The 2025-2026 Faculty Aspiring Leadership Program Fellows

Project Overview

Academic Affairs seeks a Faculty Aspiring Leadership Fellow to work on two projects. The Division of Academic Affairs supports students and faculty in various academic and extracurricular success endeavors. The Division comprises student success, the Aggie Honor System, the Center for Teaching Excellence (CTE), and many other programs and centers. The smaller of the two projects (25%) relates to the Student Experience Project (SEP). In this aspect, the Fellow will work with Vice Provost Tim Scott to support Texas A&M’s engagement in the SEP. 

The other larger portion (75%) of projects involves working with Associate Provost Michael Johnson to determine the use and cost of third-party learning tools. This would include both those tools integrated into the learning management system (Canvas) and those that are used outside of the LMS. The Fellow will work with both Technology Services and the Digital Learning group of CTE to determine which tools are being used officially and their associated costs. The Fellow will also work with vendors to determine which tools are being used while not officially integrated into the LMS (and their cost). This Fellow will support efforts related to the cost of learning materials as highlighted in the Student Experience Study.

Preferred Qualifications

• Associate level or full level faculty in tenured or academic professional track titles
• Experience with digital learning and Canvas
• Faculty interested in student success and university leadership

Mentors

• Tim Scott, Vice Provost for Academic Affairs

• Michael Johnson, Associate Provost for Academic Enhancement

Project Overview

This project addresses the formation of an internal funding program in the College of Arts & Sciences 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).

The College of Arts & Sciences was formed approximately three years ago upon merging of the legacy College of Liberal Arts, College of Geoscience, and College of Science. Of these three former colleges, only the College of Science had an internal funding program called the Strategic Transformative Research Program (STRP); this program was focused on developing new collaborations with the intent to submit federal agency proposals, and naturally the review metrics and metrics of success were based on those relevant to scientific research. The STRP program was brought forward to the newly merged college, with modified version of the College of Science STRP run in the College of Arts & Sciences in 2023 and 2024. These iterations of the STRP included smaller awards, such as individual research grants of $3,000-$5,000 to support travel to archives. While appreciated, the efforts to adapt the established STRP funding framework to sciences, social sciences, and humanities have been met with limited success, e.g., as collaborations and a focus on seed funding are not common in the humanities. 

Through this proposed project, a new internal funding program will be designed in the College of Arts & Sciences which addresses the needs of natural sciences and mathematics, social sciences, and humanities. This funding program will be complimentary to ongoing funding programs from across the University, including the Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, as well as those from the Division of Research (e.g., Targeted Proposal Teams (TPT). Available information on internal funding programs in colleges of arts and sciences at peer and aspirational institutions will be consulted, as well as internal programs at Texas A&M University, including efforts across other colleges.

 Project Outcomes

• An internal funding program at the College of Arts & Sciences
• Elevating research excellence
• Increasing national and international reputation of the researchers, college, and university, laying the foundation for future foundational and federal fundings

Preferred Qualifications

• Professor, College of Arts & Sciences
• Associate Dean for Research, College of Arts & Sciences

Mentors

• Simon North, Executive Associate Dean, John W. Bevan Professor of Chemistry
• Troy Bickham, Director of Glasscock Center for Humanities Research, Susanne M. and Melbern G. Glasscock Directors Chair, Professor History

Project Overview

Recognition through external awards in professional societies is a critical component of faculty success and institutional prestige. While top-tier recognitions such as those from the National Academy of Engineering (NAE) and the Wolf Prize are well known, mid-level awards that recognize nationally prominent and engaged faculty often remain underutilized. These awards not only honor individual achievements but also strengthen the visibility of faculty members, their departments, and the institution as a whole.

This Faculty Aspiring Leadership Fellowship will 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, this initiative will create a scalable framework for increasing faculty recognition.

