Dear Faculty:
We hope you had a restful and restorative Thanksgiving break and we thank you for your participation in our events this semester. We have enjoyed having the chance to meet many new faculty and to continue to work with our more seasoned faculty. Below you can find a summary of what we have done in the CFD this semester. We only have a few more events this semester, including our holiday cookie decorating party! We hope to see you there.
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We would like to take this opportunity to thank our 2024 Faculty Fellows and their sponsoring offices. Thank you to the following faculty members & their sponsoring offices. Note: Information about each of their projects will be posted on our website in the next week or so.
- Amanda Apgar (Coelho Center for Disability Law, Policy, and Innovation)
- Amy Woodson-Boulton (Center for Teaching Excellence/Center for Faculty Development)
- Elizabeth A. Drummond (Office of Mission and Ministry)
- Roy Fisher (Office of Mission and Ministry)
- Jennifer Williams (Office of Faculty Development)
- Michael Noltemeyer (Academic Resource Center)
- Mikki Kressbach (Office of Housing)
- Keisha Chin Goosby (Office of Diversity Equity and Inclusion)
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Thank you also to the members of our Community Engagement, Social Justice, and Pedagogy Faculty Learning Community (FLC).
- Deanna Cooke (facilitator; BCLA Dean's Office & Psychological Science)
- Magaela Bethune (African American Studies)
- Chaya Crowder (Political Science and International Relations)
- Jordan Freitas (Computer Science)
- Cheryl Grills (Psychological Science)
- Kyra Pearson (Communication Studies)
- Diana Santacrose (Psychological Science)
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Thank you to Karie Huchting (former CTE Director and faculty member in the Department of Educational Leadership) for her help as we transitioned from the CTE to the CFD. Karie provided a great deal of support and guidance as we commenced our building of the CFD this fall.
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Tues, 12/3 3:30 – 5:30pm in Uhall 3030: End of Semester Happy Hour and Cookie Decorating (In-Person)
Please join us to celebrate the end of the semester. We’ll have cookie decorating, snacks, and happy hour drinks. We’ll celebrate the end of the CFD’s first semester and we’ll thank our dedicated outgoing faculty fellows, our former CTE director, Karie Huchting (who helped us tremendously in transitioning from the CTE to the CFD), our FLC members, and the sponsoring offices for our faculty fellows program.
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Wed, 12/4 3:30 – 4:30pm in VDA Family Suite, 3rd Floor of Hannon Library: Imagining Yourself into Mission
You are invited to gather with new and old friends for "Imagining Yourself into Mission."
From 3:30pm to 4pm, Faculty Social/Meet and Greet
Enjoy some appetizers and “end of semester” celebratory beverages!
Starting at 4pm, What does it mean for me to be here?
As the fall semester draws to a close, Elizabeth Drummond (Assoc. Professor of History, CFD Faculty Fellow for Mission and Ministry) will share her personal experience with LMU’s educational philosophy and how it has informed her work as a teacher-scholar, then lead conversation about what it means to belong to the LMU faculty community.
Please submit your RSVP here no later than December 2nd.
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Writing Retreats
Join us for our last writing retreat of the semester! All faculty are invited to the Fall Semester Writing Retreat on Wednesday, December 11th (8:30am to 4:30pm) at St. Robert's Auditorium. Breakfast, lunch, and snacks are provided. All you need is your laptop and any work you want to complete. To register, please complete this brief form. We hope to see you there! If you have any questions or concerns, please email CFD Faculty Associate, Sarah Adeyinka-Skold (sarah.adeyinka-skold@lmu.edu).
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Do you need individualized assistance or advice? Or do you just need a little break and a cup of coffee/tea and a snack? Please feel free to drop in during the following times next week to meet with one of our team. Please note: the last OH for the fall semester will be the week of December 2nd.
