The Faculty Aspiring Leadership Program offers strategic development of faculty across campus to sustain transformative change through individual and organizational skill building. Program Fellows are emerging leaders with the potential to impact the institution and build a portfolio of leadership experience. Fellows gain knowledge of institutional operations in specific areas and advance their leadership skills in higher education. The program is coordinated by the Office of Faculty Affairs with the generous support of the Texas A&M Association of Former Students.
2025-2026 Faculty Aspiring Leadership Program Fellows
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Fellow: Glenn A. Barnes, DNP, RN, EMT-P, ACUE, NHDP-BC, FWEM, FAWM, Clinical Associate Professor
Home Academic Unit: College of Nursing
Project: Aerospace & Extreme Environment Nursing Program - develop a new Nursing Program consisting of both undergraduate and graduate components, designed to equip nurses with specialized skills for delivering expert care in extreme and high-risk environments
Sponsoring Academic Unit: College of Nursing
Mentors:
- Dr. Lisa Haddad, Executive Associate Dean
- Dr. Matthew Sorenson, Associate Dean for Graduate Nursing Education
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Fellow: Dae Seok Chai, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Human Resource Development
Home Academic Unit: Department of Educational Administration & Human Resource Development
Project: My Grad Journey System Evaluation - provide leadership for the evaluation of this project and working with an established steering committee as well as Technology Services staff serve all graduate and professional students to provide a platform for students to document their goals and activities related to their graduate journey, for faculty advisors/committees to provide timely feedback and evaluation, as well as for department/unit to gather data for reporting purposes
Sponsoring Academic Unit: Graduate & Professional School
Mentors:
- Dr. Fuhui Tong, Associate Provost & Dean
- Dr. Julie Harlin-Wolf, Associate Dean, Graduate & Professional Studies
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Fellow: Ivis García, Ph.D., AICP, Associate Professor
Home Academic Unit: Department of Landscape Architecture & Urban Planning
Project: Strengthening the Undergraduate-to-Graduate Pipeline through Strategic Recruitment - enhance graduate student recruitment efforts by leveraging faculty expertise in undergraduate advising and graduate education by developing and implementing strategic initiatives to strengthen the pipeline from undergraduate to graduate education through mentorship, targeted outreach, and structured advising initiatives
Sponsoring Academic Unit: Graduate & Professional School
Mentors:
- Dr. Shannon Walton, Assistant Dean
- Dr. Fuhui Tong, Associate Provost & Dean
Program Collaborator:
- Kayla Duncan, Recruitment Coordinator
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Fellow: Daniel W. Goldberg, Ph.D., Associate Professor of Geography
Home Academic Unit: Department of Geography
Project: Mapping a Future for a World-Leading Geospatially-Enabled University - develop a national model for geospatially-enabled university operations to capitalize on existing strengths and resources, while leveraging recent and emerging advances in geospatial technology and build out a true geospatially-enabled enterprise which supports the full suite of institutional goals and stakeholders in a sustainable manner
Sponsoring Academic Unit: Texas A&M University Office of the President
Mentors:
- Mr. Peter Lange, Texas A&M Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President
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Fellow: Catharina M. Laporte, Ph.D., Instructional Professor
Home Academic Unit: Department of Anthropology
Project: Student Experience Project and Third-Party Learning Tools - two projects that include one that relates to Texas A&M’s engagement with the Student Experience Project and the other project works with both Technology Services and the Digital Learning group of the Center for Teaching Excellence to determine which third-party learning tools are being used officially and their associated costs
Sponsoring Academic Unit: Academic Affairs
Mentors:
- Dr. Tim Scott, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs
- Dr. Michael Johnson, Associate Provost for Academic Enhancement
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Fellow: Sharon D. Matthews, Ph.D., Clinical Professor & Associate Department Head for Undergraduate Programs
Home Academic Unit: Department of Teaching, Learning & Culture
Project: Developing Faculty Agency through Knowledge-Building - develop a series of faculty development workshops that focus on a variety of topics that pertain to how Texas A&M University works, e.g., how the different faculty titles correlate to assigned workload, form the basis for a digital faculty guidebook that can be updated regularly and will be an accessible resource for faculty, and work closely with a task force that will study faculty workload across the campus and provide a set of recommendations to help faculty administrators better align faculty titles and faculty workload
Sponsoring Academic Unit: Faculty Affairs
Mentors:
- Dr. Claire Katz, Associate Provost for Faculty Advocacy
- Dr. Heather Wilkinson, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs
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Fellow: Daniel A. McAdams, Ph.D., Robert H. Fletcher Professor in Mechanical Engineering
Home Academic Unit: J. Mike Walker '66 Department of Mechanical Engineering
Project: The Faculty Fellow for Strategic Partnerships - by working with relevant units at Texas A&M University to advance research development and strategic partnerships - will support the advancement of strategic initiatives, industry/community engagement, private-sector partnerships, and other efforts to enhance research funding from varied sources.