Several challenges hinder the systematic pursuit of external awards:

• Lack of Awareness: Many faculty members and administrators are unaware of relevant mid-level awards and their nomination cycles.
• Data Fragmentation: Information about faculty achievements is scattered across CVs, ORCID profiles, institutional repositories, and professional societies, making it difficult to compile comprehensive nomination packages.
• Labor-Intensive Nomination Process: Preparing competitive nomination packets is time-consuming and often requires significant administrative effort.
• Underrepresentation of Engaged Faculty: Faculty who are deeply involved in national-level professional societies may not proactively seek recognition, leading to missed opportunities.

By implementing an AI-enhanced award nomination framework, this fellowship aims to increase faculty visibility through systematic and proactive recognition efforts. By streamlining the identification and nomination process, faculty members will have greater opportunities to be recognized for their contributions at a national level. Additionally, securing more external awards will enhance the institution’s reputation, reinforcing its leadership in engineering education and research. Automating nomination workflows and document preparation will reduce administrative burdens, allowing faculty and staff to focus on strategic initiatives rather than manual processes. Finally, this initiative will foster a culture of excellence where faculty actively seek and receive recognition for their achievements, further elevating the academic and professional standing of the College of Engineering.

Project Outcomes

• Interact with departmental external awards committees to identify relevant awards
• Explore and implement a technology-assisted framework to streamline and enhance faculty award nominations Utilize vector databases to categorize and retrieve relevant awards based on faculty research areas, professional activities, and academic contributions
• Implement RAG models to dynamically update award opportunities and match them with faculty profiles
• Leverage ORCID and institutional databases to collect structured information about faculty publications, citations, grants, and service roles
• Streamline the extraction of relevant achievements to populate nomination materials efficiently
• Establish a recommendation system to suggest awards based on an individual's scholarly trajectory
• Use natural language processing (NLP) to refine award applications and tailor them to specific criteria
• Leverage the internal recognition system to identify faculty members deserving of external awards and encourage nominations
• Foster a culture of proactive award-seeking as a key component of faculty development.
• Conduct workshops to familiarize faculty and department heads with AI-driven award tracking and nomination tools
• Provide best practices for crafting compelling nominations and soliciting strong letters of recommendation
• Establish a mentorship network where past award recipients guide new nominees

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in faculty development, academic recognition, or research administration
• Familiarity with AI tools, machine learning models, or data analytics in higher education is highly desirable
• Strong analytical and problem-solving skills related to information retrieval and database management will be essential for leveraging AI-driven solutions to streamline award nominations
• Demonstrate a commitment to promoting faculty success and institutional visibility through strategic initiatives
• The ability to collaborate across departments and engage with faculty at various career stages is crucial to fostering a culture of recognition and proactive award-seeking

Mentor

• Jean-Francois Chamberland, Associate Dean for Faculty Success

Project Overview

Effective peer-teaching evaluation is essential for fostering instructional excellence within the College of Engineering (COE). The COE and the Institute for Engineering Education and Innovation (IEEI) are committed to offering students a meaningful educational experience by adopting empirically demonstrated best practices, such as peer-teaching evaluations, and leveraging emerging technologies. With the increasing availability of student and faculty evaluation data, there is an opportunity to enhance the assessment of teaching effectiveness and provide timely, actionable feedback. This Faculty Aspiring Leadership Fellowship (FALF) aims to design and implement methods for peer-teaching evaluation that enhance education broadly. The fellowship may incorporate time-tested approaches alongside advanced data analytics and artificial intelligence (AI), including GPT agents and retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) models, to improve feedback, training, and pedagogical alignment with student needs.

Despite the importance of peer evaluations in faculty development, several challenges persist:

• Inconsistency in Feedback: Traditional peer-review methods often yield subjective and inconsistent feedback, limiting their impact on teaching improvement.
• Disconnect Between Student Data and Teaching Methods: Readily available student data is underutilized in informing pedagogical strategies that align with instructor skills and course content.
• Training Gaps for Peer Evaluators: Faculty serving as peer reviewers often lack formal training in evaluating teaching effectiveness systematically.
• Limited Data Integration: Existing evaluation tools do not leverage AI or computational methods effectively to analyze patterns in teaching performance or suggest targeted improvements.

