The ARA Faculty Mentoring Program seeks to enhance faculty success, self-efficacy, advancement, and retention. The program is developing professional development workshops to allow junior faculty to develop key competencies and career development strategies to promote their own success. Many of the topics for the professional development workshops were identified by CNAS faculty in the 2023 ARA Introductory Workshops held in March 2023. Each year several professional development workshops will be developed to meet the needs of our assistant professors of research, teaching and cooperative extension. 

Four professional development workshops will be offered in the Winter and Spring quarters of 2024. Most ARA workshops and events are open to all CNAS faculty to promote development of a community of mentors and mentees. 

• Introduction to the ARA Mentoring Program: This workshop will introduce CNAS faculty to the ARA Program activities throughout the academic year including: selection of ARA mentees and mentors, professional development workshops, the Train the Mentors workshops, and ARA-sponsored DEI seminars. (Open to all CNAS faculty).
• Self-advocacy and the Merit and Promotion Process: This workshop will focus on the critical role of being a self-advocate and identifying advocates for a successful academic career. We will also discuss the bricks and mortars of the Merit and Promotion system, with plenty of time for discussions. (Open to all CNAS faculty; particularly useful for assistant professors). If you attended the June 2023 Self-advocacy and Self-statements workshop, you are welcome to engage with the 2024 workshop. While much of the content will be unchanged, there will be more time for interactions. In addition, your questions about the merit and promotion system and self-advocacy may have changed over the past year.
• The Art of Saying No: This workshop will focus on prioritizing decisions critical for balancing research, teaching and service, as well as time management. (Open to all CNAS faculty; geared towards Assistant Professors).
• Leading Successful Teams in Academe: This interactive workshop will focus on the strategies for and complexities of building successful teams, from leading TAs for a successful course to leading a highly motivated and productive research team. Faculty will discuss and explore key tools, skills and considerations for building successful teams including guiding, motivating and establishing expectations for team members. We will also discuss supervising others from graduate students, TAs, staff, and postdoctoral scholars.
• The Importance of Self-Statements: Faculty will discuss best practices and strategies for assembling materials for advancements and promotions and writing self-statements that will reach the diverse campus audiences that read Merit & Promotion files. This professional development topic was identified during the ARA Introductory Workshops that were held in March 2023.

2023-2024 Proposed Schedule