Roz Le Blanc (Director of Scholarly and Creative Practice) Office Hours:
9:30-12:30pm on Mondays in the CFD, UNH 3000
11:30-2pm on Fridays by appointment (Zoom option available); Calendly link
Ed Mosteig (Director of Teaching and Learning) Office Hours:
9:00-10:30am, 2:00-3:30pm on Mondays by appointment (Zoom option available)
12:00-3:00pm on Thursdays in the CFD, UNH 3000; Calendly link
Rebecca Sager (Director of Leadership and Professional Development) Office Hours:
1-3:30pm on Tuesdays by appointment; Bookings link
2:30-5pm on Wednesdays in the CFD, UNH 3000 (please email for an appointment)
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Announcements & Partner Events
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Fri, 12/6 from 11:00am – 12:00pm on Zoom: Tackle Grading Session Like a Pro!
Get help wrapping up your courses in this workshop about handling final exams and final grades in Brightspace. Join the Instructional Technologists to learn best practices that will save you time and effort at this crucial time of the semester. Also get real-time support about your pressing questions. Please RSVP here.
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May 24-31, 2025: Faculty/Staff Immersion in Guatemala
Join the Center for Mission and Identity as we explore indigenous identity and rights, colonialism and post-colonialism, spirituality and justice in the Guatemalan context. Over the course of a week, participants will learn about the history and current realities of this region and consider them in light of our own context in the United States and at LMU. They will also deepen their understanding of LMU’s mission and how their own work, including teaching, scholarship, service, and leadership, can contribute to building a more just and reconciled world.
All full-time, regular faculty are invited and encouraged to apply. Program costs for accepted participants are fully sponsored by the Center for Mission and Identity (including all meals and single accommodations, programming, and comprehensive facilitation and assistance). Applications due by December 13, 2024. Learn more and apply on the Center for Mission and Identity website.
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End of Semester Share Out from the CFD Team
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Máire Ford (Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development)
This semester our major goal for the CFD was to commence the creation of a center that speaks to faculty needs in the areas of teaching/learning, scholarly/creative practice, and leadership/professional development. As such, we spent this semester hosting listening sessions and attending meetings and faculty retreats across campus in order to learn more about faculty needs. Our goal has been to interact with many faculty from varied departments and to understand how faculty needs might differ across campus and how faculty needs might differ by faculty position type (e.g., Part-time versus Tenure Track or Assistant vs Full). I have also spent time studying various existing datasets at LMU that speak to faculty needs, as well as attending faculty retreats and other events where we have had the opportunity to learn about faculty needs. Finally, I have met with leaders of similarly comprehensive faculty development centers at other universities to learn about their centers. Our CFD team is now using all of this information to create our set of priorities for the spring semester. In addition to listening to faculty feedback we have also spent time introducing the CFD to the campus community to increase awareness about the resources we provide and creating a new website for the CFD so that information is easily accessible. Finally, I have been building our CFD team. We now have our full team in place and we are preparing to build our team of Faculty Fellows for the 2025 year. Additionally, the CFD has hosted over 20 events and 2 all-day writing retreats this semester. Information about the various events can be found on our website. Below, each director and our CFD Faculty Associate describe the work that they have been doing this fall, during our inaugural semester. As always, we are open to your ideas and feedback!
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Rebecca Sager (Director of Leadership and Professional Development)
The Center for Faculty Development’s (CFD) Professional and Leadership Development branch had a busy fall 2024. During the fall semester several workshops and events were held including the first workshop at the CFD, a very well attended workshop on how to have difficult conversations. This workshop brought faculty from all five colleges at LMU, as well as the law school. We plan to bring this event back in the spring and hopefully expand on it to include additional strategies for negotiating challenges in specific academic environments. Additional events included a leadership share aimed at department chairs held in conjunction with Associate Provost Tarleton and a workshop on collaborative teaching, as well as several listening sessions with faculty about their concerns and needs related to leadership and service. Based on these data several workshops are already planned for the spring semester including an LMU leadership Q & A panel, a workshop on succession planning in departments, and a workshop for pre-tenure faculty on navigating leadership and service at LMU. These workshops are based on data we collected from a faculty survey, focus groups, and a number of in-person and online listening sessions with faculty and associate deans, as well as numerous meetings with faculty, department chairs, associate deans and deans. These data show a need for more leadership skills training, as well as assistance in navigating academic administration. We are currently working with AP Tarleton on a leadership skills series for the spring semester which would include a number of different workshops. Additionally, we have been working with AP Tarleton on how to improve the hiring and training of department chairs. We will be announcing the dates and content of the leadership series soon, as well as various stand-alone workshops for the spring.
