heads and chairs

AGU Bridge Program: Making Progress on Equity in Geoscience Graduate Education

Friday, April 26, 2024

The AGU Bridge Program is committed to promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion in the Earth and space sciences through the dissemination of leading practices in higher education and the facilitation of a graduate application pathway at our partner departments. The program’s goal is to expand outreach and recruitment of students identifying as Hispanic, Black/African American, American Indian, Pacific Islander, Alaskan Native or Native Hawaiian for the AGU Bridge Program to achieve their educational goals in supportive and inclusive environments, thereby raising graduate degree attainment rates for students holding these identities. Join Eva Kostyu, Program Manager, AGU Bridge Program and Pranoti M. Asher, Assistant Director at AGU to learn more about the program and its impact.

ADVANCEing FieldSafety: Training for diverse and inclusive geoscience teams – A new course and toolkit

Friday, May 3, 2024

ADVANCEing FieldSafety is a program that provides field research teams with the training and tools to promote safe and inclusive environments, identify and mitigate unsafe and harmful behaviors, and create a culture within field teams that reduces the likelihood and impact of these behaviors in the future.

Panelists are:

  • Anne U. Gold - Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Blair Schneider - Kansas Geological Survey, University of Kansas
  • Mariama Dryák-Vallies - Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder
  • Alexandra M. Padilla - Cooperative Institute for Research in Environmental Sciences, University of Colorado Boulder

During this webinar, the panelists will discuss:

  • the development of an asynchronous online training course and an accompanying toolkit of references and resources for field teams,
  • the different certification pathways for training participants,
  • how the training addresses the new NSF PAPPG for safe and inclusive field environments (2E9),
  • and our research plan for studying the effectiveness of the training course and Toolkit resources for participants and field teams.

ADVANCEing FieldSafety is an NSF-funded collaboration between CU-Boulder and the ADVANCEGeo Partnership.

Juggling work-life balance as a department chair: a community discussion

Friday, March 8, 2024

Managing the demands of the day-to-day work, balancing the need for making progress on one's research, and seeking work-life balance often causes tension in the life of a department chair. Whether you have been a chair for a long time or are a fairly new chair, you have probably experienced this tension. Please join this community discussion to share and learn from each other as we discuss strategies to mitigate these competing demands on your time.

Summary and Recommendations / Examples from the Webinar Discussion

Strategies for Managing Work-Life Balance

The speakers and participants shared some tips and examples of how they cope with the demands of their roles, such as compartmentalization, delegation, communication, praise, and self-care. They also emphasized the importance of setting boundaries, prioritizing tasks, being flexible, and seeking support from peers and mentors. Some of the speakers also mentioned how they have adapted their research and teaching activities during the pandemic.

Challenges and Opportunities for Department Chairs

The speakers and participants also discussed some of the difficulties and benefits of being a department chair, such as dealing with difficult faculty, fostering a positive culture, supporting faculty and students, and redefining success. They also talked about the need for clear expectations, shared governance, and administrative backing. Some of the speakers also shared their experiences of transitioning to the chair role and how they balance their research and service commitments.

