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

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 18^th year. Approximately 1000 faculty have participated in the 4+ day workshop, allaying a concern in the review of that 1^st 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.