Heads and Chairs – Spring 2025
Offered online from June 16 to 20, 2025
This five-day intensive workshop will include five one-hour synchronous sessions plus approximately five to seven additional unscheduled hours for self-study and reflection in UM Learn. Sessions will run from Noon to 1 pm CDT.
Fees: $900 plus GST.
Pricing subject to change without notice.
Participant time commitment
- Approximately 12 hours including self-study and reflection.
Key topic areas
- Role of the department chair
- Assessing yourself as chair
- Leadership tools for department chairs
- Budget roles and responsibilities
- Promoting collegiality and managing conflict
- Working effectively with faculty, staff and contract instructors
- Assessing opportunities in the current environment
- Formulating plans and managing your chairship and yourself
Course description
Heads and Chairs provides you with foundational knowledge and skills to build and enhance your academic leadership. Led by a team of experienced academic administrators who have also served as department chairs, it draws upon both literature and practice presented in highly interactive sessions. Join department leaders from Canadian higher education institutions for an exceptional learning and networking opportunity.
This offering provides an opportunity for both new and returning chairs to learn and network within a pan-Canadian environment, with three exceptional facilitators who bring lived experiences as department chairs.
Literature indicates that less than half of new department heads receive any professional development prior to taking on this key and challenging role. Department heads and chairs are uniquely situated between senior management and faculty, and play critical roles building and sustaining collegial and responsive departments.
Delivery methods
Based on feedback, Heads and Chairs will continue in the online format. The workshop will include interactive synchronous sessions, group work, content videos and online discussions, all contextualized within the current higher education environment.
Facilitators
Loleen Berdahl, Facilitator
Loleen is professor of Political Studies at the University of Saskatchewan and executive director of the Johnson Shoyama Graduate School of Public Policy. Previously, Loleen served as department head from 2016 to 2020, during which time she led her department through significant renewal and revitalization. Across the university, Loleen has played an active role in university and college committees pertaining to collegial processes, resource management, faculty relations, curriculum, and governance.
Isabelle Barrette Ng, Facilitator
Isabelle Barrette Ng has served as professor and chair of the Department of Integrative Biology at the University of Windsor since 2020 and will begin her second five-year term in July 2025. Isabelle helped lead her department through the challenges of establishing a new department while navigating both the short-term and long-term impacts of pandemic restrictions and remote learning. She has also assumed institutional leadership roles as co-chair of the Agriculture UWindsor (AgUWin) initiative to engage with industry and community partners, and chair of the Academic Policy Committee, where she has helped tackle challenging issues relating to course modalities and the growing influence of artificial intelligence. As a 3M National Teaching Fellow and co-editor of the Canadian Journal of the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, Isabelle has championed evidence-based teaching practices and led national programs to enhance professional development opportunities for graduate students.
Jonathan Malloy, Facilitator
Jonathan Malloy is Associate Dean (Research and International) in the Faculty of Public Affairs at Carleton University, where he also holds the Bell Chair in Canadian Parliamentary Democracy and currently sits on the university senate. Previously, Jonathan was chair of Carleton’s Department of Political Science from 2012 to 2018 and a member of the university Board of Governors from 2018 to 2021. His most recent books are The Politics of Ontario (co-edited with Cheryl Collier) and, Work Your Career: Get What You Want From Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD, with Loleen Berdahl, He is active in the Canadian Political Science Association, where his most recent project was organizing the 2021 annual conference entirely online.
Registration
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Extended Education
185 Extended Education Complex
University of Manitoba (Fort Garry campus)
Winnipeg, MB R3T 2N2 Canada