DFMPHS Faculty Development
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Linda Roth, Ph.D.
Director of Faculty Development
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To support faculty in their growth as academic teaching and research professionals, the Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences has created a comprehensive faculty development program that is administered by Dr. Linda Roth.
New Faculty Orientation
An individualized orientation program is developed cooperatively by members of the chair’s administrative group and each new faculty member’s academic supervisor. Depending on the new faculty member’s assigned activities, the orientation may include visits to each departmental academic and clinical site. Outside the department, new faculty members are introduced to representatives of offices within the school, university, and hospitals whose work relates to that of the new faculty member. New clinical teachers co-precept and co-round with experienced colleagues in order to become acclimated to the department’s educational and patient-care processes. Each new faculty member is advised about the School of Medicine’s Welcome to Wayne faculty orientation program, as well.
Faculty Development Meetings
The DFMPHS conducts five 1.5-hour faculty development sessions and one 3-hour faculty development annually. In 2007-8, these sessions focused career development topics and on intra-departmental presentations and discussions aimed to optimize opportunities to make the DFMPHS strategic planning process and outcomes congruent with those of the SOM. A particular focus of 2007-8 faculty development was coming to closure on the department’s new mission statement, vision, and values. These were developed during 2006 and 2007 by our newly-enlarged faculty group. The increase in number and diversity of faculty in our department resulted from key faculty recruitments in addition to our merger with the Department of Community Medicine and the Center for Healthcare Effectiveness Research into our department.
Developmental Faculty Evaluation Program
The DFMPHS’s annual faculty evaluation process is designed to incorporate faculty development. The initial steps require individuals to reflect upon their personal career objectives in teaching, research, and service and to articulate the manner in which those objectives fit with the DFMPHS’s mission and vision and their division’s strategic plan. Faculty set yearly measurable objectives. Each junior faculty member has a mid-academic-year meeting with his/her academic supervisor to reflect upon academic progress and plan appropriate developmental activities. At year’s end, all faculty participate in an evaluation meeting with their academic supervisor, discussing and rating annual achievements in research/scholarship, teaching, and academic service. CVs, Activity Summaries, and Teaching Portfolios are reviewed for both developmental and evaluative purposes by the academic supervisor and then by the department’s salary committee. General feedback and recommendations for improvement for all faculty are provided in faculty development seminars, while specific feedback is provided in writing to each faculty member. Each faculty members sets goals for the upcoming year in the areas of research/scholarship, teaching, academic service, and faculty development.
Encouraging Formal/Informal Mentoring of Junior Faculty
The department chair, associate chairs, and division directors, functioning as the DFMPHS Leadership Group, meet six times per year to guide the development and growth of the department as a whole and the individual faculty members within it. At least twice per year during these meetings, each division director presents an update on the progress of his or her division’s faculty members. Suggestions for and appraisals of both formal and informal mentoring both within and across departmental divisions, and also beyond the department, are made at these times. Junior faculty meet bi-annually with their academic supervisors, during which times mentoring is a topic of discussion. The department chair meets with junior faculty annually, during which times the chair assesses the success of current mentoring arrangements and determines any further arrangements to be made. |
