Faculty Success

Faculty Success

Supporting faculty in their teaching, research, clinical activities, engagement, outreach and extension efforts and professional development.

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Celebrating Faculty Success

The Office of the Provost strives to support faculty excellence in all areas and at each stage of our faculty members’ development. We partner and collaborate with each of our colleges and schools to work with our faculty throughout their careers and enhance their success in all aspects of their work—teaching, research, clinical activities, engagement, outreach and extension efforts and professional development. We support and prepare faculty for success in the promotion and tenure process, as well as internal and external leadership roles in their fields and disciplines. Our faculty engage in a variety of programs and initiatives that help them innovate, lead and make lasting impacts in their fields and our state and communities.  Every year we celebrate faculty success with many events, such as a new faculty reception, a promotion and tenure celebration, and gatherings where we honor faculty awardees, including the William T. Kemper teaching awards. (shown on left).  

Annual Faculty Celebrations
2026 Kemper Fellows

Faculty Awards and Successes

3

Highly Prestigious Awards

16

Prestigious Awards

23

Faculty members won national awards

The National Research Council identifies research and other academic awards deemed highly prestigious. The total number of highly prestigious awards among an institution’s faculty is one of the Phase 1 indicators used by the AAU to evaluate the quality of its member institutions. View recent award winners

Promotion & Tenure

in the 2024-2025 promotion cycle, 148 faculty members were promoted.

Tenure Track & Tenured  

  • 55 successful promotions
  • 29 promoted to associate professor with tenure
  • 24 promoted to full professor
  • 2 awarded tenure only

  Non-tenure Track 

  • 91 successful promotions

Programs for Early Career Faculty

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    Attend New Faculty Orientation

    New Faculty Orientation events include both webinars and in-person sessions. This year’s sessions took place August 17-18.

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    Apply for the LEAP Cohort

    Learning and Expanding Abilities for Professoriate Cohort Fellows Program (LEAP) is a two-year cohort program designed to support assistant professors (TT and NTT) as they begin their academic careers as faculty members.

    LEAP Creates Community
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    Join Connection

    Connection is a faculty cohort program for TT and NTT faculty that runs each semester and aims to build community and support faculty holistically by connecting them to resources and initiatives that support progress through the tenure and/or promotion process, professional development and strategic planning, and aligning with their purpose as scholars and teachers. 

    More about Connection
The Office of the Provost facilitates several programs, each geared towards various milestones in the career path or disciplinary areas of faculty members. Start here

By the Numbers

84

New Faculty participated in orientation in August 2025

9

Faculty participated in the 2025-27 LEAP cohort

11

Faculty received course releases to focus on publishing a book in 2025-26

Mid-Career to Full Professor Faculty Programs

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    Apply for the Mid-Career Cohort

    This program is designed to provide development opportunities to associate professors (tenured and NTT faculty) prior to promotion to full professor.

    Read about Mid-Career Cohort
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    Attend Full Professor Sessions

    152 full professors attended various sessions offered on collaboration, mentorship, workload and retirement.

    Full Professor Programming

Testimonials from Former Faculty Participants

Connection alumni

"The networking and opportunities to discuss challenges and faculty-oriented topics with colleagues from across campus. I also LOVED the panels and all of the activities and events that were offered to us. "

Provost Leadership Program alumni

"I got to know faculty that I would normally not cross paths with and learn about their strengths and challenges that they face in their departments.”

7

Faculty members in the 2025-27 Mid-Career Cohort

152

Full professors attended sessions

10

Faculty members in the 2025-27 Arts & Humanities Fellows

Great Books Program and Arts & Humanities Research and Creative Works Fellows Program

Great Books Program 

The focus of the Great Books Program is to support mid-career faculty who are writing books. Faculty who have an advance contract (or strong letter of interest from a publisher or editor) to publish a book can apply for a course release to support the completion of the book.

Arts & Humanities Research and Creative Works Fellows Program

The Office of the Provost offers this two-year research and creative works support program, which aims to create structures, supports, and mentoring for early and mid-career faculty members who engage in the arts and humanities.

More about Great Books Program More about Arts & Humanities Fellows

Leadership & Impact

The Office of the Provost offers programs to support faculty developing as leaders and fostering opportunities for impact beyond Mizzou.  

SEC Academic Leadership Development Program 

The SEC ALDP identifies, develops, prepares and seeks to advance academic leadership within the SEC. Skills and knowledge are provided by offering unique perspectives from current administrators that explore challenges they face on their campuses.  View current and former ALDP participants.

Mentoring at Mizzou 

Mentoring at Mizzou is a partnership between the Office of the Provost and Graduate School, which uses an evidence-based, interactive approach designed to help mentors develop skills for engaging in productive, culturally responsive, research mentoring relationships – relationships that optimize the success of both mentor and mentees. In academic year 2025-26, 97 faculty members were trained over 9 different sessions held in the spring and fall. Read a story about chairs who have implemented the training for their faculty: Training that Enhances Mentoring Relationships  

Promoting Excellence in STEM Departments 

The Offices of the President and Provost have supported a cohort of department chairs and faculty leaders from seven STEM departments in developing programs and initiatives aimed at achieving success in STEM disciplines and career pathways. We have funded two ongoing projects on topics that focus on facilitating greater collaboration, networking and mentoring among faculty interested in health equity research and engineering, as well as department initiatives to enhance teaching, research, advising and mentoring. 

Provost Leadership Program 

The goal of the Provost Leadership Program is to develop academic leaders who will guide MU into the future. Through the program, members are able to come together for development and growth as leaders, while expanding and enriching their professional networks on personal and institutional levels.  Read more in a story: Provost Leadership Program: Developing MU’s Next Academic Leaders – Office of the Provost. 22% have assumed new leadership roles since completing the program.

Creating supports for faculty

Councils to Support Faculty Success

Faculty Success Council —established to identify opportunities to support faculty success on campus. The council, which includes representatives from the leadership teams at each college and school, meets regularly during the academic year, engages in discussions with their unit’s leadership team and faculty members, and helps facilitate programming, initiatives, and/or supports in their unit related to faculty success.  

 Professional Development Council and Programs — comprised of representatives from units across the university to support faculty success and professional development. The PD Council provides a space for various units to share current and upcoming PD opportunities with each other, communicate to faculty about PD opportunities, and seek input on the changing topics and needs of faculty members to create PD opportunities that are relevant. On March 12, 2026, the PD Council hosted its second annual showcase event focused on AI and Professional Development, Preparing Students & Ourselves for AI in the New Workplace, which brought together alums, industry leaders, faculty and staff for a series of dialogues and interactive sessions on how we at Mizzou are helping students develop the AI skills employers are looking for as well as how we and industry leaders are integrating AI into our own workplaces. 

Faculty Success Council