Faculty Work-Life Integration Resources

ISU’s Flexible Faculty Programs are designed to support faculty as they balance their professional responsibilities and personal needs. 

Flexible Faculty Programs

Universities must attract and retain the best faculty in order to foster excellence in teaching, research, and outreach. Competition for the best faculty is intense. The availability of flexible and family-friendly programs can make the difference in recruiting and retaining faculty.

Faculty Work-Life Advisory Committee

Charter
Revised June 25, 2021

Charge 

The Faculty Work/Life Advisory Committee advises the Senior Vice President and Provost as chief academic officer on faculty issues of managing professional and personal lives. A key goal is to identify ways to maintain a university environment that leads to effective recruitment, retention, and advancement of faculty. The Committee will make use of faculty-related data available through the COACHE Faculty Satisfaction Survey and the Campus Climate Survey. The Committee will conduct ongoing review of current policies and practices and identify gaps or ineffective policies and practices. It will work with faculty, staff, and administrators with responsibilities for these issues to enhance current policies, practices, and training and/or design new resources. 

Membership

The Assistant Provost for Faculty Development will chair the committee. The members of the committee represent each academic college; tenure-eligible, tenured, and term faculty are eligible to serve. At least one member shall be a faculty senator. A department chair shall also serve on the committee. Members will serve three-year terms, renewable once. 

Committee membership includes: 

Rizia Bardhan, Associate Professor, Chemical and Biological Engineering, College of Engineering
Rui Chen, Associate Professor, Information Systems and Business Analytics, Ivy College of Business
Matthew Delisi, Distinguished Professor, Sociology and Criminal Justice, College of Liberal Arts and Sciences
Raluca Iancu, Assistant Professor, Art and Visual Culture, College of Design
Tera Jordan, Assistant Provost for Faculty Development, Office of the Senior Vice President and Provost
Cullen Padgett-Walsh, Teaching Professor, Philosophy and Religious Studies and Faculty Senator, Philosophy and Religious Studies
Angela Prince, Associate Professor, School of Education, College of Human Sciences
Michael Retallick, Professor and Chair, Agricultural Education and Studies, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences
Jessica Ward, Associate Professor, Veterinary Clinical Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine

Meetings

The Committee will meet four times a year. It will form sub-committees as appropriate to address specific topics or policies. It will submit an annual report to the Provost at the conclusion of the spring semester.

Work-Life Integration Resources

Utilize Iowa State University’s National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity membership to access these recorded webinars. Login with your Iowa State University credentials.

1.  Resting to Rise: Reduce Burn Out, Find Your Joy for Writing and Life, and Create a Just Academia
     Benita Jackson and Karen Brody

2.  Academic Life: What's Mindfulness and Compassion Got To Do With It?
     Angela Rose Black

3.  How to Find Your Pillars of Genius
     Christi Cooke

Hear from other work-life authors and speakers in these resources.

1.  Job Crafting: How Individuals Revision Work (Video)
     Amy Wrzesniewski
Research interests: “focus on how people make meaning of their work in difficult contexts (e.g., stigmatized occupations, virtual work, absence of work), and the experience of work as a job, career, or calling.”

2.  Authenticity on One’s Own Terms (Video)
     Patricia Faison Hewlin
Research interests: “how organization members and leaders engage in authentic expression, as well as factors that impede authenticity in every day work interactions.”

3.  What Works for Women at Work
     Joan Williams 
Creator of the “ideal worker norm. “Path-breaking work helped create the field of work-family studies and modern workplace flexibility policies.”   

4.  Dr. Kelly Ward or Dr. Lisa Wolf-Wendel 
     Academic Motherhood:  How Faculty Manage Work and Family

5.  Christina Carter, PhD: The Sweet Spot (Video)
     Christine Carter, speaker and author 
     The Sweet Spot: How to Achieve More by Doing Less

6.  Sabine Sonnentag
Research Interests: “how individuals can stay healthy, energetic, and productive at work, even when they face a high level of job stressors.”

7.  Find a favorite podcast on work-life balance.

Credit for Resources:
Developed in 2020 by Joanne Marshall
In collaboration with the Faculty Work-Life Advisory Committee: Guiping Hu, Patience Lueth, Huifang Mao, Cullen Padgett-Walsh, Michael Retallick, Javier Vela, and Jessica Ward

The Faculty Work-Life Advisory Committee advises the Senior Vice President and Provost as chief academic officer on faculty issues of managing professional and personal lives. A key goal is to identify ways to maintain a university environment that leads to effective recruitment, retention, and advancement of faculty.  

Contact Tera Jordan, Assistant Provost for Faculty Development