Kim Cotzias 
Author: Rebecca Pope-Ruark, PhD As we enter this new academic year, we do so confronting a sea of change, concern, and uncertainty based on our current national landscape, cuts to research funding and DEI programs, and a host of other challenges we will have to work through together. In this environment, many faculty will find … Read more
At NCFDD, we’ve spent the past 15 years building programs, tools, and resources to support faculty development at every career stage. But one thing we kept hearing from graduate students, new assistant professors, and tenured faculty alike was this: “I feel like I’m doing this alone.” Whether it’s the pressure to publish, the struggle to … Read more
Faculty burnout isn’t new, but it’s getting harder to ignore. Between competing demands, shifting expectations, and an ever-growing to-do list, faculty continue to be stretched more thinly than ever before. The pursuit of teaching excellence, groundbreaking research, and meaningful service often comes at the expense of personal well-being. At NCFDD, we’ve spent 15 years partnering … Read more
Faculty are navigating one of the most complex grant funding environments in recent memory. Federal priorities are shifting. Budgets are tightening. And competition for research dollars continues to rise. At the same time, institutions continue to depend on external funding, but often without updating the systems and structures that help faculty pursue it effectively. For … Read more
Securing external funding is often seen as a key marker of academic success. It supports research agendas, opens doors for collaboration, and plays a major role in tenure and promotion decisions. But what’s less talked about is how much time, energy, and emotional bandwidth it takes to get there. For many faculty—especially those early in … Read more
If you’ve served as a department chair, you know the role is unlike anything else in academia. It sits at a crossroads: part administrator, part faculty peer, part conflict resolver, part strategist. On any given day, you might be handling budget requests, onboarding a new faculty member, addressing student concerns, fielding institutional mandates, and navigating … Read more
Continuing the Conversation: NCFDD and COACHE on Rethinking Faculty Mentoring Earlier this year, NCFDD and Harvard’s Collaborative on Academic Careers in Higher Education (COACHE) released a joint white paper—Redefining Mentoring in Higher Education—that challenged long-held assumptions about what effective faculty mentoring looks like. Drawing on COACHE survey data and NCFDD field-tested strategies and programs, the … Read more
Faculty mentoring is widely acknowledged as essential to academic success. It supports research productivity, retention, and career advancement, etc. However, many faculty report receiving ineffective mentoring, Why? Because good intentions alone don’t build sustainable mentoring systems. This conversation was at the heart of Rethinking Faculty Mentoring: What Institutions Can Do Differently, a recent webinar co-hosted … Read more
Writing is core to academic success, but it’s often the first thing to get pushed aside when schedules fill up. Teaching, service, mentoring, administrative tasks, and life outside of work can easily crowd out even the most well-intentioned writing plans. For faculty and academic leaders alike, the challenge isn’t knowing that writing matters: it’s figuring … Read more
Author: NCFDD In higher education, student success is a top priority. Institutions dedicate significant resources to advising, academic support, and student engagement initiatives. But one essential factor often doesn’t get the attention it deserves: faculty. Faculty success isn’t separate from institutional success. It’s the driving force behind it. When faculty are supported—through development opportunities, mentoring, … Read more