional development coupled with a scholarly project conducted with the guidance of a senior faculty mentor. The program will begin in October 2010; applications are due July 30, 2010.

Mentoring: we will expand our long-standing support of faculty mentoring with a review of research mentoring at UMMS, and identify best practices to establish a comprehensive approach to mentoring at UMMS. This initiative began with a retreat on “Fostering Research Mentoring at UMMS” held June 29, 2010 and planning will continue over the summer.