CRA-W CAPP Workshop – November 2012 Effective Leadership & Creating Change Nancy Amato, Texas A&M

CRA-W Computer Research Association Committee on the Status of Women in Computing Research Mission increase the participation and success of women in computing research

What does CRA-W do? Individual & Group Research Mentoring Graduate Students Undergraduates Academic careers Industry/government Undergrads: Undergraduate Research Experiences Undergrads: Distinguished lecture role models Grad Cohort: group mentoring of grad students Grad Students: Discipline Specific Research workshops PhD Researchers: group mentoring of early & mid CMW, CAPP, Hopper & Tapia 600+ students and PhD researchers a year

Leadership Opportunities Formal Leadership Roles – Internal & external: e.g., department head/chair, officer in professional society, … Leading New Initiatives – non-permanent activities that may, but dont have to, become institutionalized Building New Programs – permanent & institutionalized activities

Formal Leadership Roles University leadership positions – Department head/chair, dean, provost, president, etc. External leadership positions – Rotator at NSF, professional society officer, conference program/general chair, etc. Obtaining & Succeeding in these roles – build up: do a good job on shorter term and smaller projects (initiatives & programs) – discover what fits you best & focus there

The Facilitators Share… One leadership opportunity Im glad I took. One leadership opportunity Im glad I took. One thing related to a leadership opportunity that I wish I had done differently? One thing related to a leadership opportunity that I wish I had done differently?

Leading New Initiatives Initiatives are non-permanent activities that may, but dont have to, become institutionalized – On-line departmental grad admissions, Campus-wide alliance of bioinformatics researchers, pilot program for peer teaching evaluations, college ombudsperson Why would you want to lead one? – To get something done you believe in

Leading New Initiatives: Key Elements Your passion for it – Wont work well if you do it because others want it, you have to care about it Clear statement of objective – Get feedback and buy-in from others Determine & obtain needed resources – Time, financial, staff, space & a supporter/champion Run with it, iterating on above steps as needed Understand when its time to move to next stage

Initiatives Exercise Get in pairs Discuss/brainstorm about initiatives you would like to lead – Select one initiative each – Identity resources needed for it and who might be your supporter/champion

Initiatives Exercise Discussion Share your ideas and see who here might have relevant experiences to share with you

Building New Programs has political and technical aspects Requires leadership – one or more committed advocates who are willing to do the work The results may take much longer than you think they should

Building New Programs: Key Elements Have a convincing rationale for change – preferably with data Build consensus as needed – within department, college, university Understand what is required – Know the approval process at your university – Insinuate yourself into key committees

Building New Programs: Consensus Exercise Choose a scenario Lets start an honors program! Lets introduce a new course in Robotic Rabbits! Lets start a new degree program in digital forensics! Choose a role The proposer The only antagonistic The apathetic Nothing but negative A supporter (at most one per group)

Building New Programs: Consensus Building Debriefing What worked? What tips do you need?

Discussion Questions I see growth potential in our department. How should I promote change? Strategies to make it happen. Are there certain roles or positions that are better/worse to take if Im interested in future advancement? E.g., chairing undergraduate curriculum committee vs. faculty search?

Come to our BOF: We Need Your Input! BOF: Designing a Senior Faculty Career Mentoring Workshop: Lets Brainstorm – Friday October 4, 2013 – 3:45-4:45pm, MCC 200-D-G – Description: The goal of this BOF is to learn what resources would help academic women continue growing their careers after Full Professor. CRA-W runs career-mentoring workshops for undergraduate, graduate, early and mid career researchers. Building on these successful workshops, CRA-W is considering developing senior academic leadership materials. We want to learn from the community what training would help women continue to climb the academic career ladder.

CRA-W Wants Your Feedback Please give us your feedback about this session and any other CRA-W mentoring sessions you have attended –