The Leadership Blog series will highlight topics related to leadership development at MSU. Posts will provide brief, timely information on featured events, as well as some longer stories highlighting the efforts of leaders across a range of positions on this campus. This first piece is on the Department Executive Officers (DEO) Seminar.
Each year, MSU sends five relatively new department chairs to this unique leadership development opportunity at the Big Ten headquarters outside of Chicago (see details: here). The workshop this year took place on November 9-11. Andrew Christlieb (Computational Mathematics, Science and Engineering), Cara Cilano (English), Bari Olivier (Small Animal Clinical Sciences), Malea Powell (Writing, Rhetoric, and American Cultures), and Denny Schnell (Plant Biology) attended, accompanied by Terry Curry and me from the Office of the Provost. Programming included presentations and interactive workshops on a range of topics, such as faculty development, mentoring and performance evaluation, strategies for effective management, balancing rights and responsibilities, and handling specific contemporary challenges at the departmental level. The group also had time for a little fun, with a social at a bowling alley.
