Faculty Leadership Academy now accepting applications for 2022-23 cohort

Year-long academy aims to give faculty members key leadership skills

By California State University, Bakersfield

April 6^th, 2022

California State University, Bakersfield faculty considering management roles on campus will soon have an opportunity to develop their leadership skills.

The university’s Faculty Leadership Academy is now accepting applications for its 2022-23 cohort. Starting this fall, faculty members from across campus will participate in monthly sessions aimed at developing their leadership knowledge and skills.

The application period lasts until 2 p.m. on April 22. Full-time faculty members from each school — as well as the Antelope Valley campus, Walter W. Stiern Library and Health Center — are eligible to participate.

“The skills of a leader can be learned,” said Dr. Brian Street, director of the academy and chair of the Kinesiology Department. “The goal of the academy is to create a space for potential campus leaders to develop skills and have experiences so that when they are in leadership roles or are considering leadership roles, they know what may be expected of them and will be much more effective and proficient in fulfilling their duties.”

The cohort will have six sessions during the academic year, starting Sept. 9. Each session led by a campus leader and focused on a different topic, such as leadership basics, conflict resolution, data literacy as well as improving equity and inclusion.

The sessions are a mix of lecture, research-based learning, case studies and hands-on exercises.

"The Faculty Leadership Academy will provide faculty the chance to develop their knowledge of the ever-changing environment of higher education while fine-tuning the faculty members' individual role in the process," said Vernon Harper, provost and vice president for academic affairs. "As provost of CSUB, this brings me great pride to install these tools to help mold future leaders who will certainly create even brighter futures."

Dr. Street said the academy is a great way for faculty members from across campus to interact and form connections.

“Ten years from now, these academy members will be department chairs and will need to collaborate across campus to be successful,” he said. “Leadership is, in a lot of ways, about having and developing relationships and connections on campus and being able to be collaborative. That’s an important part of the academy as well.”

Dr. Kyle Susa, chair of the Psychology Department, agrees. He participated in the academy during the 2019-20 academic year, the first time it was offered.

“It was a great opportunity for me to be among other aspiring leaders on campus, to be able to reflect and think through that leadership process with them,” he said.

Dr. Susa was selected for the academy while he was working as an assistant professor of psychology. While he didn’t have a particular leadership role in mind at the time, Dr. Susa said he wanted to take advantage of an opportunity to get some management training and experience.

“I had gotten a sense from my time serving on various committees at CSUB that there was a real opportunity here to have an influence and to be able to make a real impact,” he said. “I thought that by being part of this community of people who were interested in leadership, it could advance those opportunities.”

Amanda Grombly — chair, associate librarian and collection development and management coordinator at the Stiern Library — was also part of the first Faculty Leadership Academy cohort. She was working as a senior assistant librarian at the time.

“I advocated to participate in the program because I want to work to effect positive change for our students and faculty in the institution,” she said. “The greatest benefits of the program for me were the personal and professional relationships I developed with the other faculty involved in the program, working with faculty and leadership mentors on campus to help me develop a roadmap for my future in leadership and making progress toward my goals.”

Dr. Susa said he had a great experience with the program and left it having learned vital lessons, including the importance of communication and being a servant leader.

“If people can see you being a servant leader, then they’ll be responsive to your leadership. You have to walk the walk more than you talk the talk,” he said. “I also think that it’s important to show people that you care about them, that you recognize the importance of the human element in your job.”

Dr. Susa believes the academy helped prepare him for his current role as chair, which he has had for the past two academic years. However, he said experience is just as important.

“It provides you the time and space to be reflective and to really think about who you want to be as a leader, but a lot of leadership comes through experience. It comes through being in the hot seat and having to make decisions,” he said.

Dr. Susa recommends that all faculty apply for the academy, even ones who aren’t sure if a leadership position on campus is right for them.

“One of things I really enjoy about CSUB is that if you want to have leadership role, you can,” he said. “There are opportunities that are out there, there are needs that are there for leaders to step up. You never know when opportunities might arise for leadership roles, including those roles that don’t involve a direct title of leadership.”

New leaders are needed to help the university grow and bring about positive change, Dr. Street said.

“A huge objective is to create a diverse pool of leadership potential on campus. That’s very much part of the ethos of the academy,” he said. “It creates a fabric and a framework for a great campus if we have ideas, thoughts and experiences coming from many different people and places.”

All application material must be sent to Chris Shiery at cshiery@csub.edu. For more information about the Faculty Leadership Academy, contact Dr. Street at bstreet1@csub.edu.