The fellow will undertake a comprehensive review of peer-teaching evaluation processes, leveraging data analysis to propose and implement improvements. By establishing best practices for peer evaluation, this initiative aims to ensure that faculty reviewers are well-prepared to support teaching excellence across the College of Engineering.

Project Outcomes

• Develop and implement training modules designed to equip faculty evaluators with the necessary skills and knowledge
• Identify effective teaching strategies
• Deliver constructive and actionable feedback
• Utilize AI-assisted evaluation tools to improve consistency and depth in assessment
• Integration of student data for tailored pedagogical insights
• Development of an AI-compatible electronic feedback form
• Outreach and engagement in teaching excellence by engaging with student organizations, organizing workshops and seminars to share insights
• Increase the consistency and usefulness of peer feedback for faculty improvement
• Provide a scalable model for teaching evaluation that can be adopted across departments
• Enhance faculty engagement with data-driven teaching strategies
• Strengthen the College of Engineering’s reputation as a leader in pedagogical innovation

Preferred Qualifications

• Strong commitment to educational excellence and faculty engagement
• Possess strong analytical and problem-solving skills related to data-driven decision-making
• Ability to collaborate with faculty, students, and administrative stakeholders
• Experience with faculty development, teaching evaluation, or instructional design
• Familiarity with AI/ML applications in education, data analytics, or assessment methods

Mentors

• Karan Watson, Interim Director IEEI
• Jean-Francois Chamberland, Associate Dean for Faculty Success

Project Overview

The Associate Provost for Faculty Advocacy (APFA) is a new position at Texas A&M. Through a series of listening sessions conducted by the APFA over the past six months, several concerns emerged that are common to faculty members across the campus. Two concerns in particular stand out. The first is that faculty members shared that they lack information about how TAMU “works,” which can be an obstacle to getting help that they need or understanding decisions made by department heads and other administrators. The second, related to the first, concerned faculty workload and how that correlates to the faculty title that they hold and the responsibilities that they have. This Fellow will work closely with the Office of Faculty Affairs to develop a series of faculty development workshops that focus on a variety of topics that pertain to how TAMU works, e.g., how the different faculty titles correlate to assigned workload. These workshops will form the basis for a digital faculty guidebook that can be updated regularly and will be an accessible resource for faculty. Additionally, this Fellow will 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. 

Preferred Qualifications

• Prior experience working with APT faculty (e.g., promotion review, mentorship, etc.)
• Full-level faculty in APT track
• Passion for learning more about the university and sharing that knowledge with colleagues
• Good organizational, communication, and interpersonal skills
• Experience collaborating with faculty and staff in units across campus

Mentors

• Dr. Claire Katz, Associate Provost for Faculty Advocacy
• Dr. Heather Wilkinson, Associate Provost for Faculty Affairs

Program Overview

The Graduate & Professional School (Grad School) seeks a Faculty Aspiring Leadership Program Fellow to develop, execute, and assess a new initiative, Grad School Boot Camp 2.0, aimed at undergraduate, graduate, and professional students as a part of the Summer Fellowship Application Writing Boot Camp.

The annual Summer Fellowship Application Writing Boot Camp is a structured series  designed to equip aspiring scholars with the skills and insight necessary to craft compelling and competitive national fellowship applications. Covering all aspects of the application process, from the identification of funding opportunities to the development of research proposals and personal statements, this series provides a transformative experience for participants. 

Originally launched in 2009 through the NSF-funded TAMUS LSAMP Bridge to the Doctorate program, this initiative expanded in 2014 to include collaborations with the Texas A&M University System—Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (TAMUS AGEP) and GRAD Aggies. In Summer 2019, the Grad School and TAMUS LSAMP further broadened participation to welcome both STEM and non-STEM undergraduate and graduate students.

