Live on Zoom

Strengthening Your Department Chair Playbook: Spotlight on Faculty Development Strategies

Date: Thursday, October 16, 2025
Time: 2:00 PM –3:00 PM ET

As a department chair, you’re at the forefront of faculty success—but the challenges can be overwhelming. Whether you’re newly appointed or have been in the role for some time, the Department Chair Success Program (CSP) is designed to equip you with the tools, strategies, and peer support you need to lead with confidence and impact.

In this free 1-hour webinar, we’ll give you an overview of the CSP, a 10-week intensive course that brings chairs from all stages of their leadership journey together. You’ll engage in peer learning, access expert mentorship, and participate in hands-on exercises that are designed to improve your leadership skills and drive faculty success.

Why Attend?

• Learn how CSP provides a structured framework for tackling complex leadership challenges.
• Discover how peer learning and expert mentorship can accelerate your leadership growth.

Are you ready to lead with expanded productivity and confidence? Don’t miss this opportunity to explore how the Department Chair Success Program can support your professional development and strengthen your department.

Don’t miss out—register today!

Facilitator:

Erin Furtak, PhD is Professor of STEM Education and Faculty Chair in the School of Education at the University of Colorado at Boulder. She studies how to broaden student participation in science learning by designing better classroom assessments that center students' interests and experiences with teachers, students, and families. She has held multiple leadership roles, including Associate Dean of Faculty, Director of STEM Teacher Education, and Program Area Chair. Dr. Furtak is a Certified Workshop Facilitator for NCFDD as well as a coach in the NCFDD's Faculty Success Program. Dr. Furtak loves being outdoors, is an avid runner, and has two kids and two rambunctious dogs. She is writing a memoir about her journey through chronic migraine toward a more balanced life.

Featured Panelists:

Deirdre Cobb-Roberts, Ph.D is a Professor of Social Foundations and Department Chair of Educational and Psychological Studies at the University of South Florida, where she also serves as a faculty affiliate in the Higher Education & Student Affairs Program. A former McKnight Faculty Fellow, she earned her doctorate from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. Her research focuses on higher education leadership, mentoring as critically engaged praxis, and institutional change. She has published widely in leading academic journals, including History of Education Quarterly, American Educational Research Journal, Journal of Teacher Education, International Journal of Educational Policy, Research and Practice, Mentoring & Tutoring: Partnership in Learning, and NASPA Journal About Women in Higher Education. She is the co-author of Black Women, Academe, and the Tenure Process in the United States and the Caribbean; co-editor of Schools as Imagined Communities: The Creation of Identity, Meaning, and Conflict in U.S. History; and Mentoring as Critically Engaged Praxis: Storying the Lives and Contributions of Black Women Administrators.

Alva O. Ferdinand, PhD is an associate professor and head of the Department of Health Policy and Management at the Texas A&M University School of Public Health. She is also the Director of the Southwest Rural Health Research Center. Dr. Ferdinand has been a leader of the American Public Health Association’s law section since 2016 and was an integral part of the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Roundtable on Population Health Improvement in 2020. She is a member of the Ethics Advisory Committee for the University of Nebraska Medical Center and a member of the Rural Health Panel within the Rural Population Policy Research Institute (RUPRI) at the University of Iowa. In 2024, Dr. Ferdinand was appointed to the National Advisory Committee on Rural Health and Human Services. She has provided legislative testimony and briefings to policymakers at state and federal levels and continues to inform policy strategies, particularly as they relate to rural populations. Dr. Ferdinand became the interim head of the Department of Health Policy and Management at Texas A&M University in January 2023 and subsequently transitioned to a 5-year department head appointment, which began in 2024. Dr. Ferdinand holds a law degree from the Michigan State University College of Law and a Doctor of Public Health degree from the University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Allison Noyes, PhD, is an associate professor in the Communication Studies department at Loyola Marymount University. She specializes in organizational and group communication, health care organizations, and strategic communication. Her current research focuses on interprofessional collaboration, organizational power dynamics, care disparities, and palliative care.