Reflections on Efforts to Retain Mission-Driven Faculty: From Cluster Hire Initiative to College Culture Transformation

• In Event: Leadership and Praxis in Higher Education: Reimagining Diversity and Inclusion in Higher Education Institutions

Abstract

Our College of Education recently recruited a cluster hire cohort of tenure track faculty focused on the educational needs of Indigenous and Latinx communities. We understand that cluster hires can be highly effective, but only when they exist as one component of larger initiatives to support and retain a diverse professoriate. In the proposed presentation, we describe targeted efforts to retain new cluster-hire colleagues through the development of a faculty-led learning community that takes a two-tiered approach, including (a) targeted support for new hires and (b) accompanying activities for college-level transformation fostering diversity, equity, inclusion and justice initiatives. We interrogate and problematize the process and its products to illustrate lessons learned.

Authors

• Christine Keller Lemley, Northern Arizona University
  Presenting Author

• Catharyn Crane Shelton, Northern Arizona University
  Presenting Author

• Darold H. Joseph, Northern Arizona University
  Presenting Author

• Alma Montemayor Sandigo, Northern Arizona University - Yuma
  Presenting Author

• Na Young Kong, Northern Arizona University
  Presenting Author

• Jennifer M. Blaney, Northern Arizona University
  Presenting Author