Professional Development and Mentoring

Professional Development Seminars

Attendees at a professional development seminar We offer a holistic array of professional development seminars and panels to support faculty and academic staff success. Offerings include in-person viewings of NCFDD webinars during Wayne State faculty and staff can interact, compare notes, and support each other's success; seminars on strategies to improve scholarly productivity, networking and mentoring, work-life balance, and cultivating a positive workplace culture; and seminars focused on career advancement in which successful colleagues discuss their strategies for career and leadership development. Programming for the 2020-21 academic year can be found below.

Click here to view previously offered professional development seminars.

Mentoring Resources

With the assistance of faculty and academic staff, the Office of the Provost has gathered resources to enable faculty and academic staff to seek out high quality mentors and to serve as committed mentors. In this section, you will find a number of resources to get you started. We will continue to build out this section of the website to describe other efforts to support effective faculty/staff mentoring practices.

Women in Leadership Reading Group

Reading groups tackle issues of practical importance in academic life in an informal setting. Participants in reading groups select short readings and articles on a particular theme and meet monthly to discuss the articles and share strategies to improve academic culture at Wayne State. This group is co-led by WSU's Assistant Provost for Faculty Development and Faculty Success Sara Kacin and Chief Diversity Officer and Associate Provost Marquita Chamblee.

Reading group meetings for the 2020-21 academic year will begin later this Fall. Please check back soon for more info.

Writing Accountability Groups

Writing Accountability Groups (WAGS) are small peer groups of faculty, students, or staff who meet weekly to support each other's scholarly writing goals. WAGS typically commit to daily or weekly writing and productivity goals. Stay tuned for more information about how the Office of Faculty Development and Faculty success supports this work with digital tools. More information coming soon!

New Faculty Coffee Hours

Join Associate Provost Boris Baltes and Assistant Provost Sara Kacin for New Faculty Coffee Hours. These Coffee Hours are designed to be informal sessions during which first and second year new faculty can network with each other, share successes and challenges, and learn more about Wayne State resources and strategies for success. See the schedule of events below for this year's coffee hours.

2021-22 Professional Development Programming

Check back soon for next semester's programming.