Specific Recommendations and Examples from the Discussion

  • Scheduling dedicated uninterrupted time for research.
  • Be very thoughtful about what your priorities are, and very intentional about what parts of your job you were doing before you were chair that you will continue
  • Delegation is key if you can do so, such as empowering committees to do most of the important work in the department.
  • It's important to model work-life balance to the rest of the department, including to students within the department.
  • It's important to communicate to those in the department the importance of self-care and work-life balance.
  • Talking about your hobbies and what you like to do outside of work helps illustrate to others that you implement work-life balance for yourself.
  • Identify what your faculty need to be excellent and try to clear the runway for them to have those opportunities. Example, someone is motivated to do curriculum design, so you make it a valuable part of their portfolio. Find ways for people to take the ball and run with it in ways they want to run with it.
  • Emphasize with junior faculty to have reasonable expectations for their progress towards tenure.
  • Don't send messages outside of business hours. Schedule those messages to show up during office hours.
  • Be understanding that life happens and set a positive work environment.
  • Give yourself grace in research productivity if your meeting requirements are high.
  • Take the time to have lighter weeks when you can to recharge.
  • Use more carrots than sticks.
  • Send out a weekly email during the term to highlight and give kudos to the activities going on in the department – publishing of papers, those who were awarded grants, research covered in the media, etc. Thank and congratulate people when they do not just research but also service.
  • Keep an up-to-date webpage of all the happenings in the department – with pictures of people participating in events and activities, etc.
  • Make it known if you have discretionary funds to help faculty get additional equipment, etc.
  • Let it be known that those who step up to help the department can expect help from the department.
  • Talk up your department and reward your faculty in whatever ways you can when they do step up.
  • Provide appropriate teaching release in exchange for service work.
  • Encourage your students to encourage your faculty to be good citizens to get their projects moving along.
  • If you have a service expectation as part of the faculty job descriptions you can make it clear that it's a serious assessment every year to provide incentive for faculty to engage in service activities.
  • Be intentional about spending a fair amount of time with one-on-one meetings with faculty and among faculty – like coffee dates and lunch dates.
  • Find a way to communicate with your immediate administration (i.e., Dean) to open channels so you have their support and backing.
  • Department meetings every other week opposite faculty meetings to bring speakers in to talk about best practices of teaching and spend time together.
  • Make department groups to address departmental issues that you collectively want to prioritize.
  • Rethink your seminars so that you can spend time building the social fabric of the department. Example, ask department to show up 30 min prior to the lecture, and spend that time eating and interacting together and with the speaker. Then hear the talk afterwards, and then afterwards all the grad students get to interact with the speaker.
  • Gift faculty a set of lunches at the school cafeteria so they can go out to lunch with each other or take their group to lunch. This helps build camaraderie within the department.
  • Keep collaboration going by sending students to different research groups within the department, and delegate the meeting planning and agenda setting to postdocs.
  • As department chair, figure out what you can take off your plate.
  • The leaders I have always admired, what I admired most about them was that they defined their success not as their personal success, but as the success of everybody around them. And so you redefine your success as a department head as your department's success.
  • Have students also be involved in departmental decisions and on committees.
  • In meetings ask everyone for input regardless of rank. Example, start with the students, then non-tenure track, then assistant professors, associate professors, and then full professors to flip the power and influence dynamic and remove the barriers to communication.
  • If you are going to ask junior faculty to do service, give them meaningful service opportunities so they can have that kind of experience, but also let them know it's okay to say no.

Additional context and information

Issues related to work-life balance that were discussed in this webinar corroborate some of the findings from surveys conducted by AGI, one related to the COVID Impacts study, and a more recent one that AGI did for UNESCO of geoscience researchers in Africa. Questions about work-life balance on these surveys were very similar and the results were nearly identical. The results from both studies show that work life balance issues such as childcare, eldercare, health, and other matters have affected the productivity and career aspirations of many geoscientists, regardless of geographic location or career path.

Changing the academic culture around mental health

Friday, February 9, 2024

Mental health is a crucial issue in academia, but issues related to mental health and wellness are often swept under the rug, both at the individual and institutional levels. Mental health challenges can be particularly acute in geoscience, particularly in field, shipboard, laboratory, or virtual environments that are often isolating.

Join Dr. Maureen Long, Professor and Chair, from the Yale University’s Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences to learn how her department addressed issues around disability, mental health, and chronic illness and how she and her colleagues and her institution continue to discuss and implement solutions to ongoing challenges. This webinar will provide an overview of one departments initiatives, a discussion of ongoing challenges, and advice for departmental leaders (including chairs, directors of graduate studies, and DEI committee members) on how to effect change. Please join the conversation to learn and share your strategies with the community.

Additional Resources

Exploring Successes in Strengthening Enrollment and Managing Administrative Expectations, a Panel and Community Discussion

Friday, November 3, 2023

The AGU/AGI Heads and Chairs webinar series is pleased to offer a free webinar that will feature a panel and community discussion about strengthening enrollment and managing administrative expectations.

Our panelists are:

  • W. Steven Holbrook, Professor and Department Head, Department of Geosciences, Virginia Tech
  • Cynthia Liutkus-Pierce, Professor and Chair, Department of Geological and Environmental Sciences, Appalachian State University

Collectors, Nightlights, & Allies, Oh My! : Advice for Strengthening Cross-Racial Mentoring Relationships

Friday, October 6, 2023

In this webinar our speaker, Dr. Martinez-Cola, a social scientist at Morehouse College, identifies and describes three types of mentoring relationships she has encountered throughout her academic journey. Through a combination of storytelling and information sharing, she hopes to inspire self-reflection that can lead to a deeper understanding of both mentors and protégés.

