A multi-disciplinary group of faculty published “Leadership Academy: Fostering Honors Faculty Growth through Peer-to-Peer Learning” in the National Collegiate Honors Council Monograph Series entitled “Where Honors Education and Faculty Development Meet” on July 16, 2025.
The group of faculty:
- Chelsea Redger-Marquardt, assistant dean, Cohen Honors College and assistant professor in the Department of Sport and Leadership Studies
- Doug Stucky, director and assistant dean of the College of Innovation and Design
- Cindi Mason, associate teaching professor and undergraduate coordinator of the Department of Industrial, Systems and Manufacturing Engineering
- Bobby Berry, assistant dean for students and strategic initiatives, College of Applied Studies and assistant professor in the Department of Sport Management
- Samantha Gregus, director of clinical training and associate professor in the Department of Psychology
- Kimberly Engber, dean, Cohen Honors College and associate professor
Abstract: Developing leadership experiences around multi-disciplinary academic content and application was one of the elements of an honors college vision articulated on our campus ten years ago. We outlined the anticipated benefits for students. We did not anticipate what a significant impact this model would have on faculty growth. Now beginning its fourth year and called “Lead for Tomorrow,” the Cohen Honors Leadership Academy builds a multi-layered intellectual community each year. A team of faculty thought leaders from multiple disciplines meets to design a course plan consisting of a theme, community partnerships, discipline-specific content, and design-thinking projects. The academy culminates in a multi-day trip outside of our region that is structured by Place-as-Text methodology and that informs final student group presentations to community partners. The multidisciplinary faculty team builds the first layer of the community. Honors students from a diversity of academic majors, experiences and perspectives apply to participate in the academy and add the second layer. Community non-profit organizations add a third layer by posing a wicked problem to students.
Since the academy’s inception, the faculty thought leaders have engaged in student-centered teaching including flipped classroom methods and modifying course content responsive to student interest. Each faculty member initially identifies skills, tools, and key concepts from their academic fields that are relevant to the course theme. Faculty then become students by attending class sessions led by other faculty. Beyond modeling the power of dialogue across fields to understand and solve complex problems, this environment quickly created a parallel learning community among the faculty. Teaching on the same topic taught faculty different perspectives, and each instructor’s unique way of delivering the material impacted the faculty team’s overall teaching effectiveness. Faculty also learn directly from community partners in real time about the skills they seek from our college graduates. To continue to develop this course experience, members of the faculty team have engaged with university-wide teaching and learning programs including the service-learning scholars program coordinated by faculty directors and a faculty working group developing best practices for ePortfolios. An interpretative qualitative approach allows for a thematic analysis of retrospective faculty narratives from the 3 years of academy implementation. Further, an outside observer and leader of the honors college serves as an additional debriefer in the research process.
As part of a larger research study, it became apparent to the research team that examining their teaching and learning as a result of continued engagement with this dynamic team-teaching environment would yield a deeper understanding of the effectiveness of their teaching practices. Drawing on many research studies and practices within the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL), the practitioners serve as both the instructors and the researchers for this study (Chick, 2018). Thematic findings of faculty lessons learned, de-siloed partnerships, and innovative community partnerships will be shared. Further, the interdisciplinary team-taught leadership academy model will be offered for discussion for other institutions. Implications for honors practitioners and ideas for collaborative programs and course design are included.