This resource-rich guidebook supports faculty developers through the process of planning, facilitating, and assessing programs for mid-career faculty. Framing chapters draw from existing scholarship, national surveys, and the authors’ pilot program to prepare faculty developers to launch their own initiatives. The heart of the book details program modules, including their focus (e.g., identifying values, envisioning a meaningful career, claiming agency, advocating for oneself, planning to thrive), instructions for preparing and facilitating a workshop and a faculty learning community, and facilitator reflection questions. Resisting the message that faculty developers should do more, this book eases their workload by providing evidence-based resources that allow for flexibility and creativity. This guidance, supplemented by ready-to-use online materials, equips facilitators to lead their mid-career faculty participants through critical self-reflection, meaningful conversations, and practical activities to plan for their own version of thriving.

At a time when higher education institutions in the United States are the subject of increased media scrutiny and nearly continuous loss of funding by resource-strapped state legislatures, a greater understanding of higher education’s bulwark resource—mid-career research and teaching faculty—is more important than ever. Faculty at mid-career comprise the largest segment of academia. For some, this is a time of significant productivity and creativity, yet for others, it is a time of disillusionment and stagnation. Revealing impediments and pathways to faculty job satisfaction and productivity will strengthen higher education institutions by protecting, fostering, and maintaining this vital workforce. In this collection we will explore the lives of mid-career faculty as our authors uncover the complexities in this stage of professional life and discuss support systems for the transition into this period of faculties’ academic careers. Mid-Career Faculty: Trends, Barriers, and Possibilities is designed for faculty leaders, administration, policymakers, and anyone concerned with the future of higher education. This text offers an examination into an often overlooked period of academic life, that of post-tenure mid-career faculty. Therefore, the aim of this text is to deepen our understanding of the lives of mid-career faculty, to identify barriers that impede job advancement and satisfaction, and to offer suggestions for changes to current policy and practice in higher education. Contributors are: Joyce Alexander, Michael Bernard-Donals, Pradeep Bhardwaj, Kimberly Buch, Javier Cavazos, Jay R. Dee, Anne M. DeFelippo, Andrea Dulin, Jeremiah Fisk, Carrie Graham, Debbie L. Hahs-Vaughn, Florencio Eloy Hernandez, Yvette Huet, Jane McLeod, Jennifer McGarry, Maria L. Morales, Eliza Pavalko, Laura Plummer, Mandy Rispoli, Amanda J. Rockinson-Szapkiw, J. Blake Scott, Michael Terwillegar, Jenna Thomas and Claudia Vela.

This book brings together leading practitioners and scholars engaged in professional development programming for and research on mid-career faculty members. The chapters focus on key areas of career development and advancement that can enhance both individual growth and institutional change to better support mid-career faculties.The mid-career stage is the longest segment of the faculty career and it contains the largest cohort of faculty. Also, mid-career faculty are tasked with being the next generation of faculty leaders and mentors on their respective campuses, with little to no supports to do so effectively, at a time when higher education continues to face unprecedented challenges while managing continued goal of diversifying both the student and faculty bodies.The stories, examples, data, and resources shared in this book will provide inspiration--and reality checks--to the administrators, faculty developers, and department chairs charged with better supporting their faculties as they engage in academic work. Current and prospective faculty members will learn about trends in mid-career faculty development resources, see examples of how to create such supports when they are lacking on their campuses, and gain insights on how to strategically advance their own careers based on the realities of the professoriate.The book features a variety of institution types: community colleges, regional/comprehensive institutions, liberal arts colleges, public research universities, ivy league institutions, international institutions, and those with targeted missions such as HSI/MSI and Jesuit.Topics include faculty development for formal and informal leadership roles; strategies to support professional growth, renewal, time and people management; teaching and learning as a form of scholarship; the role of learning communities and networks as a source of support and professional revitalization; global engagement to support scholarship and teaching; strategies to recruit, retain, and promote underrepresented faculty populations; the policy-practice connection; and gender differences related to key mid-career outcomes.While the authors acknowledge that the challenges facing the mid-career stage are numerous and varying, they offer a counter narrative by looking at ways that faculty and/or institutions can assert themselves to find opportunities within challenging contexts. They suggest that these challenges highlight priority mentoring areas, and support the creation of new and innovative faculty development supports at institutional, departmental, and individual levels.

