Inaugural CRA Leadership Academy Accepting Nominations: Due February 6
The CRA Leadership Academy seeks to help inform and cultivate future leaders in computing and computing research through a one-day in-person workshop, and a few follow-up virtual meetings among the Leadership Academy cohort. Participants will learn new skills and perspectives on leadership, hear from leaders in the field, test out leadership skills with scenarios, and build up their network of fellow leaders. There will be required pre-reads before the in-person workshop that participants will find interesting and useful. More information about the CRA Leadership Academy for Faculty can be found here.
Eligibility: Approaching promotion to full professor or recently promoted at a North American university which is a member of the CRA. Self-nominations are welcome. The nomination form can be found here. Nominations must be received by February 6.
Topics will include:
- What types of leadership positions are there, and how do you get one (e.g., conference program chair, chair of a department, program manager at NSF/DARPA, dean of a college, national committees, or other leadership positions.
- Once you have a leadership position, what skills do you need to be an effective leader? There are soft skills such as inspiring others, seeking input and feedback, finding/being a mentor, creating career paths for others, building consensus, and effectively dealing with difficult people/situations. There are day-to-day skills such as managing email, being an ask-once person, meeting management, working with a leadership team, working with staff and volunteers, and finding resources available in your organization to help you lead.
- Leading in academia: what are the different budget models in universities, and how do they incentivize/disincentivize collaboration, the art and science of recruiting faculty/staff, reference checking, and managing up, laterally, and down?
The in-person workshop will be held at the Hilton Chicago O’Hare Airport Hotel starting at 4 pm on May 22nd and ending at 3 pm on May 23rd, with a few one-hour virtual meetings among the academy cohorts following the workshop. Nominees must commit to participating in all activities. CRA will cover food/beverage and other local expenses; participants will cover their travel/hotel expenses. Note that limited scholarships are available for attendees whose department/college/unit cannot support their travel expenses.
If you have any questions about this event, don’t hesitate to contact Sandra Corbett @ scorbett@cra.org.
The CRA Leadership Academy program committee:
Carla Brodley (co-chair), Northeastern University
Juan Gilbert, The University of Florida
Jim Kurose (co-chair), The University of Massachusetts at Amherst
Manuel Pérez Quiñones, The University of North Carolina at Charlotte
Rachel Pottinger, The University of British Columbia
Nigamanth Sridhar, Cleveland State University
