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Abstract:
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In this paper, the findings from the Leadership conference held in Cocoa Beach, Florida in April 2005 will be presented. This was the second Leadership conference held as part of the activities outlined under a NSF ADVANCE grant. The goal of the conference was to encourage women faculty to consider leadership positions in academia, expose them to the challenges and demands these positions present and to provide them with a network of women faculty and leaders for future interactions. Forty seven women faculty, mostly from the east coast participated in the conference; thirty six of whom were Associate Professors and eleven were Professors of these seven held various leadership positions at their institutions. The session on Media Training emphasized the dos and donts involved in dealing with the media on topics ranging from discussing ones research expertise to handling any controversial campus issues. The session on balancing the Budget highlighted questions a new Chair/Leader should ask and how to tap resources available at the university. Two interactive sessions dealt with Negotiation Skills and Legal Issues in Academia. In addition, alternate leadership roles were addressed along with issues relating to women and gender in engineering. The panel session with Chairs and another with Upper Administration provided an excellent opportunity for questions and answers. The paper will provide the details of the selection process for the participants and the results of the pre and post conference surveys. Highlights from the various conference sessions will be presented.
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