In 2023, the Ivy+ Faculty Advancement Network (FAN) was awarded a $1.5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to launch the Ivy+ Mellon Leadership Fellows program, which aims to increase the representation of humanities faculty members occupying the highest administrative offices in the academy. FAN members selected a cohort of tenured faculty in the humanities who participated in a comprehensive program of skill development in academic leadership over a period of at least two years, including participation in the FAN Institute. This funding, supplemented by FAN’s member institutions, extends the consortium’s mission to empower faculty leaders to reimagine university cultures and the academic workforce.
Year 1: Embedded in the Ivy+ FAN Institute
n the first year, the Mellon Fellows participated in the consortium’s Institute. Each year, this institute brings together department chairs/heads, world-class scholars and other faculty leaders to interrogate and disrupt institutional norms that hold back excellence in the American professoriate. The Ivy+ Mellon Leadership Fellows worked alongside alumni and current participants of the Institute, which provided insight and energy for their change efforts.
Fall: Orientation and three-day launch of Institute at Columbia University. Discussion leaders included Pres. Minouche Shafik (Columbia) Provost KerryAnn O’Meara (Teachers College), Prof. Valerie Purdie Greenaway (Columbia), Pres. Winston Soboyejo (SUNY-IT), Pres. Patricia Ramsey (CUNY-Medger Evers), and EVP Prabhas Moghe (Rutgers).
April 2024: IML Fellows discussing culturally-aware, strengths-based leadership with members of FAN’s Steering Committee, who also participated in the workshop.
Winter: Five virtual “inquiries” with Prof. Julie Posselt (USC) on graduate admissions; Prof. Damani White-Lewis (UPenn) on faculty hiring; Dean Kimberly Griffin (U. Maryland) on mentorship; Prof. Adrianna Kezar (USC) on change leadership; and Prof. Abigail Stewart (U. Michigan) on faculty evaluation. In addition, two virtual workshops with Prof. Daniel Almeida, expert on strengths-based leadership.
Spring: Retreat and three-day Institute capstone at the University of Pennsylvania. Fellows engaged in dialogue with FAN Steering Committee members and Provost John L. Jackson (UPenn), Dean Vijay Kumar (UPenn), Dean Sara Bachman (UPenn), and Prof. KC Culver (U. Alabama) before “pitching” their collaborative capstone projects to a panel featuring Dr. Carrie Hall (NSF), Dr. Lorelle Espinosa (Sloan Foundation), Provost KerryAnn O’Meara (Teachers College), Prof. Damani White-Lewis (UPenn), and Dean Kimberly Griffin (U. Maryland).
Year 2: Leadership Immersion
In the second year, the Mellon Fellows were placed in tailored administrative appointments to further cultivate their experience with academic leadership and policy at an institutional level. Throughout the year, the Mellon Fellows received mentoring from on-campus and remote mentors and learned with colleagues in their cohort about applying principles of strengths-based leadership to their new roles. At the end of the year, Fellows convened at Columbia University for a two-day retreat and celebration of the official conclusion to their fellowship. (Some aspects of this program’s career development, such as the mentorship and cohort support meetings, continued beyond the two-year terms of Fellows.)
Click on the Ivy+ Mellon Leadership Fellows below to see details about their appointments they held and the mentorship they received.
Mentorship
In the second year of the program, each Ivy+ Mellon Leadership Fellow was paired with an “inside mentor” at their current university and with an “outside mentor” from another university or academy-adjacent organization.
Outside mentors include:
Bruno Bosteels, Dean of Humanities, Columbia University
Susan Carlson, Vice Provost Emerita for Academic Personnel, University of California
Joy Connolly, President, American Council of Learned Societies
Freeman Hrabowski, President Emeritus, University of Maryland Baltimore County
Paula Johnson, President, Wellesley College
Robin Kelsey, Dean Emeritus of Arts & Humanities, Harvard University
Ah-Hyung “Alissa” Park, Dean of the UCLA School of Engineering
Matthew Rascoff, Vice Provost for Digital Education, Stanford University
Debra Satz, Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, Stanford University
Inside mentors were:
Miguel Urquiola, Dean for Social Sciences, Columbia University
Wendy Wolford, Vice Provost for International Affairs, Cornell University
Veronika Fuechtner, Assoc. Prof. German Studies; Chair, Comparative Literature, Dartmouth College
Sherilynn Black, Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement, Duke University
Cole Crittenden, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, Princeton University
R. Lanier Anderson, Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education, Stanford University
Cathy Cohen, Distinguished Service Professor of Political Science, University of Chicago
Beth Winkelstein, Deputy Provost, University of Pennsyvania
Tamar Gendler, Dean of the Faculty of Arts & Sciences, Yale University
In the News
Original announcement about the Mellon Foundation’s $1.5 million award to the Ivy+ Faculty Advancement Network
Columbia University: “Arts and Sciences Announces Two New Faculty Leadership Roles in AI and Special Initiatives”
Cornell University: “Banerjee Named Mellon Fellow in Diversity Network”
Princeton University: “Enhancing faculty mentoring of graduate students: A Q&A with Vice Dean Hendrik Lorenz“
University of Pennsylvania: “Vance Byrd: Special Advisor in the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty”
About FAN
The Ivy+ Faculty Advancement Network (FAN) is a consortium of thirteen national research universities organized by leaders in faculty affairs, faculty development, faculty advancement, and graduate studies who are seeking collaborations of consequence that reimagine the norms, structures, policies, and programs that shape university cultures and the academic workforce.
About the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation
The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation is the nation’s largest supporter of the arts and humanities. Since 1969, the Foundation has been guided by its core belief that the humanities and arts are essential to human understanding. The Foundation believes that the arts and humanities are where we express our complex humanity, and that everyone deserves the beauty, transcendence, and freedom that can be found there. Through its grants, they seek to build just communities enriched by meaning and empowered by critical thinking, where ideas and imagination can thrive. Learn more at mellon.org.