Understanding University Structure and the Tenure Process

Congratulations- you got a tenure-track position at your dream institution! Now you just have to get tenure. But what does that really mean? If you're at a research-driven institution, getting grants and publications is important, but no matter where you work you also have responsibilities of contributing to the overall success of the institution - which means there are expectations of teaching, service, and advancing the institution's mission. To do this, you have to understand how academic institutions are structured (Who has oversight of the research facilities? Where do you go for grant help?), how faculty members drive the mission of an educational institution, and what YOUR school means when it says "tenure."

Speaker: Garth Fowler, PhD, is the former Associate Executive Director for the Center for Education in Psychology at the American Psychological Association, where he directed the APA's efforts in producing resources and information to help psychology graduate students, postdoctoral trainees, and those that teach them, improve their training and career success. Before coming to APA, Garth was a faculty member and Assistant Chair in the Northwestern University Department of Neurobiology. His first job after finishing his postdoc was the Outreach Program Manager for Science Careers, the online career resources for Science Magazine & AAAS. Garth has a BA in Psychology from the College of Wooster, a PhD in Behavioral Neuroscience from the University of Washington-Seattle, and was a postdoctoral fellow at the Salk Institute in San Diego, CA.