Dr. Marisela Martinez-Cola is an assistant professor of sociology at Morehouse College. She recd. her bachelor's degree in psychology and African American studies from the University of Michigan. She then earned her law degree at Loyala University Chicago School of Law. Following that she worked in the world of student affairs for many years before she pursued her Ph.D in sociology at Emory University.  She was a faculty at Utah State University before she joined Morehouse College.

Additional Resources

Leveraging Data using a DEI Lens to Inform Programs and Policies at your Institution/Department

Friday, September 22, 2023

This webinar will explore why applying a DEI lens to "data about people" is important, outline strategies to maximize impact of your data while reducing potential harm, and provide a detailed example of how Colorado School of Mines applied these strategies for investigating student retention of marginalized groups.

Our panelists are:

  • Heather Houlton (she/her), Research Analyst for Diversity, Inclusion & Access, Colorado School of Mines
  • Arielle Rainey (she/her), Research Project Professional for Diversity, Inclusion & Access, Colorado School of Mines

Additional Resources

Mental Health on College Campuses and Scientific Institutions: Are we in a crisis or in the midst of a transformation?

Friday, February 24, 2023

In the post-COVID Pandemic era, there is growing evidence that a mental health crisis is spreading across the country. Studies have reported that child mental health, in general, and College-aged students, in particular, have deteriorated across the nation over the past few years (APA, 2022). Mental Health stigma, limited mental health tools and resources, and a sense of "disconnection" borne out of social-distancing policies are contributing factors.
 
Although described as a public health crisis, the levels of emotional turmoil may actually be a sign that young people across the country, on college campuses and in scientific institutions, may be undergoing a transformation. A transformation that highlights generational shifts in attitudes and societal expectations for those in the student population and early career workforce. Those campuses and institutions that recognize this growing threat, may be well positioned to intervene at a lower level to prevent more dire outcomes, and perhaps reap the benefits of a large and growing workforce moving its way through schools, colleges and institutions through informed and compassionate policies and practices.

Our speaker is:
Erick Bacho, Ph.D., ABPP
Commander, Medical Service Corps, United States Navy Clinical / Medical Psychologist
Assistant Professor of Psychology, United States Naval Academy

Additional Resources

Coaching Resources

  • Coaching for Performance: GROWing Human Potential and Purpose - The Principles and Practice of Coaching and Leadership,  by John Whitmore (Oct 10, 2009).
  • The Coaching Habit: Say Less, Ask More & Change the Way You Lead Forever, by Michael Bungay Stanier
  • On Becoming a Leadership Coach, Edited by Chris Wahl, Clarice Scriber and Beth Bloomfield, 2013, 2nd Edition (Written by Faculty of the Georgetown Leadership Coaching Certification Program)
  • Co-Active Coaching: The Proven Framework for Transformative Conversations in Work and in Life, by Henry Kimsey-House, Karen Kimsey-House, Phillip Sandahl, Laura Whitworth, 2011. 4th Edition
  • Language and the Pursuit of Leadership Excellence, by Chalmers Brothers and Vinay Kumar, 2015
  • Coaching: Evoking Excellence in Others, by James Flaherty, 2010. 3rd Edition
  • You Can’t Be a Great Manager If You're Not a Good Coach, by Monique Valcour, Harvard Business Review, July 17, 2014
  • How to get your Team to Coach Each Other, by Stewart D. Friedman, Harvard Business Review, March 3, 2015.
  • How Great Coaches Ask, Listen and Empathize, by Ed Batista, Harvard Business Review, February 18, 2015.
  • What Really Happens in Executive Coaching, by Madeleine Homan Blanchard, Chief Learning Officer, June 29, 2017
  • Video: How to Tame Your Advice Monster, Michael Bungay Stanier (14:29)
    Michael Bungay Stanier discusses why we are so primed to give advice, and why doing so can sabotage our conversations. This is a fundamental skill of coaching that makes it different from any other type of professional conversation.
  • MyNavy Coaching Resources
  • MyNavy Coaching Handbook
  • MyNavy Coaching Leader Handbook

