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by Jade Elwess
The Learning and Expanding Abilities for Professoriate Cohort Fellows Program (LEAP) is a professional development program for assistant professors, both tenure track and non-tenure track, to develop their mentoring, teaching and research skills. It also provides access to a network of colleagues from other disciplines who are at similar stages in their careers.
Clarissa Durie, assistant professor in the Division of Biochemistry, is a member of the first cohort, serving from 2024-26. Her department has lots of assistant professors who will be experiencing the tenure process and early career challenges at the same time, without a lot of associate professors who had experienced these same issues more recently to guide them through it.
Because of this, she found it useful to be able to see how other departments are approaching issues such as workload, annual review, and strategic planning. Since it is a 2-year program, she says you can get into more depth with the topics and have continuing small group conversations.
Durie has also taken Mentoring at Mizzou but wanted to continue to work on people management—helping to prepare her own students for getting published and getting a job in their field. She recommends it for faculty who are early into their academic career.
“I think it’s an investment of time in your own career progress and I think it’s worth it,” said Durie. She would always come away from the meetings with practical, actionable information.
Susana Quiros, assistant teaching professor in the Department of Public Health, is also a member of the first LEAP cohort. She encourages faculty to join the program early on, before they are up for promotion and/or tenure. Having colleagues in other departments to share experiences with and learn from as you go through the process of applying for promotion and tenure is a benefit.
The funding for mentoring was also helpful for her. Selected participants will receive $1,000 each year of the program for either professional development funding or for an external mentor.
Quiros is non-tenure track, so she also liked being able to connect with similar faculty. Jennifer Fellabaum-Toston, a teaching professor in Educational Leadership & Policy Analysis, and senior associate dean for the College of Education & Human Development, is the faculty fellow in the Provost’s office leading the LEAP program this semester. She is also non-tenure track, so having opportunities to connect with faculty who are in a similar position going into leadership roles is valuable.
a mixer to encourage future collaborations and connections among the groups.
When planning future meetings, Fellabaum-Toston said they collect feedback after the sessions, including asking the group what topics they want to hear about in the future. This ensures the overall goals for the LEAP program are aligning with the needs of the individual participants.
She encourages faculty who are interested in the program to talk to their department chair about when it makes most sense to participate.
“I was fortunate to have strong mentorship and solid onboarding in my department when I started as a faculty member. Even with that though, there were still aspects of faculty life that I didn’t know I needed to know about or that I would benefit from knowing about sooner. For example, strategies for managing email and calendars.”
She thinks the cohort model is a unique opportunity for newer faculty across campus to get together regularly and discuss common issues they all are facing.
In the March meeting, Lydia Bentley, associate director of the Teaching for Learning Center, talked to the group about drafting effective teaching statements. April’s topic is writing a research statement. Other potential topics include helping new faculty develop their research agendas, seek external and internal funding, manage their time, advise students, serve on committees, and more.
“I hope that after completing the program, participants will feel more connected to campus, more confident as a faculty member, and have a solid plan for what they would like to focus on in the 2-3 years following the program,” says Fellabaum-Toston.