Following the summer boot camp series, students seeking additional support for their applications are paired with seasoned experts who provide valuable feedback and insights to enhance their submissions. These experts also naturally serve as mentors throughout the application process, offering a critical “second pair of eyes” to help fine-tune personal and research statements for maximum impact. 

A distinctive feature of the program is the opportunity for students to work with mentors from outside their discipline, fostering interdisciplinary relationships and broadening their academic perspectives. Many of these mentors are deeply invested in the initiative, with some also serving as presenters during the boot camp series. 

As a testament to the program’s effectiveness, more than 30 past participants have successfully secured national fellowships. Currently, the summer boot camp series does not offer a structured space for students to “continue” developing their writing after the sessions conclude. To enhance the program, the Grad School aims to expand its offerings into the main academic semesters. This initiative aims to leverage the expertise of a Faculty Aspiring Leadership Program Fellow to sustain momentum while expanding our growth and accessibility to students.

Project Outcomes

• Fall 2025: The fellow will develop and implement continued programming that builds on the Summer Boot Camp, including but not limited to a fellowship application writing studio and Grad School 101 workshop series geared towards Texas A&M undergraduate students interested in attending Graduate School. 
• Collectively, these programs are referred to as Grad School Boot Camp 2.0. This program development should include:
  • Reviewing best practices and literature on advancing leadership skills, particularly those focused in graduate and professional education.
  • Cultivating a network of collaborators and mentors who will serve as coaches during scheduled writing studios and facilitators during Grad School 101 workshop series. In addition to this, identifying additional mentors who will be able to serve as reviewers for 1:1 feedback with students applying for fellowships and/or to Graduate School.
  • Improvement of time management skills while developing and strengthening program and event management.
  • Incrementally expanding programming to ensure continued growth and accessibility.

• Spring 2026:
  • Implementing additional Grad School 101 workshop series.
  • Contributing to the planning and vision for the Summer 2026 Boot Camp, including the integration of mini-writing studios.
• Compile a summary report of the Boot Camp 2.0 programming with recommendations for improvements and best practices for the next academic year AY26-27 (report target: May 2026).

 Preferred Qualifications

• Graduate faculty with experience in teaching and mentoring undergraduate, graduate and professional students
• Experience with overseeing events for undergraduate and/or graduate students
• Experience serving as a reviewer for national and/or internal fellowships
• Willingness and enthusiasm to cultivate and enhance leadership expertise through active participation in Faculty Aspiring Leadership Program meeting and training sessions

Mentors

• Dr. Shannon Walton, Assistant Dean for Student Development & Success, Graduate & Professional School
• Dr. Fuhui Tong, Associate Provost & Dean, Graduate & Professional School

Collaborator

• Isah Veronica D. Juranek, Student Success Coordinator, Graduate & Professional School

Project Overview

The Graduate & Professional School (Grad School) seeks a Faculty Fellow to provide leadership for the evaluation of the My Grad Journey System. The My Grad Journey System launched in fall 2024 with the student profile. The feedback and reflection cycle is piloting in spring 2025. 

This project serves all graduate and professional students, providing 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.  

The Faculty Fellow will provide leadership to the evaluation of this project, working with an established steering committee as well as Technology Services staff.  Additionally, the Faculty Fellow will assist in sharing this project with the broader campus community, ensuring that this final product best serves the needs of our stakeholders and will assist in guiding promotion elements for the web and training materials. 

Project Outcome

This effort will require the development of end-user surveys and focus groups to determine satisfaction with the system and potential improvements.  

Visit http://mygradjourney.tamu.edu to experience this unique system.

