Women Faculty Panelists Say Collaboration, Mentorship Valued Aspects in Leadership Roles
Shelome Gooden, chair of Pitt’s linguistics department, gave what may seem to be an unexpected response to a question about what drew her to her current leadership position.
“First, I was not drawn, unless by ‘drawn’ you mean ‘pulled,’” she said, drawing laughter from those present at a panel discussion targeted at newly promoted women faculty. Gooden shared that her departmental colleagues recruited her to serve as chair — while she was on leave.
The discussion was part of A Celebration of Newly Promoted Women Faculty. The second annual event was held on March 1 in Wesley W. Posvar Hall. Female faculty members who had been promoted during the 2017 calendar year were invited to attend the event, which included a panel discussion and reception. The event was hosted by Laurie Kirsch, vice provost for faculty affairs, development, and diversity, and the Provost’s Advisory Committee on Women’s Concerns.
Gooden said a highlight of her role as leader has been collaborating with department members.
“The kind of relationship that we’ve developed over the past years is one of community so that we together address challenges and together we address and attack problems and together we solve them,” Gooden said.
Moderated by Kenneth P. Dietrich School of Arts and Sciences’ political science faculty member Kristin Kanthak and Swanson School of Engineering faculty member Anne Robertson, the panel discussion also featured faculty members Diane Denis of the Joseph M. Katz Graduate School of Business and Marnie Oakley of the School of Dental Medicine.
Oakley, associate dean for clinical affairs, expressed an affinity for recruiting colleagues to help in solving problems.
“We wouldn’t be there without our staff, so I love for them to come in and do their jobs and realize that ‘if I don’t do this job, even if it seems like it’s the small piece, that the whole thing falls apart,’” she said.
The three panelists expressed the value they found in the interactions with colleagues that take place in a mentoring relationship. Mentoring does not have to be tied to a leadership role, said Denis, the Katz Alumni Chair in Finance and area director for finance.
“The amount (of mentoring) that you should be willing to do, the priority you should give it, that should sort of continually increase over your career. … We should all be mentoring,” she said.
Oakley pointed out that mentors can give honest feedback where others are not willing to do so. Gooden added that mentors are able to help their mentees to comprehend the overarching value of their work.
Robertson raised a question about balancing commitments to leadership, research, teaching and service. Denis, Gooden and Oakley agreed on the importance of prioritizing.
“They are all very important roles in the University, and we all have to do all of them on an ongoing basis,” said Denis. “My own view, though, is that we can’t do more than a couple of them at a high level at a given point in time.”
Contact:
Katie Fike, kfike@pitt.edu, 412-624-1085
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