The most important work a department chair does happens one conversation at a time. Over more than two decades of academic leadership across four institutions, I have approached faculty development not as an administrative obligation but as the core of my leadership identity. Supporting faculty through the full arc of their careers — from first-semester anxiety to promotion to full professor — has been among my most consistent and rewarding responsibilities.
Mentoring Through the Tenure Process
At every institution I have led, I have made pre-tenure faculty mentorship a personal priority rather than delegating it to a committee and walking away. At the University of West Georgia, I directly mentored four assistant professors through their pre-tenure phases while simultaneously supporting two associate professors in their successful applications for promotion to full professor. At Radford University, where I inherited a department with several junior faculty navigating a demanding research and service environment, I worked individually with each pre-tenure faculty member to align their scholarly trajectories with departmental needs and to help them understand how to build a record that would speak persuasively to external reviewers. During my time as Acting Chair of Sociology, I extended the same approach to a department new to my leadership, immediately investing in mentoring conversations with faculty who were building their cases for tenure and promotion.
I have also served the broader institution in faculty evaluation roles. I chaired the University Tenure Committee at Fort Hays State University for two consecutive years and served as a member for a third, reviewing tenure cases from across disciplines and developing an institution-wide perspective on what a successful scholarly record looks like. I served on departmental tenure committees in multiple units beyond my own, including Advanced Education Programs and Justice Studies, and chaired the university-wide Promotion Committee. Those experiences gave me a far broader view of faculty career development than most chairs acquire, and they shaped how I coach my own faculty today.
Building Diverse and Capable Departments
The strength of a department is ultimately a function of the people in it, which means hiring decisions are among the highest-stakes choices a chair makes. When I arrived at the University of West Georgia, the department had one female faculty member. Through intentional revision of our hiring strategy and search committee processes, I built a department with five women in faculty roles — a transformation that changed the intellectual culture of the unit and improved our ability to serve a diverse student population.
I have chaired or served on more than a dozen faculty search committees across multiple departments and institutions, including searches in Political Science, Justice Studies, and interdisciplinary graduate programs. I understand that a search is not simply a hiring process — it is an act of departmental strategy. Every search I have led has begun with a clear articulation of where the department needs to grow, not just what vacancy needs to be filled.
At Fort Hays State University I also added five new faculty to the Master of Liberal Studies core during my time as Interim Dean of the Graduate School and created onboarding processes that did not previously exist — a graduate faculty handbook, a structured orientation for new graduate faculty, and a clear set of expectations that helped new faculty succeed in an interdisciplinary environment where many of them had never taught before.
Investing in Faculty Resources and Recognition
Supporting faculty means advocating for them, not just advising them. At Radford University, I have consistently submitted strategic budget requests for new faculty lines commensurate with our enrollment growth, making the case in institutional terms — workload data, student-to-faculty ratios, program demands — rather than simply asserting that we need more people. I have also reallocated departmental travel funds to compensate for university-level budget cuts that were falling disproportionately on junior faculty's ability to attend conferences and remain professionally active. Faculty who cannot travel to present their research and build national networks are faculty whose tenure cases weaken over time; I treat travel support as a retention and development investment.
I have nominated faculty for recognition at every level available to me — internal department awards, college-level recognition, and state-level honors — because visible acknowledgment of faculty contributions matters both to the individual and to departmental culture. A faculty member who feels seen and valued does better work and stays longer.
Creating Conditions for Faculty to Thrive
The most sustainable faculty development happens when the department's systems — scheduling, advising loads, course rotation, committee assignments — are designed to protect faculty time for the work that matters most. At Radford, I overhauled the departmental assessment process to reduce the administrative burden on faculty by centralizing data collection and standardizing rubrics. At the University of West Georgia, I developed a comprehensive faculty resource handbook so that procedural questions did not consume the time that should go to teaching and research. At Fort Hays State, I created a graduate faculty handbook and a dedicated onboarding process for new graduate instructors that dramatically reduced the informal confusion that burdens new faculty in their first years.
Faculty succeed when they are hired intentionally, mentored consistently, resourced adequately, recognized publicly, and freed from unnecessary administrative friction. That is the environment I work to create, and it is the standard I would bring to any college I am privileged to lead.
Advocated for faculty growth through annual strategic budgetary requests for new faculty line to match student growth
Repurposed departmental funds to support international travel to the United Nations Principles of Responsible Management Education annually
Nominated three faculty members for internal and state-level awards
Overhauled the semester course scheduling system to integrate student interest in classes and used data to create faculty rotations to ensure classes made adequate numbers of students enrolled
Mentored faculty on the tenure track to improve their positioning for successful applications for tenure and promotion
Increased number of faculty in the department by two
Mentored two Associate Professor-rank faculty to successfully apply for promotion to Professor rank
Advocated for enhanced faculty travel support
Mentored four Assistant Professors during their pre-tenure and promotion phases