Faculty Support Administrators Network

Leader: Pamela Burton
Team: Belynda Blaire Bady, Sarah Elizabeth Champlin-Scharff, Karl Coleman, Deborah R. Gallagher, Jessica A. Gauchel, Krista Lester, Damari Rosado, Matthew B. Turner, Jessica Baroni

Project Overview:
The FSAN aims to contribute to the educational mission of Harvard through sharing knowledge among managers of faculty-support staff, developing best practices for managers and staff, and learning from and sharing with peers. The FSAN acknowledges opportunities for development in the following key areas: building a knowledge community of managers of faculty-support staff; creation and provision of trainings and skill sharing opportunities among faculty-support staff; development of local and intra-tub community and engagement efforts among faculty-support staff; creation of an accessible resource compiling insight, skills, best practices, templates, and other resources for managers of faculty-support staff.

Project Objectives:
• Continue to provide exceptional service and as needed improve service to faculty across Harvard.
• Support the continued growth and development of the community comprising managers of faculty-support staff across Harvard’s graduate schools and FAS departments. Identify areas for learning related to managing, training, developing, and engaging staff.
• Enhance and strengthen current programmatic offerings and design new programs that build skills and competencies for moderate and high performing faculty-support staff. Design and implement programmatic offerings to address common pitfalls and difficulties experienced by low to moderate performers.
• Create opportunities for community building and connection to increase engagement among faculty-support staff.

Achievements: The Faculty Support Administrators Network (FSAN) team designed several programs and initiatives to support and engage faculty through professional development. FSAN developed a template for engaging faculty assistants and understanding the issues that they face while providing the best possible support to faculty. FSAN also created two staff development specific schools sessions; The Faculty Support Summit held in April, 2017 and “What Drives You” created by CWD. An annual event, to be held in November 2017, will be created for staff based on discussions from Faculty Support Summit with the theme of managing up and over. Additionally, the Managers Toolkit was designed as a resource for managers across the university that includes content specific to managers whose responsibility it is to supervise staff who support faculty.