ThriveForward: A Mid-Career Faculty Women's Leadership Development Program
Our goal is to equip mid-career women faculty with the tools and insights necessary for leadership success.
While matriculation into medical school is over half women, men continue to outnumber women in leadership positions. In academic medicine, for example, only 27% of medical school deans are women, only 25% of department chairs are women, and men are more than twice as likely to become full professor when compared with women. The ThriveForward program attempts to counter these statistics in academic medicine by aiming to advance and foster a more diverse and inclusive workforce in academic medicine.
ThriveForward is a vital cornerstone in fostering diverse, inclusive, and empowered leadership within our academic community.
The ThriveForward program
- A 5-month program with 5 half-day in-person workshops and 4 “lunch and learns”
- Group programming with ~50 in the 2024 cohort
- Skill development in areas of:
- Impactful leadership
- Persuasive communication
- The business of healthcare
- Effective negotiations
- Conflict management
- Leadership sustainability practices and well-being
- Strategic career planning
- 360° assessment debriefed with an executive coach for individual development planning
- Small group discussions
- Programming focused on generalized leadership skill development with an additional emphasis on barriers and biases women often face in leadership roles
2024 Session dates
Required in-person attendance for the 5 workshop sessions, 8:30 am – 12:30 pm, on the Anschutz Medical Campus:
- Wednesday, August 28, 2024
- Wednesday, September 25, 2024
- Wednesday, October 30, 2024
- Wednesday, November 13, 2024
- Wednesday, December 4, 2024
- The optional virtual sessions will be posted when the dates are confirmed. Check back here soon!
Who is eligible to apply
CU School of Medicine full-time paid faculty (0.5 FTE or greater in a SOM department) are eligible to apply (this is our first year offering this program across the SOM. In future years we hope to expand the eligibility). The program is for mid-career Associate Professors (1-5 years in rank) or faculty with approximately five years of experience since the completion of their training, including clinicians, researchers, and educators in a current (or aspiring) leadership role.
We seek to build a diverse, inclusive cohort, and welcome applications from mid-career faculty seeking leadership training, including – but not limited to – all who identify as women, trans, gender non-conforming, non-binary, genderqueer, gender fluid and gender queer plus.
This program is complementary to SOM Women Leadership Training (WLT) designed for early career women faculty. Completion of WLT is recommended and considered in the application for ThriveForward but is not required. Both programs are housed in the Office for Faculty Development within the University of Colorado School of Medicine Offices for the Faculty Experience.
What is required to apply
- Completion of the 2024 ThriveForward application by the deadline
- Department/division/section leadership commitment to pay $2000 to support programming cost of $4500 per participant
- Note: this program fee is not to be paid or deducted from faculty's professional development fund
- The remaining $2500 will be covered by the Offices for the Faculty Experience
- Commitment to attend all five in-person workshops (the lunch and learn sessions are considered optional but highly encouraged)
The application process
- Applications are reviewed by members of the Executive Committee (selection notification is in May or early June)
Program leadership
- The School of Medicine Offices for the Faculty Experience (in the Dean’s Office)
- ThriveForward Interim Co-Directors
- Marisha Burden, MD, MBA
- Penny Archuleta, MA
- Executive Committee (details coming soon!)
Questions?
Contact ThriveForward@cuanschutz.edu