Preferred Qualifications 

• Experience in graduate education with a broad understanding of the diversity of graduate programs and needs of graduate and professional students across our institution
• Member of graduate committee faculty with experience serving on graduate committees Excellent written and oral communication skills with the ability to facilitate conversations with a broad group of faculty, staff, and student stakeholders
• Excellent organization and project management skills
• Skills in survey development
• Skills in qualitative methods

Mentors 

• Dr. Fuhui Tong, Associate Provost & Dean, Graduate & Professional School 
• Dr. Julie Harlin, Associate Dean, Graduate & Professional Studies, Graduate & Professional School

Project Overview

Graduate and Professional student recruitment is a key priority for Texas A&M University to attract and retain high-caliber students for advanced study. This project aims to enhance graduate student recruitment efforts by leveraging faculty expertise in undergraduate advising and graduate education. 

The Fellow will develop and implement strategic initiatives to strengthen the pipeline from undergraduate to graduate education through mentorship, targeted outreach, and structured advising initiatives. Through this fellowship, the faculty member will play a pivotal role in advancing institutional efforts to promote graduate education while gaining leadership experience in higher education administration.

Project Outcomes

• Develop Undergraduate-to-Graduate Pathways: Identify key touchpoints where undergraduate students can be introduced to graduate education opportunities, including workshops, mentorship programs (e.g., peer-to-peer or faculty/staff-to-student, graduate pathways fair, etc…), and faculty-student engagement initiatives.
• Enhance Recruitment Strategies: Collaborate with academic units, graduate coordinators/ recruiters, as well as student services to refine recruitment efforts, ensuring that prospective graduate students are informed and supported through the application process.
• Improve Advising for Graduate School Readiness: Develop resources and advising frameworks to better equip undergraduate advisors in guiding students interested in graduate study.
• Engagement with Campus Stakeholders: Foster collaboration with faculty, current graduate students, and administrative units to build a robust recruitment network.
• Assessment and Reporting: Collect and analyze data on the effectiveness of recruitment and advising initiatives across units to measure impact and recommend future improvements.

• Fall Semester:
  • Conduct a comprehensive review of existing undergraduate-to-graduate recruitment initiatives at TAMU.
  • Identify undergraduate student populations with high potential for graduate study, including honors students, research assistants, and first-generation students.
  • Partner with faculty, program coordinator/recruiter(s), and academic advisors to develop targeted messaging and resources on graduate school opportunities.
  •  Design and implement a series of information sessions, faculty-student networking events, and workshops on graduate school preparation.
  • Develop and launch a mentorship program that pairs undergraduate students with current graduate students for guidance on applications, funding, and research opportunities (i.e., peer-to-peer).
  • Attend monthly leadership development sessions coordinated by Faculty Affairs.

• Spring Semester:
  • Expand outreach to include classroom visits and student organization engagements, particularly in disciplines with lower graduate enrollment rates.
  •  Collaborate with the Graduate and Professional School and other administrative offices to refine advising resources and ensure undergraduate advisors are equipped with clear pathways and application guidance.
  • Co-collaborate and/or facilitate application preparation workshops via an end-of-year activity (e.g., Graduate Pathways Fair), including a statement of purpose writing sessions, panel, and mock interview opportunities for undergraduate students.
  • Collect and analyze data on student participation, engagement, and interest in graduate programs.
  • Assess the effectiveness of mentorship initiatives by gathering feedback from undergraduate and graduate student participants.
  • Submit a final report summarizing project outcomes, recommendations for sustainability, and proposed future enhancements.
  • Participate in at least one external leadership development program focused on higher education administration.

