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Teaching, Learning & Assessment

National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity

The National Center for Faculty Development & Diversity (NCFDD) is an independent professional development, training and mentoring community for faculty, post-docs and grad students, dedicated to supporting academics in making successful transitions throughout their careers. They offer workshops, professional development training and intensive mentorship programs. NCFDD training teaches concrete, empirically tested strategies for professional growth and pays special attention to the challenges of underrepresented faculty.

CSUMB's Institutional membership provides relevant professional development training, support from highly trained and successful mentors, a confidential “safe space” for problem solving, and downloadable formats for self-paced learning.

Audience

Many NCFDD resources are relevant to lecturers, even though the program also has resources more narrowly focused on tenure-line positions.

Accessing NCFDD resources

This link below will take you directly to the NCFDD webpage where you can register and activate your membership: https://www.facultydiversity.org/join

Resources

The core curriculum

NCFDD's core curriculum focuses on the development of key skills and strategies that lead to academic success. Members are provided trainings to establish and develop success habits which include:

  • Semester planning
  • Aligning time with priorities
  • Developing a consistent daily writing practice
  • Mastering academic time management
  • Moving from resistance to writing
  • Learning the art of saying "no"
  • Cultivating a network of mentors, sponsors, and collaborators
  • Overcoming perfectionism
  • Engaging in and resolving conflict in a healthy way
  • Strategies for dealing with stress and rejection

Examples of resources for lecturers

  • Imposter Syndrome: How to Recognize it, Overcome it and Realize Your Academic Goals (multi-week series)
  • How to Find Your Pillars of Genius
  • Teaching in No Time: How to Prepare for a Stress-Free Semester (multi-week series)
  • Parenting and Productivity (multi-week series)
  • Micro-aggressions, Micro-Resistance, and Ally Development in the Academy
  • Addressing Incivility in the Classroom: Effective Strategies for Faculty
  • Bully in the Ivory Tower: How Aggression and Incivility Erode American Higher Education
  • Disability and Living/Working in the Academy
  • Presumed Incompetent: Race, Gender, and Class in Academia

CSUMB faculty experiences with NCFDD

Jennifer Lovell, Psychology

The NCFDD weekly emails give me a chance to reflect on how I am spending my time and what my priorities are professionally and personally each week. I also completed the Faculty Success Program, and the experience helped me to be more intentional with writing and to hold myself accountable with faculty at other institutions. I began weekly planning meetings and scheduled writing time most days of the week. I completed a book and submitted a journal article, and I also found a better work-life balance. Following the program, I continue to watch NCFDD webinars that are relevant to my needs. I am also part of a faculty co-op where we watch and reflect on the skills and knowledge shared in the videos. NCFDD has been useful as a tool I use individually and within a group!

Vanessa Lopez-Littleton, Health, Human Services & Public Policy

My personal take-away from the first session is that I need to organize my research agenda better prior to the semester starting. As of now, I try to develop monthly goals, then work towards developing weekly plans on Sundays. After watching the first webinar, I believe I can better organize my schedule to accomplish the parts of my research that falls off the radar by mid-semester. I am also excited about the new relationships I have formed with my colleagues from across the campus. While many of us started together, our paths rarely cross. I am looking forward to the next webinar (learning as we grow together).

Alison Haupt, School of Natural Sciences

I did the NCFDD boot camp and found it to be so very helpful, but afterward I felt a bit abandoned because I’d have to pay on my own for an individual membership since we do not have an institutional membership. All of the other members of my small group were at universities with an individual membership and so they were able to continue to use so many of the wonderful resources offered by NCFDD. It is my experience that this program is especially helpful for faculty members from underrepresented groups and in particular for faculty at universities like CSUMB who have to balance a heavy teaching load with developing a research program.

Questions or feedback

If you have questions or have feedback to share about your experiences using NCFDD resources, please email tla@csumb.edu and use NCFDD in the subject line. Thank you!