The Chronicle’s Faculty Bootcamp

Strategies for Early-Career Success | February 28 or March 1, 2025

The Chronicle’s Faculty Bootcamp

Being strategic in the early stages of your career as a faculty member is crucial to your success, especially when pursuing tenure in an increasingly turbulent higher-ed environment. The faculty leaders of tomorrow will inherit a vastly different academic landscape than that of their predecessors—it can be difficult to navigate the complex national and institutional contexts that you might find yourself in while also making space for targeted exploration of and planning for your own career path.

The Chronicle has partnered with Dever Justice LLC to help early-career faculty pursue their passions and interests in higher ed, and build a successful academic career with those interests in mind. This fast-paced virtual workshop will provide a space for reflection and strategic planning during this crucial stage of your career. Our four-hour program will offer faculty members the opportunity to build their skills, understand the national, institutional, and role-specific contexts in which they find themselves, and gain access to the early-career insights and tips that experienced faculty wished they had known.

For questions about the program and group inquiries, please reach out to workshops@chronicle.com.

Program Leaders

Carolyn Dever

Founder and Principal

Dever Justice LLC

George Justice

Founder and Principal

Dever Justice LLC

Liz McMillen

Contributing Editor

The Chronicle of Higher Education

About Our Program

Program Overview
Module 1: The Pathway to Tenure
Module 2: Strategic Roadmapping
Module 3: Strategic Alliances

Program Overview

Multiple Date Options*

Dedicated Space for Reflection, Skill Building, and Strategic Thinking

This half-day program, facilitated by Dever Justice LLC, will help early-career faculty identify the opportunities along their professional journey which will be crucial for their success and strategically plan to take advantage of these moments to build a fulfilling and enduring academic career.

Who should attend: Graduate students about to enter a faculty position and faculty members in the first 5 years of their professional career seeking to better understand the broader academic landscape and their roles, institutions, and career paths.

Session Options:

The program will be offered in one full-day workshop session. Registrants can select from the following:

Friday, February 28: 12 p.m. - 4 p.m. ET
Saturday, March 1: 11 a.m. - 3 p.m. ET

Registration Fee: $495

Module 1: The Pathway to Tenure

80 MINUTES

The early part of your career is one of great excitement. You’ll have moments of immense pride—pride in your research, your teaching successes, your students, and your colleagues. You’ll have moments of anxiety—in building your courses, in establishing relationships with your students and colleagues, in the uncertainty of your tenure process and application. How do you navigate all of this and stay the course to meet your goals along the tenure track?

In this session, participants will:

Gain key insights on the tenure process from experienced faculty who have seen both sides of the review process
Understand critical benchmarks that will impact your case for tenure

Module 2: Strategic Roadmapping

80 MINUTES

What do you need to accomplish? And by when? This module will provide the guidance and goalposts you need to do the work in logical steps and create a professional calendar with serious deadlines (and many rewards) for work well done.

In this session, participants will:

Identify their long-term professional goals and milestones
Set up a roadmap to progress in their objectives
Identify rewards that will keep them motivated in the path ahead

Module 3: Strategic Alliances

80 MINUTES

How do faculty navigate the competing expectations of colleagues, deans, students, granting agencies, the field as a whole? This module is designed to help you understand the higher-ed and institutional culture you work within, and how to build opportunities throughout your career by making meaningful connections with colleagues across campus.

In this session, participants will:

Learn key underlying elements of academic norms and culture at a variety of institutions
Find opportunities to forge connections with people on their campuses in a range of roles

This session will also include a Q&A panel conversation, wherein the program facilitators will help participants understand the benefits of strategic planning, campus connections, and excellent mentorship. This conversation will be moderated by a Chronicle journalist.