Promotion and tenure topic of first Professional Development Series workshop

Sofia Tangalos, senior staff assistant for Faculty Affairs (L) and Suzanne Laychock, PhD, Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (R) at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Picture Credit: Sandra Kicman.

Sofia Tangalos, senior staff assistant for Faculty Affairs (L) and Suzanne Laychock, PhD, Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs (R) at the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences. Picture Credit: Sandra Kicman  

Published May 15, 2019

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“This successful series, now in its third year speaks on the impact of having our scholars select the topics that will best prepare them for a successful career in clinical and translational research.”
Margarita L. Dubocovich, PhD, Director of the CTSI Workforce Development Core, KL2 Principal Investigator/Program Lead/COS Chair
SUNY Distinguished Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology, Senior Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences
Margarita L. Dubocovich.

By: Himangi Marathe, PhD

The 2019 CTSI Professional Development Workshop series, offered for the third consecutive year, kicked off on May 8. “Looking Forward to Promotion and Tenure,” was presented by Suzanne Laychock, PhD, Professor, Pharmacology and Toxicology and Senior Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and by Sofia Tangalos, senior staff assistant for Faculty Affairs both with the Jacobs School of Medicine and Biomedical Sciences.

The workshop was attended by junior faculty, senior faculty and instructors representing UB’s Jacobs School and the Schools of Nursing, Public Health and Health Professions, and Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences.

Laychock and Tangalos discussed the composition of the faculty promotion dossier. They placed special emphasis on and provided guidance towards preparing the personal statement and the CV, the two required documents that faculty contribute to their promotion dossier. When it comes to preparing the CV, “Be comprehensive and don’t be humble,” said Tangalos.

The workshop provided an interactive platform to attendees who asked insightful questions such as “protocol for selection of external and internal evaluators,” “rank on rank voting” and “the magic number of publications.” Laychock and Tangalos answered these questions in detail. “There is no clean cut number for publications; the authorship rank and journal impact are important factors,” said Laychock.

Tangalos elaborated on the process of writing the CV, highlighting the importance of describing one’s role on publications, especially for middle authorship. She noted that candidates are permitted to view their completed dossier. Laychock stressed the importance of having a mentoring committee pertinent to the field of research and that mentoring should begin as early as possible in the candidate’s career.

The workshop also touched upon the promotion criteria and guidelines for tenure track vs. non-tenure, research vs. clinical faculty, professor vs. educator as well as volunteer faculty. “Promotion is available to UB faculty at all ranks and is recognition for contributions to your profession, teaching of students and trainees, and to our community. We aim to provide guidance and mentoring for our faculty to realize their full potential and derive the greatest satisfaction during their career development,” said Laychock.

The professional development workshop series continues with workshops on Effective Teaching and Public Speaking to be offered in June, 2019. This series is offered by CTSI’s KL2 Mentored Career Development Award Program, Community of Scholars and Workforce Development Core, with the objective of enabling scholars towards becoming successful and independent clinical and translational investigators.