Women Faculty Leadership Council
Mission of the Council
The UST Women Faculty Leadership Council promotes leadership among women faculty at St. Thomas. The Council works to facilitate professional development and mentorship opportunities for women faculty members motivated to pursue academic promotion and administrative leadership roles in higher education.
Meetings and activities are sponsored jointly by the Center for Faculty Development, the Luann Dummer Center for Women, and the Office of Academic Affairs at St. Thomas. Questions about the UST Women Faculty Leadership Council should be addressed to Lucy Payne — LLPAYNE@stthomas.edu.
WFLC Steering Committee Members, 2015-16
| Name | Department |
|---|---|
| Young-ok An | English; Director of LDCW, CAS and LDCW |
| Kathleen M. Boyle | Leadership, Policy, and Admin, CELC |
| Carol Bruess | Communication & Journalism, CAS |
| Corrine Carvalho | Theology, CAS |
| Jayna Ditty | Biology, CAS |
| Shelley Neilsen-Gatti | Special & Gifted Education, CELC |
| Pat Hedberg | Management, OCB |
| Angela High-Pippert | Political Science, CAS |
| Ann Johnson | Faculty Development, Academic Affairs |
| Joseph Kreitzer | Associate Academic VP, Academic Affairs |
| Jill Manske | Biology, CAS |
| Susan Marsnik | Ethics and Business Law, OCB |
| Sandy Menssen | Philosophy, CAS |
| Susan Myers | Theology, CAS |
| Lucy Payne | Accreditation Liaison Officer, Academic Affairs |
| Teresa Rothausen-Vange | Management, OCB |
| Erika Scheurer | English, CAS |
| Buffy Smith | Sociology, CAS |
| Wendy Wyatt | Communication & Journalism, CAS |
| Suzanne Wisniewski | Economics, CAS |
Frequently Asked Questions
Studies of promotion rates among faculty show that women typically take longer than men to reach the rank of professor; compared to male colleagues, they spend more time on teaching and service and less on research and writing. In addition, while women have made significant inroads into higher education administrative/leadership roles, they are still greatly outnumbered by men, particularly at UST. The WFLC is a vehicle for identifying obstacles for women who are motivated to take on leadership roles, and for planning programs that would support women faculty pursuing promotion and leadership. We are also committed to recognizing UST women leaders, past and present.
While we support leadership across all women faculty groups, we believe that focusing on leadership development is most relevant, for pragmatic reasons, for those women faculty who have already achieved tenure and promotion to associate professor. Therefore we would like to engage women who are at the associate and professor levels to serve on the steering committee. We are seeking those who are interested in expanding their own professional development to include leadership roles (defined broadly) and those motivated to support and open doors for younger women faculty pursuing promotion and leadership.
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Preserving UST Women's history — Oral history project (developing plans for oral history interviews with women who have played important roles in the life of the university)
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Clarifying institutional data on promotion rates for women and planning programs supporting women seeking promotion to the full professor level
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Providing mentoring opportunities for women faculty
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Identifying leadership training opportunities, local and national, for women faculty
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Providing institution-wide events for women faculty to meet, discuss leadership issues, and develop effective strategies for increasing women leaders at UST
The WFLC is jointly sponsored by the Center for Faculty Development, the Luann Dummer Center for Women, and the Office of Academic Affairs.
Related Resources
National organizations and websites focused on women in academia and training opportunities for women seeking academic leadership roles
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On Campus with Women newsletter (sponsored by the Association of American Colleges and Universities Program on the Status and Education of Women).
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Women in Higher Education newsletter (You can get a digital subscription of the full newsletter for $37/year, which includes job postings from around the country. Subscriptions are available on their website).
Readings and research on women and gender issues in academia
- Gender and Student Evaluations: An Annotated Bibliography
- KEY FINDINGS: Standing Still: The Associate Professor Survey
- The Eigen project documents historical trends in scholarly publications, using the JSTOR database, and examines gender trends in authorship over time. The first link takes you to an interactive website displaying research results and the second link provides an article explaining the project. eigenFACTOR.org - The Role of Gender in Scholarly Authorship
- Scoop. it! : This is a collection of online articles about women in Higher Education, curated by Ann Johnson. If you have relevant online resources to contribute, please email the information to Ann Johnson at a9johnson@stthomas.edu.