Training and Mentoring are Essential to Faculty Leadership Development
Faculty professional development opportunities at the Fred Hutch include:
- Mentoring for junior faculty via divisional mentors/mentoring committees.
- Center-wide and Division-specific faculty professional development resources.
- Faculty Leadership Incubator (FLI) series for new faculty taught by senior faculty and staff with deep knowledge of the Hutch.
- Faculity Leadership Enhancement for All Professors (LEAP) series to cultivate leadership skills.
Through virtual and in-person workshops, professional development seminars as well as panel discussions, faculty gain fundamental skills and knowledge for building and managing an effective scientific team.
Primary areas of focus include: building and managing scientific teams, mentoring and seeking mentorship, grantsmanship, financial management, clinical trials management, and modeling rigorous and ethical research.
Faculty Professional Development Resources
Faculty Mentoring Committee
Each of our research divisions and programs have well established approaches to mentoring faculty. Mentoring committees for junior faculty are coordinated by the respective Division or program. Faculty mentoring committees are made up of more senior faculty that work closely with junior faculty to provide feedback on everything from grant proposals to building a research team to forming productive collaborations, with the goal of helping them establish a successful research program at Fred Hutch.
Mentor Training for Faculty
Through the Research Mentorship Education (RME) Program, a partnership between the University of Washington and Fred Hutch, our faculty have access to trainings on how to improve their mentoring skills and optimize their mentoring relationships with research trainees. Facilitators of these mentor trainings use curriculum from the Center from the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER).
Faculty Leadership Incubator (FLI)
New faculty participate in a workshop series during their first year at Fred Hutch that provides them with professional development resources and leadership support. This Hutch-wide cohort program includes strategies for building an effective team as well as sustaining the team’s success through best practices in management and mentoring. The series includes monthly sessions led by mid to senior-level faculty who share their advice and lessons learned on selected topics that include:
- Shifting from an Independent to a Team Mindset
- Building a Scientific Team
- Creating Inclusion and Equity
- Setting Expectations with a Philosophy Document
- Managing the Performance of Your Team
- Delegating Work and Effective Decision-Making
- Team Development and Dynamics
- Mentoring your Team
- Models for shifting conflict to healthy dialogue
Leadership Enhancement for All Professors (LEAP)
This quarterly workshop series invites Fred Hutch Faculty of all ranks to engage in workshops and seminars focused on Leadership, Mentoring, Professionalism, Time Management, Career Advancement, Team Dynamics, as well as other relevant topics.
Office of Faculty Affairs and Diversity
The Office of Faculty Affairs and Diversity (OFAD) focuses on Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center’s efforts to grow and foster support for a diverse, inclusive faculty, with an emphasis on supporting faculty recruitment, career development, retention, mentorship, and leadership development.
Organization Development Services for Faculty
Fred Hutch Organization Development group offers one-on-one consultations, coaching, leadership and team development, meeting and retreat facilitation, assessments, and mediation services to faculty.
Scientific Ombuds
The Fred Hutch Scientific Ombuds is a neutral, independent and impartial resource to assist faculty and scientific staff in resolving problems, complaints, conflicts, and other issues in as confidential a manner as possible.
Fearless Ideas Series
As part of our commitment to becoming an anti-racist organization, the Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion sponsors a series of courses for managers and employees. The first course in the series is the Bias Mitigation Program.
Bias Mitigation Education: Grounding & Commitment
Bias mitigation is a critical first step and ongoing process in our pursuit of being an anti-racist institution. In this first module of the ODEI Educational Initiative participants will learn and solidify their knowledge and understanding of bias, reflect on their biases, practice mitigating bias and making a commitment to bias mitigation. The session is open to all Fred Hutch employees.
Useful Training Links
Research Ethics Training
The Hutch provides training in research ethics that includes human subjects training, the use of animals in research, and the core research ethics and rigor, reproducibility and transparency topics mandated by the NIH Office of Research Integrity. Training is accomplished via lectures, panel discussions, live web-based training and faculty led case study discussion groups. Our goal is to provide faculty, staff and trainees with a variety of opportunities to engage in discussion and education on the responsible conduct of research.
Management and Leadership Courses
Learn to Lead (L2L)
From Doing to Leading: Essential Skills for New Managers
This series is designed to set new managers up for success right from the start with the necessary skills and tools to tackle their new role effectively as both leader and manager. The L2L program is comprised of several in-class sessions and peer learning opportunities. This program involves managers from throughout the organization and is focused on managing groups of administrative, data and project staff.
- Session 1: You as a Leader
- Session 2: You and Your Team
- Session 3: You and the Organization
- Session 4: You and the Environment
Building Extraordinary Teams
Extraordinary teams go beyond getting the job done, they also provide opportunity for personal transformation for all members. Based on the latest research related to team effectiveness, this workshop helps teams measure their effectiveness and complete a tailored project, and then revisits measuring effectiveness again several months down the road. Seven elements of team effectiveness are covered, including issues of trust, DEI, communication, and conflict.
Crucial Conversations
Crucial Conversations teaches skills for creating alignment and agreement by fostering open dialogue around high-stakes, emotional, or risky topics. By learning how to speak and be heard (and encouraging others to do the same), you’ll surface the best ideas, make the highest-quality decisions, and then act on your decisions with unity and commitment.
Public Speaking
Two courses are offered for faculty related to giving presentations, both to scientific colleagues and lay audiences. A two-hour course covers fundamentals and a two-day course offers extensive practice and development of materials. Public speaking coaching is also available on request through Organization Development and Learning. Scientists can receive support for how to present to lay audiences, prepare more efficiently and practice with the help of video taping sessions.
Other Resources
Limited applicant opportunities are external sponsored research grants that limit the number of applications that can be submitted by Fred Hutch. An internal committee, which includes a member from each of the Fred Hutch Divisions, evaluates pre-proposals and selects the candidate(s) most likely to receive funding to submit an application to the external agency. This maximizes opportunities for junior faculty to compete successfully for prestigious national career awards and prizes. Contact Limited Funding Application listserv (fundingopp@fredhutch.org).
Fred Hutch is a partner institution of the Institute for Translational Health Science (ITHS). ITHS provides faculty professional development through monthly lectures and workshops designed to provide junior faculty and investigators with tools, a forum for discussion, and learning opportunities to help advance their careers.
Fred Hutch faculty have access to the UW School of Medicine Faculty Professional Development curriculum, which includes courses in leadership, research, teaching, and clinical skills.