Networking and Mentoring through the Faculty Leaders Program

Faculty Leaders Program participants talk during a 2017 session

Faculty Leaders Program participants talk during a 2017 session

Photo by Diane Baldwin/RAND

The Faculty Leaders Program is part of our vision to bring a greater degree of diversity of experience and perspective to the study and practice of public policy analysis. Faculty leaders will:

  • Gain the tools to incorporate public policy analysis into their curriculum, research, and mentoring of students
  • Learn to apply these methods to effect change within their communities
  • Collaborate with RAND researchers and have the opportunity to continue these relationships upon returning to their home institutions
  • Recommend future Pardee RAND doctoral scholars and public policy leaders from among the students they teach and mentor

Networking and Mentoring

“Academic stimulation, interesting faculty, students and staff, good connections among colleagues. Great program.”

As part of the Faculty Leaders Program, attendees will engage with other faculty scholars from around the country who, like them, share a passion and enthusiasm for effecting change in their classrooms, universities, and communities. Because of the intense nature of the program, faculty leaders are engaged with one another through class discussions, group projects, and collaborating on research ideas. It is through these interactions that we have seen participants develop joint ideas and projects for consideration after the workshop is over—from sharing future opportunities for learning, to writing grants, to providing feedback on paper submissions. We invite program alumni to return each year so Faculty Leaders can meet members of other cohorts and make further connections. Our ongoing email network of participants from all years of the program helps to continue engagement and collaboration after each summer's program has concluded.

Faculty Leaders will also enjoy meeting their RAND research mentor, and in turn other members of the RAND community. As much as Faculty Leaders are enthusiastic to meet the RAND community, our community is also eager to meet the them! We anticipate that, through these interactions and discussions, longer-term relationships can form so collaboration will continue long after the workshop is over.