After kicking off in the fall of 2018, the Women in Leadership (WiL) initiative, created through the vision of Candace Campbell Jackson, senior vice president and chief of staff to Chancellor Kent Syverud, and a steering committee of women leaders, is now entering its third year. Led by Michele Wheatly, special advisor to the Chancellor, WiL’s spring lineup will again include course offerings in two tracks: an academic track and an administrative track.
New this spring semester will be offerings that build affinity groups through multiple meetings. Also new this spring will be programming designed for women graduate and professional students.
“As the next phase of the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, women are taking advantage of opportunities to build community and to upskill for a post-pandemic higher education landscape,” says Wheatly. “Through the use of technology, spring semester programming will broaden the reach of the WiL and provide intensive, affinity building offerings for women who seek to engage with content at a deeper level.”
All spring semester programming will be offered virtually.
Inspire Events
Trends in Women’s Leadership in Higher Education During and After the Pandemic(s)
Feb. 23, 2021 | 1-2 p.m. ET
Raymonda Burgman
Speaker: Raymonda Burgman Ph.D., director of programs and research for Higher Education Resource Services (HERS).
This online, interactive synchronous session—developed and delivered by a Black woman postsecondary leader—explores how women’s leadership has progressed during the pandemic(s). The co-created learning space is for all, with the experiences of womxn foregrounded.
As a womxn leader, are you noting changes in your and colleague’s leadership? The time we are in—the triple pandemic—is a disruption that has rocked the foundation of who we thought we were. Let’s take the time to discuss what happened and how and where womxn are thriving in this environment of frequent change. The talk objectives are to 1) recognize the pandemics’ impact on womxn and 2) encourage and empower yourself and other womxn leaders.
A Focus on Women Veterans and Military-Connected Women
Shared Reading Experience
Celebration: Date and time TBD
The WiL seeks to reach out to pioneering women in fields that are traditionally male. The initiative will offer a shared reading opportunity for women and nonbinary staff, faculty and students with “Ashley’s War: The Untold Story of a Team of Women Soldiers on the Special Ops Battlefield” by Gayle Tzemach Lemmon. Small groups will meet throughout the spring semester to discuss the themes of the book and come together for a shared celebration. The celebration will include a “Fireside Chat” featuring veteran and military-connected women leaders and facilitated by Maureen Casey, chief operating officer of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families. A featured speaker on the panel will be Cynthia Pritchett, command sergeant major, U.S. Army (Retired), a 36-year active service veteran who is the first female to serve as the command senior enlisted leader or a combatant command in a time of war. Books will be provided prior to the start of the semester.
Register for the Shared Reading Experience.
Academic Track
Three virtual Academic Track clinics and a Shared Reading Experience will be offered.
Pathways through the Pyramid: Academic Women, Hierarchies and Silos
Feb. 8, 2021 | 12:30-2 p.m. ET
Institution-level leadership requires experience leading others, managing resources, making strategic decisions and responding to crises. What roles—and the experiences they provide—prepare women and nonbinary faculty to step into institution level leadership? Is there only one pathway to the top?
Strategic Conflict Management for Faculty
March 2, 2021 | 10:30 a.m.-noon ET
Tina Nabatchi
Facilitator: Tina Nabatchi, director of the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) and professor of public administration and international affairs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Conflict is an essential aspect of leadership, and the most effective leaders learn to be comfortable with conflict and strategic in how they deal with it. This workshop will first introduce a situational model of approaches to conflict and when to choose a particular approach. Equally important is managing the emotion of conflict and maintaining the ability to both listen and assert a point of view. In this session, you’ll participate in short listening and assertion exercises, plus address patterns of communication that may be risky in a conflict situation. Exercises and sample scenarios have been selected based on common conflicts faced by faculty in academia.
Leading Interdisciplinary Teams: The Good, the Bad and the Hairy
April 9, 2021 | 1:30-3 p.m. ET
Panelists:
Marcelle Haddix, M. Lisa Manning, Vivian May and Janet M. Wilmoth
Leading an interdisciplinary team provides first-hand opportunities to develop the kind of skills and perspectives often needed in senior-level positions. They also open doors to leveraging a wide array of resources (human, financial and physical) toward a common end. Join women leaders from research clusters and interdisciplinary institutes and centers to explore the benefits and challenges of leading large-scale, mission-focused initiatives.
Shared Reading Experience
Keep an eye on your inbox for an invitation to participate in a shared reading opportunity for women and nonbinary faculty: “Women Leading Change in Academia” (Callie Rennison and Amy Bonomi, editors). Small groups will meet throughout the spring semester to discuss the themes of the book and come together for a shared celebration to be held mid-April 2021. Books will be provided prior to the start of the semester.
Administrative Track
Three virtual Administrative Track clinics and two “deep-dive” series options will be offered.
Emotional Intelligence
Jan. 19, 2021 | 3-5 p.m. ET
Pam Gavenda
Facilitators: Pam Gavenda, associate director of organizational development and training in the Office of Human Resources and Sheila Johnson-Willis, associate vice president and chief equal opportunity and Title IX officer, Office of Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Resolution Services.
