Development Awards

The Office of Faculty Academic Affairs is proud to offer funding opportunities for faculty in pursuance of their continued professional growth and development. Dell Med faculty members may apply for funds provided by the Office of Faculty Academic Affairs to participate in development opportunities that will enhance leadership insights by growing a specific professional skillset or developing individual capacity to lead and drive impactful initiatives or projects in alignment with your career goals, ascension to higher levels of academic leadership, and service within the Dell Medical School community.

Eligibility requirements, award timelines & due dates, selection protocols, and FAQs for all awards are listed below. Learn more and apply for awards available:

Individual Development Awards l Collaborator Awards

Deadlines for applications are April 11, 2025. Apply Here!

Individual Faculty Development Awards

Opportunities covered by this award are those in which a faculty member's participation could reasonably be expected to result in increased skills or capacity in foundational professional skills that support their success as a faculty member (such as effective communication, time management, and/or professional identify assessment and formation). For example, attending Columbia's PI Crash Course would be covered by this award because it focuses on professional skill development related to running a lab, including effective time management and delegation, communication and negotiation, leadership vision and self-awareness, mentorship, and strategic planning. Other examples of applicable trainings and offerings include AAMC leadership development trainings such as 'Transforming Conflict into Collaboration' or 'Leveraging the Power of Self-Awareness to Lead More Effectively,' courses offered through the McCombs Executive Education Program, and Crucial Learning Trainings (Getting Things Done, Professional Influence, and Crucial Conversations). Examples of activities that would not be eligible for this award include attending professional society annual conferences or attending workshops to acquire technical skills related to research, clinical care, or teaching.

Awards amount: We will award faculty with strong applications up to $8,000 to use towards participation in a faculty development program or activity.

Collaborator Awards

Important to growing Dell Med’s culture of life-long learning is sustaining on campus skill-building programs informed by, designed for, and applicable to Dell Med faculty. In pursuance of this goal, the Faculty Academic Affairs team is launching a set of Collaborator Awards to identify, develop, and support a cohort of faculty certified to train faculty colleagues on a variety of professional skills that are foundational to career progression in an academic medicine setting. The specific certificate programs that are eligible for this funding opportunity are listed below. Program registration fees, required materials, and travel accommodation will be covered through the Collaborator Award by Dell Med’s Office of Faculty Academic Affairs.

If a faculty member is selected as a Collaborator Award recipient, upon completion of the program of their choosing, they will be required to provide 6 relevant trainings to Dell Med faculty colleagues over the course of 2 calendar years. This may be done through stand-alone workshops or inclusion in development program curriculums (as appropriate). These will be coordinated in partnership with the Office of Faculty Academic Affairs. The two year commitment will begin the month after a faculty member has completed the certification training indicated in their award application.

Faculty who do not feel they have capacity to accommodate intensive trainings listed below or a two-year training commitment should not apply for this award.

Professional skill certification trainings eligible for coverage by this award:

Train the Trainer certification courses included below are based on the Mayo Leadership Index's eight leadership traits associated with supportive supervisory relationships that inform physician wellbeing (note each of these require participation in the initial training before certification training).

• Crucial Influence- The course reveals the personal, social, and structural sources that shape behavior and teaches a method for using these sources to effect organizational change from any professional station.
• Getting Things Done- The course teaches skills to manage the constant flow of requests, tasks, and interruptions people face at all levels of the organization.
• Crucial Conversations for Mastering Dialogue- The course teaches nine skills for effectively working through disagreement to strengthen relationships and securing results in the moments that matter most.
• Everything DiSC Certification- Centering the DiSC personal assessment profile, this course provides a common language for improving communication, resolving conflict, adapting to other personalities, and making workplace interactions more effective.
• Wellcoaches Health and Well-being Coach Certification - Wellcoaches provides certification courses specifically for healthcare providers that enables participants to participate in training modules before then provide 1:1 coaching services to faculty at Dell Med. Certification training can take between 6-12 months.

Award amount: Awards vary in cost but recipient will be compensated for all costs related to train-the-trainer program completion.

Award Eligibility

Eligibility requirements enumerated here are applicable to both individual and collaborator awards. Faculty eligible for awards include paid Dell Med faculty appointed to either the professional-track (Professor or Clinical title series) or tenured/tenure-track promotion paths. All award recipients must be in good standing with the university.

Because the collaborator award is a more rigorous time commitment, eligibility is limited to faculty at the associate professor rank (professional-track clinical or professor title series; or tenure-track) or higher.

Selection

We will hand out multiple awards in 2025. Applications will be reviewed by a selection committee that will include representatives from across Dell Med's mission pillars, who will submit their recommendations for award selection to the Associate Dean for Faculty Academic Affairs for final consideration and awarding.

Please note: Professional Education Funds are available to Dell Med faculty with regular faculty appointments as defined in the Regular Faculty Appointment Policy. Funds for this award would be additional to those provided through the Professional Education Funds benefit.

Application and Expenditure Timeline

Please note: This means the program/event/training will need to take place and provide participants with receipts for reimbursement by our office no later than August 5, 2025.