Syracuse University’s Women in Leadership Initiative (WiL) today announced its Spring 2021 calendar of events and programming. Offerings include opportunities to learn from experienced leaders from diverse fields within and outside of higher education. These leaders will offer insights that can serve as vital guidance in navigating challenges facing higher education during and beyond the pandemic.
“Relationship building, professional development and career advancement benefit from increased opportunities for candid and constructive conversations,” says WiL steering committee member Michele Wheatly, special advisor to the Chancellor and professor of biology. “We look forward to offering WiL programs to members of the campus community that inspire meaningful insights, diversity of thought and self-reflection, with the goal of individual and collective growth.”
The WiL Initiative seeks to build strong leaders that can adapt rapidly to change and adopt new skills to keep teams and organizations moving forward. All members of the Syracuse University and SUNY ESF campus communities are invited to participate in these events. Following participation in events, individuals will be asked to contribute their thoughts, interests and goals to help guide the development of future programming.
Questions about spring 2021 programming may be submitted to Kim O’Brien at womeninleadership@syr.edu.
New Programming
INSPIRE Event: International Women’s Day Celebration
March 8 | 11 a.m.-noon ET
Neeli Bendapudi
Speaker: Neeli Bendapudi, Ph.D., president, University of Louisville
The keynote speaker for the International Women’s Day Celebration is Neeli Bendapudi, 18th president of the University of Louisville. Bendapudi will share her personal journey to the highest level of leadership in higher education and her thoughts on the meaning of International Women’s Day during a pandemic. The forum will be held via Zoom and features the keynote address and Q&A. The event is open to University faculty, staff and graduate students.
Register for the International Women’s Day Celebration.
Updated Programming
INSPIRE Event: A Focus on Women Veterans and Military-Connected Women – Celebration Event and Speakers Confirmed
Shared Reading Experience: Spring 2021
Celebration: March 23 | 3-5 p.m. ET
Cynthia Pritchett
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. Participants will be provided with a copy of the book to read during the spring semester and come together for a shared celebration in March.
The celebration event will include:
Jennifer L. Gotie
Lynda M. Granfield
Register for the Shared Reading Experience and/or Fireside Chat.
Academic Track: Pathways through the Pyramid: Academic Women, Hierarchies and Silos – New Date, Panelists Confirmed
Feb. 18 | 4-5:30 p.m. ET
Denise A. Battles
Due to the delayed start of the spring semester the panel, originally scheduled for Feb. 8, has been rescheduled for Feb. 18.
Institution-level leadership requires experience leading others, managing resources, making strategic decisions and responding to crises.
Kami Chavis
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?
Menah Pratt-Clarke
Panelists:
Lynn Perry Wooten
Graduate Student Track: Empowering Early-Career Academics: Equity and Opportunity in a Post-Pandemic Professoriate – New Date
Co-Sponsored by the Graduate School, Women in Leadership, Women in Science and Engineering, and BioInspired
March 19 | 2-3:30 p.m. ET
Due to the delayed start of the spring semester the workshop, originally scheduled for Feb. 5, has been rescheduled for March 19.
Leslie Gonzales
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.
Ongoing Registration is still open for the following spring activities:
Inspire Events
Trends in Women’s Leadership in Higher Education During and After the Pandemic(s)
Feb. 23 | 1-2 p.m. ET
Speaker: Raymonda Burgman, Ph.D., director of programs and research for Higher Education Resource Services.
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.
Womxn leaders may be noting changes in their own leadership and that of their colleagues. The time we are in—the triple pandemic—is a disruption that has rocked the foundation of who we thought we were. This session will allow time to discuss what happened and how and where womxn are thriving in this environment of frequent change. The talk’s objectives are to recognize the pandemics’ impact on womxn and encourage and empower participants and other womxn leaders.
Academic Track
Strategic Conflict Management for Faculty
March 2 | 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. The session will include participation 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 | 1:30-3 p.m. ET
Panelists:
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.
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 PARCC 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.
