Institutional Accountability for Developing the Next Generation of Faculty Leaders

Area of Science:

• Academic Medicine
• Health Equity
• Organizational Leadership

Background:

• Faculty retention is crucial for academic medical centers.
• Lack of career advancement and leadership opportunities drive faculty departures.
• Identifying and addressing leadership gaps, especially for underrepresented groups, is essential.

Purpose of the Study:

• To frame and define the current state of faculty leadership at an academic medical institution.
• To develop a standardized framework for faculty leadership roles and titles.
• To assess demographic disparities in faculty leadership appointments.

Main Methods:

• Collaboration between Offices of Faculty Affairs, Faculty Development, and Health Equity & Inclusion.
• Development of a faculty leadership philosophy, best practices, role descriptions, and title framework.
• Identification of current faculty leaders and integration of titles into the human resource database for tracking.

Main Results:

• Baseline demographic analysis revealed significant gender and race/ethnicity disparities in leadership roles.
• Expanded tracking increased the number of faculty leadership positions approximately sevenfold.
• Gender and race/ethnicity gaps in leadership closed substantially, with greater equity in mid-level and emerging roles.

Conclusions:

• Tracking and evaluating faculty leadership roles at all levels is critical for institutional awareness.
• Standardized tracking enhances accountability for diversity and inclusion initiatives in academic leadership.
• Data visualization of leadership appointments demonstrates commitment to diversity, equity, and inclusion.