Fulbright College Hosts Two Faculty Workshops on Inclusive Search Practices and Mentoring

Photo courtesy of Kumea Shorter-Gooden

Kumea Shorter-Gooden

The J. William Fulbright College of Arts and Sciences will host two upcoming workshops in October dedicated to inclusive faculty search and mentoring processes, and featuring equity, diversity and inclusion consultant Kumea Shorter-Gooden.

Each workshop is free and open to Fulbright College faculty, but seating for each workshop is limited to 30 participants. RSVPs are required before 5 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 15, by emailing Lane Schmidt at las@uark.edu. 

Inclusive Faculty Search Practices

The first workshop, designed for chairs and members of Faculty Search Committees, is titled "Inclusive Faculty Search Practices" and will be from 2-4 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 23, in Old Main Room 523. 

The goals of this workshop are to increase participants' knowledge about the impact of implicit bias on the faculty search and selection process, to increase participants' knowledge of evidence-based practices for inclusive hiring, and to engage search committees in planning how they will work to mitigate bias and to search inclusively. 

The workshop will be interactive, with opportunities for sharing and discussion of the use of clear rubrics with job-relevant criteria, the consideration of contributions to diversity and inclusion, and the development of consistent, job-relevant interview questions.

Inclusive Faculty Mentoring

The second workshop, designed for department chairs, vice-chairs and senior faculty, is titled "Inclusive Faculty Mentoring" and will be from 9:30-11:30 a.m. Thursday, Oct. 24, in Old Main Room 523. 

The goals of this workshop are to deepen awareness of the experiences of underrepresented faculty in the academy, with a focus on racially minoritized faculty and women in male-dominated disciplines, and to enhance participants' knowledge of the benefits of effective and inclusive faculty mentoring.

"The workshops are motivated by Fulbright College's diversity and inclusion planning, which includes departmental efforts to attract and retain diverse faculty," said associate dean Anna Zajicek, who is organizing the workshops. "Our college departmental leadership is committed to making sure that we not only attract diverse faculty but also to create the environments in which all faculty thrive and succeed."

Kumea Shorter-Gooden

Both workshops will be led by Kumea Shorter-Gooden, who served as the first chief diversity officer and associate vice president at the University of Maryland, College Park. She also served as associate provost for international-multicultural initiatives at Alliant International University, as professor at the California School of Professional Psychology, as director of the student counseling center at The Claremont Colleges, and as an administrator in two Chicago community mental health centers.

Shorter-Gooden is a Licensed Psychologist and the co-author of Shifting: The Double Lives of Black Women in America, a winner of the 2004 American Book Awards. A fellow of the American Psychological Association, she is a thought leader with respect to equity, diversity and inclusion and she has provided consultation and training to educational institutions, professional associations, non-profits, corporations, and government.

Shorter-Gooden earned a bachelor's degree magna cum laude from Princeton University with its first class of women and a doctorate in clinical/community psychology from the University of Maryland. She is also currently the principal at Shorter-Gooden Consulting, based in Washington, D.C.