Recently appointed dean for faculty affairs, Maureen Connelly, MD, shares her vision for the Faculty Affairs Office, shaped by her 17 years as an HMS faculty member and five years as assistant, then associate, then acting dean for faculty affairs.
What is the key role of the Office for Faculty Affairs?
This office has a long tradition of serving the faculty. We want to build on that history of supporting our faculty’s aspirations and of demonstrating to our faculty how important they are to the mission of HMS.
We recognize faculty through appointments and promotions, but we also offer faculty development programs, Shore Fellowships, one-on-one counseling and outreach. We also have a promotion hotline that helps connect faculty with the resources they need.
What are some of the challenges related to the core mission of the office?
We’ve seen an astronomical increase in the number of faculty at HMS. We’ve gone from 3,000 faculty members in 1980 to over 11,000 today. Yet we’re dealing with promotion systems that were created for that much-smaller core faculty. Task numbers 1, 2 and 3 are to figure out how those systems need to change to keep up with the times.
Do you have specific changes in mind?
Part of what needs to change are the procedures themselves, which are elaborate and, in some cases, redundant. For example, for a faculty member to be promoted to the rank of professor, usually at least six different committees review the case. While a thorough assessment is important to maintain our high standards, some of the process is archaic and doesn’t meet our faculty’s needs for a comprehensive but efficient review.
Another critical change will be modification of the ways we administer the promotions process. We are still dealing with paper. I have been known to say that one of the reasons there are virtually no trees on the Quad is because they’ve all been sacrificed in service of promotion. Front and center for us is the goal of getting paperless systems in place for all the right reasons, environmental and otherwise.
In January we launched an online website for faculty undergoing evaluation for promotion to professor. For the first time, our professorial promotion candidates can log in to a secure, personalized website that lists the milestones of the process, shows where the candidate is in the process, and sets expectations about the time and tasks remaining in the process and who is accountable for completing them. Deans [Nancy] Tarbell and [Jeffrey] Flier were completely committed to introducing this system in an effort to increase HMS transparency about the promotion process.
This philosophy is entirely in keeping with our need to communicate better. Sharing information about our promotion criteria, introduced in 2008, was one step. The professorial website I just described is also a great communications tool that I think could be a model for managing all of our promotions.
Ultimately, I see an opportunity to partner with our colleagues at the hospitals to put together an integrated online promotion communication system. This isn’t part of the discussion yet, but I can see that, as a follow-on to our website, perhaps we can work with the hospitals on a system to track candidates from start to finish as well as to facilitate online submission of promotion materials.
Are there any goals or directives that you have for the office?
This is a great moment for me to come into this role. Dean Tarbell has been chairing a task force to identify how HMS can meet the faculty development needs of our community. The timing is perfect because the task force is about to report its recommendations. There’s going to be concrete guidance as well as commitment from the deans to make sure that we’re attending to these recommendations.
Our office will be one of the effector arms of the task force’s recommendations in collaboration with the Office for Diversity and Community Partnership. We are all thinking about how we can support our shared goals of having a diverse faculty. We are thinking about the best ways to do searches that are fair and open and explore the broadest possible pool of candidates to get the very best faculty here.
Do you have the staff you need to take on these new initiatives?
Deans Flier and Tarbell have made a strong commitment to ensuring that we have adequate personnel to get our job done. We recognize the need for more modern systems and for improved efficiency, but we also need to make sure we have the right personnel to achieve our goals and support the faculty.
We have 1,500 faculty members at the instructor level who need to be educated about promotion to assistant professorships. Every year, we complete 450 promotions to assistant and associate professor. At any given time, we have about 135 searches or professorship promotions ongoing. This means that of our 800-plus professors, almost half of them are serving on committees to support these processes. So we also rely on an extraordinary volunteer army to get things done.
Are there specific challenges and opportunities related to working with faculty at affiliate institutions?
It’s hard to imagine, but it is possible for one to become an HMS faculty member and to never once set foot on the Quadrangle. We’d like to help strengthen our connection with affiliate faculty by providing more opportunities to connect with HMS. Whether through the leadership course we offer annually, celebrations of the Shore Fellowship, or other faculty development initiatives we are planning, we want to give faculty a reason to feel that they are recognized and appreciated members of the HMS community.
Every year, across our hospitals and Quadrangle departments, we have more than 700 new faculty added to the ranks. We are looking at ways to be sure new faculty know they are welcome. We want them to know what it means to be a Harvard faculty member and make sure they know what resources we have available to them.
Are there specific challenges related to supporting faculty on the Quad?
Yes, these faculty members have a ticking tenure clock. Our office’s job is to be exquisitely sensitive to that compressed process and to provide education about paths to promotion. One of my goals is to make sure that we have an advisory committee representing both the Quad and the affiliates. I’m very committed to having access to leaders from our faculty whom we can approach for counsel about how we should be responding to the community and for feedback on whether our new initiatives are meeting their needs.
Are you looking forward to assuming this new leadership role?
I love what I do. I love coming to work every day. I also think that if this office does a good job, then Harvard is better positioned to attract the best faculty to cure the diseases we care about and to make the discoveries that matter. This is a critical piece of what makes HMS a great place. Serving the dean and the faculty in this role is really an incredible privilege and an honor for me.
This appointment also makes me feel that I am coming full circle. When I decided in my senior year of college to pursue a career in medicine, my parents referred me to my grandmother’s doctor for guidance. That doctor was Dr. Eleanor Shore, former dean for faculty affairs.
Dr. Shore has been a mentor since before I even took a science course, and I met with her in the same office where I work today. Knowing that she took the time to meet with an unknown college student about a career in medicine is a model to me of the kind of personal touch and helpful advice that I hope the Office for Faculty Affairs will always have for our community.