Mid-career faculty are the backbone of the college and university workforce and represent the largest population of faculty in the academy, yet they face myriad challenges that hinder career satisfaction and advancement. This book offers action-oriented tools to engage (or re-engage) mid-career programming at the individual faculty, institutional, consortial, and grant-funded levels. Bringing together leading scholars and practitioners engaged in research and practice, this edited volume offers solutions to two driving questions faced by mid-career faculty: “what’s next" and “how to navigate.” This focus on both what and how highlights critical issues and challenges associated with mid-career coupled with specific tools and strategies to successfully navigate from diverse stakeholder perspectives. Jargon-free and rich with stories from the field, each chapter can serve as a stand-alone resource, be read in order as presented, or be read non-sequentially based on the reader’s specific needs. Mid-career faculty, including non-tenure-track and community college academics, will welcome the resources, tools, and strategies featured throughout this book, the “pocket professional development mentor” to help create more inclusive and equitable programming at multiple levels.

The higher education literature on workplace diversity has overlooked the development of multigenerational workforce strategies as a key component of an inclusive talent proposition. While race, gender, sexual orientation, disability and other demographic attributes have gained considerable attention in diversity strategic planning, scant research pertains to building inclusive, multigenerational approaches within the culture and practices of higher education. Now more than ever, there is an urgent and unmet need to identify actionable strategies and approaches that optimize the contributions of multigenerational talent across the faculty, administrator, and staff ranks. With the goal of enhancing workforce capacity and creating more inclusive workplaces, Leveraging Multigenerational Workforce Strategies in Higher Education offers an in-depth look at multigenerational strategies that enhance institutional capacity and respond to educational needs. This book is the first to address the creation of multigenerational strategies in the higher education workplace based upon substantial empirical studies and qualitative research. Drawing on in-depth interviews with faculty and administrators, the book examines the broad "framing" of generations that consists of stereotypes, narratives, images, and emotions. Through the lens of these narratives, it describes how ageist framing is magnified by other minoritized statuses including race/ethnicity, gender, and sexual orientation, and can result in structural inequality, process-based discrimination, and asymmetrical behavioral interactions in the higher education workplace. A major feature of the book is its focus on best-in-class HR and diversity policies and strategies that institutional leaders can deploy to overcome generational and ageist barriers and build an inclusive culture that values the contributions of all members. Due to its practical and concrete emphasis in sharing leading-edge policies and practices that comprise a holistic multigenerational workforce strategy, the book will serve as a concrete resource to boards of trustees, presidents, provosts, deans, diversity officers, department chairs, faculty, academic and non-academic administrators, diversity and human resource leaders, and diversity taskforces in their efforts to create strategic, evidence-based multigenerational workforce approaches. In addition, the book will be utilized in upper division and graduate courses in higher education administration, diversity, human resource management, educational leadership, intergenerational issues, gerontology, social work, and organizational psychology.

A well-defined mentoring program is essential to faculty productivity and success. As institutions seek increase faculty diversity, adopt increased standards for faculty productivity, and become more aware of the benefits of extending mentoring beyond early-career, it's crucial to bring rigor and definition to your department's mentoring efforts. David Kiel, who worked with faculty leaders to design mentoring programs for all of UNC-Chapel Hill's professional schools and the College of Arts and Sciences, draws on years of research and experience to bring you this uniquely comprehensive handbook. This book includes practical strategies from a wide range of institutions, from community colleges to research universities. This nearly 600-page handbook covers not only what works but how to do it: Get a comprehensive primer for launching or improving mentoring programs for early-career, mid-career, and late-career faculty. And get 200+ pages of worksheets, checklists, templates, and assessments to help you refine your mentoring services. "Mentoring programs for faculty have long proven to be one of the most effective strategies colleges and universities have to promote career development, increase engagement, improve the level of student success, and foster innovative research. In Developing Faculty Mentoring Programs: A Comprehensive Handbook, David Kiel provides an in-depth look at best practices in how to design, develop, and maintain a systematic approach to faculty mentoring and answers every question about how to ensure the effectiveness of these programs. Based on practice experience and exhaustive research, this book is the blueprint that everyone interested in successful faculty mentoring should follow." - Jeffrey L. Buller, Senior Partner, ATLAS Leadership Training "Developing Faculty Mentoring Programs by David Kiel delivers fully on the promise of its sub-title to provide a Comprehensive Handbook on this important and productive practice in supporting the success of academics throughout their careers. This is a welcome addition to the literature on mentoring and will serve both faculty and administrators in their efforts to provide high quality and effective mentoring programs for their colleagues." - Deborah DeZure, Ph.D., Assistant Provost for Faculty and Organizational Development Emerita, Michigan State University