Sponsoring Academic Unit: Division of Research
Mentors:
- Dr. Henry Fadamiro, Associate Vice President for Research, Strategic Initiatives
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Fellow: Emily B. Pentzer, Ph.D., Professor & Associate Dean for Research
Home Academic Unit: Department of Chemistry
Project: Internal Funding Program Formation - develop a new internal funding program complimentary to ongoing funding programs from across the University and designed to address the needs of natural sciences and mathematics, social sciences, and humanities that provides research support for faculty to pursue research excellence - supporting efforts from starting new collaborative research initiatives (e.g., seed funding) to completing ongoing projects (e.g., book completion)
Sponsoring Academic Unit: College of Arts & Sciences
Mentors:
- Dr. Simon North, Executive Associate Dean
- Dr. Troy Bickham, Director of the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research
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Fellow: Farzan Sasangohar, Ph.D., Associate Professor
Home Academic Unit: Wm Michael Barnes '64 Department of Industrial & Systems Engineering
Project: Enhancing External Awards & Recognitions - develop a systematic, data-driven approach to identifying, tracking, and support faculty nominations for external awards by leveraging artificial intelligence (AI) tools, including vector databases, retrieval-augmented generation models, and ORCID-linked data mining that will create a scalable framework for increasing faculty recognition
Sponsoring Academic Unit: College of Engineering
Mentor: Dr. Jean-Francois Chamberland, Associate Dean for Faculty Success
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Fellow: Jony Sheynin, Ph.D., Research Assistant Professor
Home Academic Unit: Department of Psychiatry & Behavioral Science
Project: Grad School Boot Camp 2.0 - develop, execute, and assess a new initiative aimed at undergraduate, graduate, and professional students as a part of the Summer Fellowship Application Writing Boot Camp, a structured series designed to equip aspiring scholars with the skills and insight necessary to craft compelling and competitive national fellowship applications including all aspects of the application process, from the identification of funding opportunities to the development of research proposals and personal statements
Sponsoring Academic Unit: Graduate & Professional School
Mentors:
- Dr. Shannon Walton, Assistant Dean for Student Development & Success
- Dr. Fuhui Tong, Associate Provost & Dean
Collaborator:
- Isah Veronica D. Juranek, Student Success Coordinator
The Faculty Aspiring Leadership Program is open to all full-time faculty. Fellows will typically be advanced associate-level or early full-level faculty in tenured or academic professional track titles and must be in good standing in their home units. Fellows are selected based on their experience, interests that match with available opportunities, and the degree to which a leadership program matches their career path. Fellows are paired with a leadership role within a college/school or university office based on their interests and expertise. Fellows complete a project that can be successfully implemented across the fellowship period, which occurs across fall and spring of a given academic year.
Fellows contribute 25% effort across the fellowship period and should expect approximately 10 hours per week embedded in the host unit focused on their project. As part of their participation, Fellows attend professional conferences on leadership topics, engage in campus tours and activities, benefit from executive coaching sessions, and extend their network across and beyond the university. Faculty Affairs will provide $10,000 to the faculty member’s home unit for teaching replacement costs for one course and $5,000 available to the faculty member to attend a workshop, training, or conference-related leadership skill development.
Competencies developed during the program include:
- Development of leadership skills through a process of discovery and reflection
- Improvement of time management skills
- Learn to respond to different perspectives to meet shared goals
- Apply leadership concepts and skills in practice
- Cultivate networks of collaborators, mentors, and mentees
- Learn to articulate vision and create change as a leader and collaborator
Expectations for fellows include:
- Engagement in the host office for approximately 10 hours a week, focused on the specified project
- A fall celebratory luncheon for leadership fellows
- Attend one external professional development program, in person or virtually, focused on leadership and/or leadership in higher education (funded by the professional development bursary)
- Engage in a monthly cohort-based leadership academy along with fellows from other leadership development programs facilitated by Faculty Affairs, scheduled for 12-2 on the first Tuesday of each month
*This is a required element. Please block this time on your schedule and discuss teaching commitments with your department head. - Engage in self-assessment of leadership skills and strengths
- Complete readings related to the monthly lunchtime seminars
- Report the outcomes from both the project and the overall Aspiring Fellow experience
- Following completion of the fellowship program, engage with one event annually for networking and mentoring among Aspiring program cohorts
