Professional Development on Demand
National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity
DU joined the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) in September of 2018, as a result of DU-impact. An institutional membership offers at no cost to all faculty members, postdocs, and graduate students a weekly motivational email (the Monday Motivator) and access to the full NCFDD Core Curriculum, guest expert webinars, intensive multi-week courses facilitated by national experts, a private discussion forum, monthly writing challenges, and the opportunity to connect with a writing accountability partner.
NCFDD is the premier organization helping faculty members, postdocs, and graduate students successfully navigate transitions throughout their careers. The NCFDD Core Curriculum helps faculty develop skills in time management, overcoming writing resistance, engaging in health conflict, and strategic planning. NCFDD offers strategies to avoid overwork and burnout, and recognizes the importance of mental and physical health. Over 230 colleges and universities are members, including both our peer and aspirational institutions. NCFDD is explicitly committed to equity and supporting minoritized faculty, helping individuals navigate the professoriate while contextualizing challenges within broader structures.
Our membership grants DU faculty, staff, and graduate students access to this core curriculum and hundreds of other webinars and toolkits on demand, as well as frequent live webinars. NCFDD content is created by faculty from across the US and a range of subject positions; recent and upcoming standouts include
- “Cultivating Compassion and Collectives; A Multi-Week Course to Facilitate Healing from Racial Trauma”
- “Navigating Career Transitions: Getting to Mid-Career and Beyond”
- “Empowered Teaching Toolkit.”
- Supporting Trans* Scholars.
To access your NCFDD membership
- Navigate to FacultyDiversity.org/Join
- Choose the University of Denver from the drop-down menu
- Select “Activate my Membership”
- Complete the registration form using your institutional email address (i.e. @du.edu). If your discipline is not included as an option, this will not alter your membership.
- Go to your du email to find a confirmation email. Click “Activate Account”
- Start accessing great content!
We encourage you to take advantage of the resources available to you through the NCFDD. If you have any technical questions, please email NCFDD.
Academic Impressions
Academic Impressions (AI), headquartered here in Colorado, provides customized training on topics ranging from student success to DEI, Title IX, conflict, and leadership. Although there is content related to faculty success, the Academic Impressions audience and range is broader than NCFDD. For example, one might find conferences and webcasts targeted to specific roles, like advancement, department chair, chief of staff, or academic advising. But they also have content designed to develop skills, such as conflict management, mentoring, or holding better meetings.
Academic Impressions takes a three-pronged approach to their work in DEI to maximize impact, focusing on education & awareness building, self-reflection, and advice on how to take action on each topic. Beyond general topics designed for all higher education professionals, AI also has a series of resources specifically for faculty on topics like inclusive pedagogy, neurodiversity, academic bullying, and more.
In Spring 2023, we moved to a user-based membership option for academic impressions. If you are interested in accessing these materials, please reach out to VPFA@du.edu. The Office of the Provost is funding this membership, and so we are prioritizing identified faculty needs in this area such as chairs and director support, as well as distributing the available accounts in a way that is roughly proportional to the size of the academic units. Should usage increase and funding be made available, we will consider re-engaging the full membership in the future.
AI and NCFDD Events
AI and NCFDD Async Events