Listening Resources

Asking Great Questions Resources

  • Video: How to Coach (by asking questions) (6:36)
    A concise but helpful overview of how questions can be restructured to be more powerful and effective.
  • Video: Increase Your Self-Awareness with One Simple Fix - Tasha Eurich (17:17)
    This video dives into the reasons that asking "why" can be problematic, particularly in the context of getting to know ourselves better. When we ask "why", it doesn’t lead us toward the truth, it leads us away from it. The simple fix is changing "why" questions to "what" questions to achieve greater self-awareness.
  • Podcast: These Coaching Questions Get Results, with Michael Bungay Stanier (42:04) [Coaching for Leaders]
    This is an outstanding overview of what coaching is as well as how to practice it successfully as a leader. Michael Bungay Stanier describes some fundamental coaching questions that anyone can use to unlock insights and help others learn and grow. A practical and approachable introduction to the world of coaching.
  • Podcast: How to Ask Better Questions, with David Marquet (35:41) [Coaching for Leaders]
    David Marquet is the former commander of the U.S.S. Santa Fe. Under his command, the ship had an impressive turnaround, achieving the highest retention and operational standings in the Navy. In this conversation, David and the host, Dave Stachowiak, explore the seven sins of questioning. David shares the story of the ill-fated El Faro and how we can discover better information in leadership by making the shift from self-affirming to self-educating.
  • Humble Inquiry, by Edgar Schein (127 pages)
  • Relearning the Art of Asking Great Questions, by Tom Pohlmann and Neethi Mary Thomas, Harvard Business Review, March, 27, 2015
  • The Questions Good Coaches Ask, by Amy Jen Su, Harvard Business Review, December 12, 2014

Empathy Resources

Stories that We Carry Resources

Neuroscience and Leadership Resources

  • Thinking, Fast and Slow by Daniel Kahneman (Apr 2, 2013)
  • Quiet Leadership: Six Steps to Transforming Performance at Work by David Rock (2006)
  • Social Intelligence and the Biology of Leadership, by Daniel Goleman and Richard Boyatzis, Harvard Business Review, September 2008

Changing Habits / Managing Time Resources

  • The Power of Full Engagement: Managing Energy, Not Time, Is the Key to High Performance and Personal Renewal, Paperback, by Jim Loehr and Tony Schwartz (Jan 3, 2005)
  • The Fifth Discipline: The Art and Practice of The Learning Organization by Peter Senge
  • Podcast: Leadership in the Midst of Chaos, with Jim Mattis (38:49) [Coaching for Leaders]
    Gen Mattis, USMC (Ret.) discusses his career in the Marines and the leadership lessons that emerged during combat. He shares the mistake he made in soliciting support for his plan to capture Osama Bin Laden in Tora Bora and discusses how he handled disagreements on strategy in Fallujah. Finally, he recommends three books and reflects on the greatest threat to America today.
  • Manage Your Energy, Not Your Time, by Tony Schwartz and Catherine McCarthy, Harvard Business Review, October 2007
  • The Real Reason People Won’t Change, by Robert Kegan and Lisa Lahey, Harvard Business Review, November 2001
  • Free Online Course: How to Get and Be a Great Peer Coach (15:00) Developed by Scott Eblin, former faculty at Georgetown Leadership Coaching program. The focus is on Peer Coaching.
  • Video: Rethinking Thinking (Ladder of Inference) with Trevor Maber, (5:32)
    Every day, we meet people and process our interactions--making inferences and developing beliefs about the world around us. In this lesson, Trevor Maber introduces us to the idea of a 'ladder of inference' and a process for rethinking the way we interact.

Introducing GROW, a new career tool for the geoscience community

Friday, April 14, 2023

GROW (Geoscience Resources on Opportunities in the Workforce) is a new collection of career resources for geoscience undergraduate and graduate students wondering, “What job opportunities do I have outside of academia?” This webinar will discuss the aims of the GROW project, framing the geoscience careers conversation around transferable skills, student identities, and the dynamic nature of the workforce. We will introduce the GROW website (grow-geocareers.com), which hosts the resources for departments, mentors, and students, and provide guidance to heads and chairs on how best to use this tool to support their students’ career development.

Please meet our panelists for the April webinar –
Madison (Maddie) Wood is a PhD student and Adina Paytan is a Research Scientist  in the Earth and Planetary Sciences at the University of California Santa Cruz
 

Additional Resources

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