Learn about the components of emotional intelligence, explore the personal and professional benefits of emotional intelligence—including its impact on building leadership skills—and gain strategies to increase and develop your emotional intelligence.
Cultural Intelligence for Women Leaders
March 3, 2021 | 10 a.m.-noon ET
-OR-
March 30, 2021 | 10 a.m.-noon ET
Sheila Johnson-Willis
Facilitators: Pam Gavenda, associate director of organizational development and training in the Office of Human Resources and Sheila Johnson-Willis, associate vice president and chief equal opportunity and Title IX officer, Office of Equal Opportunity, Inclusion and Resolution Services.
Building upon the skill sets developed in the emotional intelligence (EQ) modules, this new program provides participants with an opportunity to learn and develop their cultural intelligence (CQ). CQ provides individuals with the ability to learn, understand and relate to different cultures while also effectively communicating across cultures. CQ is essential for all leaders in today’s world, and for women, it is even more crucial.
Register for the March 3 session.
Register for the March 30 session.
Strategic Conflict Management for Staff
Feb. 22, 2021 | 10:30 a.m.-noon ET
Facilitator: Tina Nabatchi, director of the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration (PARCC) and professor of public administration and international affairs in the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs
Conflict is an essential aspect of leadership, and the most effective leaders learn to be comfortable with conflict and strategic in how they deal with it. This workshop will first introduce a situational model of approaches to conflict and when to choose a particular approach. Equally important is managing the emotion of conflict and maintaining the ability to both listen and assert a point of view. In this session, you’ll participate in short listening and assertion exercises, plus address patterns of communication that may be risky in a conflict situation. Exercises and sample scenarios have been selected based on common conflicts faced by administrators in academia.
Women in Leadership – Crucial Conversations
Wednesdays, Feb. 3-March 24, 2021 | 2:30-4:30 p.m. ET (Eight-part series)
Facilitator: Certified program leader Pam Gavenda, SPHR and SHRM-SCP, associate director, organizational development and training, Office of Human Resources.
This eight-week series begins with a panel discussion, featuring senior women in leadership at Syracuse University, who will share their experiences with communication challenges and successes and their perspective on how communication has impacted their ability to be a good leader. The series will then continue with participation in the skill building Crucial Conversations® program, which teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional or risky topics at all levels of an organization. These are conversations around work quality, time management, productivity, performance, sensitive issues, conflict or a strained relationship, for example. By learning how to speak and be heard (and encouraging others to do the same), you will begin to surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions and then act on the decisions with unity and commitment in a respectful way.
Skills learned each week build upon skills from the previous week, so it is critical that participants are able to attend all eight sessions.
Leadership Development Series
Facilitators: Amy P. Kelly and Jack Slavinski
Amy Kelly and Jack Slavinski
A series of two-hour workshops and follow-up coaching opportunities facilitated by leadership experts Jack Slavinski and Amy P. Kelly will be offered to interested staff members. Each of the four sessions below is part of a comprehensive leadership system and builds upon each other from session to session. The series includes opportunities to receive personal coaching for your leadership performance and development.
Supportive and informative development assessments will be leveraged to increase personal reflection and self-awareness. The assessment link will be provided in advance of each session.
Graduate Student Track
Empowering Early-Career Academics: Equity and Opportunity in a Post-Pandemic Professoriate
Co-Sponsored by the Graduate School, Women in Leadership, Women in Science and Engineering and BioInspired
Feb. 5, 2021 | 2-3:30 p.m. ET
Leslie Gonzales
Speaker: Leslie Gonzales, associate professor, Department of Educational Administration, Michigan State University
Research has highlighted the differential impact of COVID-19 on the career trajectories of women and BIPOC currently in faculty roles as well as those in the pipeline to the professoriate. This workshop will offer graduate students the opportunity to consider strategies to promote completion and entry into a post-pandemic higher education landscape.
Watch For:
International Women’s Day 2021
An Inspire event will be announced for March 8, 2021, in celebration of International Women’s Day.
Steering Committee
Steering Committee members for the Women in Leadership Initiative are Maureen Casey, chief operating officer of the Institute for Veterans and Military Families; Sue Cornelius Edson, executive senior associate athletics director/communications; Elisa Dekaney, associate dean for research, graduate studies and internationalization and professor of music education in the College of Visual and Performing Arts; Alexandra Epsilanty, associate vice president for international advancement; Marie Garland, assistant provost for faculty affairs; Catherine Gerard, director of the Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict and Collaboration and associate director of executive education programs in the Maxwell School; LaVonda Reed, associate provost for faculty affairs and professor of law; Dara J. Royer, senior vice president and chief marketing officer; Margaret L. Usdansky, research associate professor in the Falk College and director of the Center for Learning and Student Success; Michele Wheatly, special advisor to the Chancellor and professor of biology; and Candace Campbell Jackson, senior vice president and chief of staff to the Chancellor.
Questions about spring 2021 programming may be submitted to Kim O’Brien at womeninleadership@syr.edu.