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Roz LeBlanc (Director of Scholarly and Creative Work)
In launching this new Scholarly and Creative Practice arm of the CFD, we agreed that it would be crucial to begin by gathering information about the breadth and depth of scholarly and creative practice across LMU. Since our launch in early September, I have conducted separate meetings with the Deans and/or Associate Deans of all six Westchester campus colleges about the range of scholarly and creative practices as well as the successes, opportunities, and challenges for faculty specific to their college. This feedback, together with data gathered directly from faculty is being compiled into a more comprehensive picture of what scholarship looks like at LMU. I have also conducted or sat in listening sessions with faculty across campus; a meeting with the Office of Research and Sponsored Projects about facilitating easier faculty interaction with grant databases; an ITS search committee meeting to help inform the new position of Manager of Research Computing; and weekly meetings with AVP Ford and my co-directors in the CFD to debrief and strategize the most relevant planning for our inaugural year. The CFD hosted a Scholarly and Creative Practice workroom titled "Redefining Productivity: Community, restoration & a bit of output too," where I led faculty through creative and embodied ways of approaching scholarship that foreground passion and identity as guiding principles. Weekly office hours in the CFD have provided a platform to dialogue one-on-one with faculty throughout the semester about individual projects. The next step will be to lay the groundwork for spring which will include more faculty events but also ongoing meetings with the ORSP, ITS, and the Hannon library to create long-term digital infrastructure that would foster more interdisciplinary connections among faculty and expanded grant support. Spring meetings will also include Loyola Law school so that scholarly practices at LMU can be as inclusive and integrative as possible.
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Ed Mosteig (Director of Teaching and Learning)
My role as Director of Teaching and Learning began in early November. In my first few weeks I have been establishing a network of contacts with both former and current directors of centers for teaching excellence at LMU and other institutions. This outreach is aimed at gathering insights into effective programming and identifying practices that have been successful elsewhere. Concurrently, I have engaged with LMU colleagues to assess their needs and expectations for future programming.
In collaboration with the Committee on Excellence in Teaching (CET) we are reviewing and revising the methods used to assess teaching performance. Our goal is to propose a revised, equitable evaluation process to the Faculty Senate in 2025 that not solely serves as summative assessment but also supports faculty growth and development.
Additionally, I have begun working individually with faculty members on their Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) projects. Furthermore, I am meeting with individual faculty who offer recommendations for programming at the CFD or suggest forming partnerships between their office and the CFD to enhance teaching-related initiatives.
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Sarah Adeyinka-Skold (CFD Faculty Associate)
I have had the great opportunity to organize and execute several programs during Fall 2024 in my capacity as the CFD Faculty Associate. I ran a weekly, virtual writing group on Fridays for 1.5 hours from October to November and also organized and hosted a one-day writing retreat on Autumn Day, Friday October 11th for faculty in the Collins Center. Meditation was infused into the retreat to help faculty members to center themselves as they began their writing. The CFD hosted a Faculty Service Report (FSRs) session, where I introduced new faculty members to the FSR. The faculty members that attended found the session very informative and helpful. To close out the semester, I will host another one day writing retreat for faculty members on Wednesday, December 11th in St. Robert’s Hall. We look forward to creating more programming that supports faculty in their writing and creative practices next semester.
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Please find the Box links below to access notes from recent events:
Thank you to Michael Noltemeyer (Faculty Fellow and Senior Writing Instructor in the Core) for leading a lunchtime listening session on graduate student writing. You can find notes from the event here.
You can always find information about past CFD events here.
Thank you for all you do!
Warmly,
Your Center for Faculty Development
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