Preferred Qualifications

• Experience in undergraduate advising or student mentorship
• Interest in graduate education and student recruitment
• Strong communication and organizational skills
• Demonstrated ability to collaborate across departments
• Willingness to engage with institutional data to inform recruitment strategies

Mentors

• Dr. Shannon Walton, Assistant Dean, Graduate & Professional School
• Dr. Fuhui Tong, Associate Provost & Dean, Graduate & Professional School

Program Collaborator

• Kayla Duncan, Recruitment Coordinator

Project Overview

This project will 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. The Aerospace and Extreme Environment Nursing Program is a groundbreaking initiative that integrates advanced clinical training with the latest research in aerospace medicine, disaster response, and expeditionary healthcare. This program will prepare nurses to operate in space, aviation, military, and remote healthcare settings, where traditional medical resources may be limited or unavailable. Through a combination of rigorous coursework and hands-on simulation training, graduates will be uniquely positioned to lead in the evolving field of extreme environment healthcare. This initiative aims to set a new standard for nursing education, fostering innovation and leadership in the profession while addressing the growing demand for highly skilled nurses in critical, high-stakes environments.

At the undergraduate level, this first-of-its-kind program will provide nurses with a strong foundation in delivering exceptional care in low and zero-gravity environments, preparing them to operate in aerospace, spaceflight, and other extreme settings. Students will learn how microgravity affects human physiology, alters disease progression, and impacts medical interventions. The curriculum will cover topics such as fluid dynamics in space, wound healing in altered gravity, medication administration challenges, and emergency response protocols for spaceflight missions. Additionally, students will engage in practical training using advanced simulation labs, virtual reality environments, and potential partnerships with aerospace organizations, ensuring they develop the critical thinking and adaptability required to provide expert medical care beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

The graduate focus of this program will be a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) degree, designed to equip nurses with the advanced expertise necessary to establish and lead healthcare operations in extreme and austere environments. This specialized track will prepare graduates to develop, implement, and sustain care hubs in some of the most challenging settings on Earth, including the Arctic, maritime regions, deserts, urban disaster zones, and global conflict areas. These environments often lack adequate healthcare infrastructure, necessitating innovative, adaptable, and resourceful approaches to medical care. Students will gain the skills to assess, design, and manage healthcare delivery models tailored to extreme settings. The program will incorporate field simulations, case studies, and interdisciplinary training with military, humanitarian, and aerospace professionals, ensuring graduates are prepared to provide life-saving interventions, manage trauma care, and oversee public health efforts in unpredictable and high-risk environments.

Additionally, students will explore policy development, ethical considerations, and logistical planning for delivering care in remote locations, working with government agencies, and international health organizations to improve global healthcare access. Graduates of this program will be uniquely positioned as leaders, innovators, and pioneers in extreme environment nursing, ensuring that life-saving healthcare reaches the world’s most vulnerable populations.

Preferred Qualifications

• A Doctor of Nursing Practice Degree is required
• A wide variety of experiences in extreme conditions
• Prior military or humanitarian service preferred
• Program and course development experience
• Strong interpersonal and interprofessional skills
• Experience teaching austere care
• Prefer a Fellow of the Academy of Wilderness Medicine or similar
• Strong presentation skills to large groups of professionals

Mentors

• Dr. Lisa Haddad, Executive Associate Dean
• Dr. Matthew Sorenson, Associate Dean for Graduate Nursing Education

Project Overview

 Texas A&M University is one of the largest public universities in the United States and maintains an expansive, dynamic, and complex network of geospatial data and services which support the varied educational, operational, and research needs of students, faculty, staff, campus visitors, and the greater community of TAMU partners. Given the dramatically differing needs for which TAMU community members utilize campus geospatial operations – from systems of record for state reporting requirements; to transportation systems used by current, former, and future TAMU students and their guests; to emergency preparation and response obligations; to the use of data for, about, and by campus operations within operational, educational, and research endeavors and beyond – TAMU geospatial operations are unbound in the impact that they have on the daily activities of every individual member of the TAMU community and the national reputation of the university itself. 

