Members of the inaugural Chairs Leadership Academy meet at Lister Hill Library.There has perhaps never been a more challenging time to be an academic department chair.
“The chair’s job is always difficult,” said Michelle Robinson, D.M.D., senior vice provost for Faculty Affairs. “They have faculty and staff reporting to them, with the added pressure for a first-time chair of leading the group that you were just part of. One day, these are your colleagues, and the next, you are their boss. But you are still a faculty member, so you are doing many of the same things that the people who report to you are doing.” The COVID and post-pandemic eras have added new stressors to faculty, students and staff at higher education institutions worldwide, “and a great deal of that falls to the chair,” Robinson said.
After Robinson began her position in Faculty Affairs in February 2023, she launched a series of workshops open to the institution’s 60-plus chairs. “There was so much interest in the workshops, and in the discussion time afterward,” Robinson said. That was particularly evident at a half-day, in-person workshop last year, she added: “Our evaluations from that workshop showed there was a real desire for more time in person to network and share ideas.”
The UAB Chairs Leadership Academy, a yearlong program that began in June 2024 with a cohort of 18 faculty leaders, is designed to equip department chairs with the skills necessary to excel as leaders on campus. “Our goals are to help participants enhance their effectiveness, help them navigate challenges they are facing, build a peer network of like-minded chairs, build leadership competencies and drive positive change in their departments,” Robinson said.
“I know what having a very good chair can do for your career,” said Michelle Robinson, D.M.D., senior vice provost for Faculty Affairs. “They have been a major part of my development, and that is part of my motivation and desire to help them share those skills with their colleagues.”Chairs play an important role in the development of faculty members, Robinson notes. “I know what having a very good chair can do for your career,” she said. “They have been a major part of my development, and that is part of my motivation and desire to help them share those skills with their colleagues.”
“The Chairs Leadership Academy has helped me both by facilitating conversations among peers and through the wisdom of experience from the facilitators. I have felt encouraged in my ability to grow within my position as chair,” said Lisa Gezon, Ph.D., professor and chair of the UAB Department of Anthropology.
Although academic departments may vary widely in size, scope and personnel, many elements of a chair’s job are the same across the university. “Some chairs focus heavily on mentoring, with different mentoring plans based on the level that each faculty member has reached,” Robinson said. “Others have great ideas on ways to improve operations or handle the evaluation process for faculty. I think the sharing mechanism built into the Chairs Leadership Academy will be very valuable.”
Participants are nominated by their deans. They receive individual coaching and professional development sessions; meet in small groups for peer coaching, mentoring and feedback; and practice conducting difficult conversations and honing their communication strategies. The academy was developed in partnership with Triangle Associates, a consulting firm specializing in education leadership training. “They do training for a number of institutions nationwide,” Robinson said. “But our academy does not follow any model exactly. We customized it based on the issues chairs are bringing to me and the questions they were asking in the workshops.”
This investment in UAB’s faculty leaders “will help us with retention in a very competitive environment nationally, where high-potential individuals have a lot of options,” Robinson said. The deans have demonstrated their excitement about the Chairs Leadership Academy by sharing the cost for the program with the Provost Office, she notes. “Kudos to the deans for making this investment in their chairs. Every dean said, ‘Yes, we want to invest in this program.’”
The process of selecting the next cohort for the academy is going on now, Robinson says, with selections by early May. “This year, we are pleased to extend academy participation to assistant and associate deans, as well as chairs.”
