T104 On the Cutting Edge: Fifteen Years of Impacts on Geoscience Education

Monday, 23 October 2017
8:00 AM - 12:00 PM
Room 2A

REFLECTIONS ON MORE THAN A DECADE’S INVOLVEMENT WITH THE EARLY CAREER FACULTY WORKSHOPS

Paper number: T104-11
Program: Technical Sessions
Time: 10:35 AM – 10:50 AM

Authors

Abstract

As a faculty member who sometimes introduces himself as a recovering administrator (having served as department head, associate dean, and vice president), the Cutting Edge / NAGT Early Career Faculty Workshops are one of the most important activities I’ve been involved in over an almost 40-year career. With Heather Macdonald and Barb Tewksbury, I was a Co-PI on a 1999 NSF proposal establishing the workshops, incorporated into the On the Cutting Edge program in 2003, and now in their 18th year. Approximately 1000 faculty have participated in the 4+ day workshop, allaying a concern in the review of that 1st proposal that we would exhaust the supply of participants before the end of the initial 3-year funding. My involvement with the workshops ended after 2011, so I focus here on the first 12 years of the workshops.

Several aspects of the Early Career workshops stand out: 1) They were meticulously planned, with facilitators trained before each workshop; 2) The topics, from teaching to research to work-life balance were timely and relevant; 3) Daily participant evaluations led to revisions in programming; 4) The workshop evolved as participant demographics grew to include more from research-intensive institutions with graduate programs; 5) The amazing attribute that 50% of the participants have been female, a statistic that bodes well for what has been a predominantly male academic geoscience faculty. And 5) The incredible energy, enthusiasm, and ultimately honesty that participants brought to the workshop. By mid-week, when it was clear that we had created a safe environment, the honesty about issues from difficulties with proposal/paper writing, time management, work-life balance and even sexual harassment was sometimes heartrending, but ultimately, I believe, of great value to participants.

As one of the original Co-PIs, and one of the longest serving facilitators, I was humbled to be around the future of our discipline, encouraged about the health of that future, and better prepared to serve others, from the Cutting Edge / NAGT Traveling Workshops to being NAGT President. Initial mentoring relationships have evolved into some treasured friendships. I am a different, and hopefully better, person as a result of the Early Career workshops. Not bad for someone who was long past Early Career before he got involved in the workshops.

Geological Society of America Abstracts with Programs. Vol. 49, No. 6

doi: 10.1130/abs/2017AM-304327

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