TAMU is uniquely positioned to become the world-leader in geospatially-enabled campus operations if it can leverage its 30+ year history of geospatial excellence and identify the next key ingredients necessary to operationalize a best-in-class geospatially-enabled university campus. It has an award-winning history of nationally-recognized geospatial operations, yet it presently maintains a diverse set of geospatial operational, technical, and process implementations and workflows. Some of these are formalized as centralized or distributed activities, while others are ad hoc individual- or unit-level initiatives which are many times uncoordinated or never captured and folded into the core set of university data or services. Even further, TAMU is sitting on a treasure trove of operational geospatial data and services which are presently un- or under-used within the research and education missions of the institution.

Given these realities and recent operational re-alignments and leadership changes stemming from the TAMU Path Forward, TAMU is presented with an unparalleled opportunity to develop a national model for geospatially-enabled university operations. This model should capitalize on existing strengths and resources, while leveraging recent and emerging advances in geospatial technology to build out a true geospatially-enabled enterprise which supports the full suite of institutional goals and stakeholders in a sustainable manner.

This project will identify the full set of TAMU geospatial resources and stakeholders to pinpoint opportunities to leverage or realign existing resources, processes, and infrastructure to meet the greatest set of community needs possible. It will look to other large-scale geospatial enterprise examples to identity best practices and operational alignments that could be applied to meet the unique needs of the diverse TAMU community of geospatial producers and consumers. This necessarily includes an assessment of existing and untapped geospatial partnerships with internal and external units and organizations at the university, local, state, and federal levels. 

This project will identify and formalize opportunities to leverage the massive sets of geospatial data created for, about, and by TAMU within the research and teaching enterprises of the university. This will enable the real-world hands-on teaching and learning experiences required of a top-tier educational institution, and it will enable the one-of-a-kind testbeds and research incubators which lead to the nationally competitive large-scale grant opportunities needed to sustain the research mission of a top-tier R1 university.

Project Outcomes

The successful Aspiring Faculty Leader will work under the mentorship of Mr. Peter Lange, Texas A&M Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President, to develop leadership skills and build a portfolio of leadership experience by spearheading a multi-unit analysis of TAMU’s operational geospatial enterprise. The Aspiring Faculty Leader will listen to the needs of stakeholder groups and to those who currently serve to support campus operations, evaluate the effectiveness of existing and alternative approaches, and apply an evidence based approach towards the development of a vision for a geospatially-enabled campus articulated as operational proposals with the potential to effect sustainable positive changes which enhance the myriad of university operational, educational, and research goals. 

Specifically, the Aspiring Faculty Leader will:

• Undertake an audit of TAMU’s operational geospatial data, resources, and services which identifies key campus stakeholders, user groups, and intended consumers and contributors to support an analysis of redundancies, inefficiencies, and opportunities for the delivery of the core services necessary to meet the needs of TAMU’s diverse operational, educational, and research obligations
• Perform an analysis of the geospatial operational and organizational structures of peer and aspirant peer institutions to create and apply an analysis framework for evaluating resource organization and delivery with respect to most effectively serving the geospatial needs of the full TAMU community of stakeholders;
• Develop a plan for community- and campus-wide geospatial integrations to leverage TAMU Operation’s close ties to TAMU academic units and to the cities of College Station and Bryan and other local, regional, state, and federal organizations which identifies opportunities to build upon current and future shared initiatives to improve the efficiency and effectiveness of geospatial operations on campus, regionally, and nationally; and
• Create standardized workflows, operational procedures, and vetting processes to support geospatial data and services sharing between on-campus and external data producers, custodians, and consumers and contributors including academic and operational administrative groups, educators, and researchers to derive maximal value from the one-of-a-kind data sets and experiences that are inherently unique to TAMU and its position on the local and national stage.

Preferred Qualifications

• Associate- or full-level faculty in tenured or academic professional track titles
• Experience with strategic planning, assessment, or implementation
• Experience with large-scale enterprise mapping and information technology systems
• Knowledge of TAMU geospatial data operations, users, and systems
• Interest in university leadership and administration

Mentor

• Mr. Peter Lange, Texas A&M Chief Operating Officer and Senior Vice President