Fridays, 8:30 – 10:00 am (in-person; light breakfast provided)
Program Leaders
- Diane Kelly, Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
- Anne Smith, Professor, Management and Entrepreneurship and Judy & King Rogers Professor in Business
Description and Audience
This year-long, cohort-based program is primarily aimed at new department heads and school directors and is also open to new associate deans and other faculty who are serving in primarily full-time positions as academic administrators, including those in department-free colleges. This program will be most beneficial to those in their first or second year of service, and especially to leaders from outside of UTK.
Participants will gain leadership and management skills, including how to navigate challenging issues and address conflict, how to support faculty and staff development and growth, how to structure and promote the work of others, and how to stay organized and focused. Participants will strengthen their network of support and contacts across campus and become oriented to campus systems, processes, services, and people to aid them in their administrative work.
Application Process: Nominations are solicited from college deans at the start of each academic year and nominees are sent an invitation to join the cohort.
2023-2024 Cohort
| Name | Title & College |
| Courtney Childers | Interim Director School of Journalism & Media |
| Josh Dunn | Executive Director, Institute of American Civics Baker School of Public Policy and Public Affairs |
| Nathan Fleshner | Associate Professor of Music Theory, Interim Associate Dean of Research and Facilities |
| Zan Gao | Department Head & Professor Department of Kinesiology, Recreation, and Sport Studies |
| Mary Gitau | Associate Dean of Equity & Inclusion College of Social Work |
| Mingzhou (Ming) Jin | Department Head of Industrial and Systems Engineering and Director of the Institute for a Secure and Sustainable Environment |
| Kate Jones | Divisional Dean for Natural Sciences and Mathematics College of Arts and Sciences |
| Phillip Moore | Interim Assistant Dean of Undergraduate Programs College of Nursing |
| Helene Sinnreich | Department Head Department of Religious Studies |
| Billy Thomas | Professor, Neurology & Neurosurgery & Interim Director Small Animal Hospital |
| Raj Vattem | Department Head & Professor of Nutrition College of Education, Health & Human Sciences |
2023-2024 Schedule
LOCATION – Hodges Library 605
Pre-reading – Chapters 1 and 2 in The College Administrator’s Survival Guide (C.K. Gunsalus)
This session is about making the most out of your first months in your leadership position. We will spend time getting to know each other and will discuss how to identify the most significant and pressing issues in your unit. We will discuss how to create an agenda for the year that we will return to in the last NALA session in May. We also will discuss how to begin to build a positive, future-oriented culture in your unit.
LOCATION – TBD Pre-reading – Chapters 8 and 9 in The College Administrator’s Survival Guide (C.K. Gunsalus) This session will cover procedures, practices, and challenges related to faculty annual performance and planning reviews and different models for how reviews can be conducted. Best practices will also be discussed, including issues related to equity, fairness, and workload distributions. Discussion covers both tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty. (Last year’s NALA cohort noted that this was one of the most helpful sessions.)
Pre-reading – Review the faculty promotion and tenure section in the faculty handbook LOCATION – TBD This session will review the promotion and tenure policies and procedures for faculty. Best practices for supporting faculty on their quests for promotion and tenure including faculty mentoring will be discussed. Discussion covers both tenure-track and non-tenure-track faculty.
Pre-reading – Chapters 3 and 4 in The College Administrator’s Survival Guide (C.K. Gunsalus) LOCATION – TBD Academic departments can be complex organizations with many different personalities, work styles, communication abilities and styles, and histories. Conflict is inevitable and can be healthy. However, people often lack the skills to engage in healthy and productive conflict, which often leads to long-term organizational dysfunction. In this session, we will discuss different types of conflict and problematic behaviors and review ways to approach conflict and address dysfunctional relationships.
In combination with the Department Head Forum LOCATION – Student Union, Room 377A (Executive Dining Room) Student issues emerge throughout the semester and can take up significant time. In this session, we will identify some of these student issues – from undergraduate to doctoral students – and provide resources and ways to manage them in a productive fashion. A panel of campus experts will discuss some of the more common issues and productive ways to address these issues.
Pre-Reading – Chapter 7 in The College Administrator’s Survival Guide (C.K. Gunsalus); complete the Conflict Dynamics Profile assessment by a specified date before this session LOCATION – TBD This session will be led by the UTK Office Ombuds Services and participants will be asked to complete the Conflict Dynamics Profile before the session. Participants will receive an invitation to complete the assessment at a time closer to this session. Please complete the assessment to ensure that you can participate in this session with individualized results in hand. During the session, you will be provided with a group debrief. Participants may voluntarily schedule a meeting with the ombuds for further individual debriefing to review and discuss assessment results.
Pre-reading – TBA LOCATION – TBA This session will cover hiring practices related to both tenure-track and non-tenure track faculty, including procedures for conducting searches and requesting appointments. This session will also present best practices for attracting and recruiting more diverse faculty and conducting fair and equitable searches.
Pre-reading – Chapters 5 and 6 in The College Administrator’s Survival Guide (C.K. Gunsalus) LOCATION – TBA Academic departments can be complex organizations with many different personalities, work styles, communication abilities and styles, and histories. Conflict is inevitable and can be healthy. However, people often lack the skills to engage in healthy and productive conflict, which often leads to long-term organizational dysfunction. In this session, we will discuss different types of conflict and problematic behaviors and review ways to approach conflict and address dysfunctional relationships.
Pre-work– Bring a staff dilemma written anonymously on a slip of paper LOCATION – TBA Often new leaders have very little experience supervising staff. This session will overview services and resources provided by UTK Human Resources, including those designed to help leaders with employee relations and those designed to help employees (and leaders) grow and develop. Faculty and staff interactions will also be discussed. This session will be led by representatives from UTK HR.
Pre-reading – TBA LOCATION – Student Union, Room 377A (Executive Dining Room) In combination with the Department Head Forum An important issue you will face is how to equitably allocate faculty workload. This requires forethought and planning in order to avoid knee-jerk reactions and to approach the task with fairness. We will discuss how to make your allocation process transparent to department members.
Pre-work – Complete the Clifton Strengths Assessment LOCATION – TBA In this session, we will discuss Clifton Strengths and how understanding your strengths can be beneficial to you as you move forward in your leadership journey.
Pre-reading – Chapter 10 in The College Administrator’s Survival Guide (C.K. Gunsalus) LOCATION – TBA In this session, we will celebrate your accomplishments and discuss what you learned, how it helped you navigate your first year of leadership, what you wish you’d known more about, what you would have approached differently, and ways to get the most out of the summer.