"Making It to Mid-Career and Helping Others Arrive" delves into the author's own successful journey through mid-career in academia as a woman and a mother, while addressing the need for effective mentoring programs. It offers valuable advice for individuals and campuses seeking success in academia. The author shares personal strategies for achieving scholarship success and promotion, while also outlining ways to establish mid-career mentoring programs within universities. Drawing from their experience as a faculty mentoring program coordinator and a faculty fellow running a virtual mid-career mentoring program, the author provides insights into the types of activities and support systems that can empower academics in mid-career to reach their goals. By combining personal narratives with practical guidance, this chapter offers a comprehensive solution to the challenges faced by women in academia and provides actionable steps for fostering success and advancement in mid-career.
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Contributing Author Question & Answer
How does your professional background support your ability to be an authority on this book's coverage?
Prof. Willey: I started and have served as the Faculty Mentoring Program Coordinator for about 8 years at my regional campus, and as I mentioned, I was given the Center for Teaching and Learning fellowship to pursue mid-career mentoring as a special project. I am now the Associate Director of the CTL, along with continuing to run the mentoring program on my campus; I have published another article on best practices in mentoring program development.
What was the driving force or motivation for starting your chapter?
Prof. Willey: I was given the role of faculty fellow at my university’s Center for Teaching and Learning in order to explore mentoring mid-career regional faculty. I created a pilot program, recruited participants, collected data, and then Covid hit. It took a couple of years, but I was able to offer the program again, refined, a couple of years later, and I wanted to make sure I distributed what I had learned from the two cohorts.
What specific problems does your chapter address?
Prof. Willey: Regional faculty in the Kent State University system have a murkier path in getting to full professor, which is already difficult no matter your institution. I wanted to see if I could help regional faculty see a path toward the next stage of their career.
How does your chapter provide a solution to these problems?
Prof. Willey: It demonstrates that a cohort model, utilizing asynchronous learning and synchronous virtual meetings, can work to connect faculty across a region in different disciplines in the important work of figuring out their next steps
What special organizations, or other professional affiliations give you experience in the areas covered by this book?
Prof. Willey: I have been working in a related field to the topic coverage for about 8 years, which is approaching a decade of experience. In terms of special organizations and professional affiliations, I hold a position on the executive board of IAMAS (International Association for Maternal Action and Scholarship). Within this role, I actively contribute to the University Life Task Force, focusing on mentoring issues. This affiliation provides me with valuable experience in the areas covered by this book. As for recognition in my field of study, I am proud to have received a Mothers, Mentors and Muses Award from my university, which highlights my academic excellence and dedication.
About the Chapter Author
Nicole Willey, (she/her) is Professor of English at Kent State University Tuscarawas, where she teaches a variety of literature and writing courses, and serves as Mentoring Program Coordinator for KSU Tuscarawas. Her research interests include mothering, masculinities, memoir, pedagogy, mentoring, nineteenth-century American literature, and slave narratives. She authored Creating a New Ideal of Masculinity for American Men: The Achievement of Sentimental Women Writers in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, and co-edited the collections Motherhood Memoirs: Mothers Creating/Writing Lives and Feminist Fathering/Fathering Feminists: New Definitions and Directions. She lives in New Philadelphia, Ohio with her husband and
two sons.
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