November 17, 2022
Dear faculty colleagues,
I am delighted to announce the pilot of the Inclusion, Diversity, Equity and Accountability Scholars Mentoring and Leadership Coaching Program (IDEA Scholars), a faculty mentoring and academic leadership development program designed to promote the success of Northwestern’s tenured, mid-career underrepresented faculty while developing a leadership pipeline.
The IDEA Scholars Program has four primary goals:
- Support the retention, advancement and promotion of faculty who have been historically underrepresented in higher education.
- Develop the next generation of faculty leaders and establish a diverse queue of potential leaders.
- Provide a network that promotes work/life balance through support and guidance from peers, mentors, colleagues and leaders.
- Ensure accountability through assessment, presentation, publication and a heavy communication/information infrastructure on effective faculty support and leadership cultivation.
Supporting faculty across Northwestern, the IDEA Scholars Program is a cross-school initiative coordinated by the Office of Institutional Diversity and Inclusion (OIDI) in partnership with the Office of the Provost. It is a tool for holding Northwestern accountable for ensuring equity of access, opportunity, representation and participation in the building of a diverse and positive institutional infrastructure.
The pilot will begin in January 2023 and last two years. Interested faculty are invited to information sessions at 12:30 p.m. Nov. 29 and 11 a.m. Dec. 16. The deadline to apply to this program is Jan. 2, 2023.
IDEA Scholars is a high-touch, resource-rich program. IDEA Scholars will benefit from a dedicated professional development experience, including:
- Mentoring by internal and external eminent full professor faculty leaders
- One-on-one executive leadership coaching
- Access to a suite of resources (e.g., leadership, wellness, productivity)
- Engagement with a robust network of renowned scholars from Northwestern and across the nation
This program seeks to support faculty as they begin to position themselves to apply for promotion to full professor. It also works as a proactive solution to cultivate the leadership pipeline. Focusing on those who identify as underrepresented faculty at Northwestern, the program affords its participants access to valuable academic and professional development experiences and provides them with insights into the rank of professor as well as a “peek behind the leadership curtain.”
I look forward to launching this pilot program and working together to make our faculty stronger.
Peace,
Robin R. Means Coleman
Vice President and Associate Provost for Diversity and Inclusion