For the past six months, 43 UNMC faculty from across seven colleges and institutes have studied and applied the art of leadership through the Interprofessional Leadership for Excellence and Academic Development program offered by the UNMC Office of Faculty Development. On March 19, participants crossed a major milestone of the program by completing the Innovation Incubator projects.
Groups of participants investigated challenges around faculty recruitment and retention and collaboratively presented possible solutions to a panel of UNMC leaders. Presentations included problem analyses, as well as proposed recommendations with budget justifications and potential implementation timelines.
Don Klepser, PhD, Joseph D. Williams Endowed Dean of the UNMC College of Pharmacy, said of the presentations, “I was impressed with the groups’ engagement, thoughtfulness and creativity. They were given big issues to tackle, and it was clear that they all embraced the challenge. Every group identified realistic solutions that I could see being implemented in some form.”
The ideas presented by iLEAD faculty ranged from implementing tools and initiatives to improve faculty engagement, wellness and morale, to creating a new centralized hub to streamline and enhance faculty recruitment practices across the organization. A goal of the Innovation Incubator projects was to position UNMC as a leader in the health sciences education workforce.
Even deeper than the practical solutions that arose out of the presentations, iLEAD participants observed that the process of completing the Innovation Incubator project was impactful in itself. iLEAD participant Robin Lally, PhD, professor in the UNMC College of Nursing, said, “The reason that I applied for iLEAD was because you can’t expect that, as time goes on, you won’t need to change and learn new leadership strategies. This group project was extremely challenging — it was rewarding to come together with a new group of people, over a short period of time, to chip away at a real problem and to have really done a great job.”
The iLEAD cohort will continue their leadership development journey over the next two months, concluding with a graduation ceremony and presentations of individual leadership projects in June. For the faculty participants, the year-long iLEAD program is only the beginning. Dr. Klepser said, “The biggest benefit of iLEAD to UNMC is that we have groups of people coming together from across the entire organization to tackle big problems. These are skills and attitudes that will continue to pay dividends.”
More information about the iLEAD program is available at the iLEAD webpage.