Vicki L. Baker - Managing Your Academic Career: A Guide to Re-Envision Mid-Career

The definitive resource for mid-career professionals in the academy, this book provides a step-by-step guide to re-imagining the mid-career stage, regardless of career goals, whether aiming for full professorship or an administrative path, drawing on higher education, organizational studies, and human resource fields.

Essential guidance for scholars of faculty work, faculty developers, mid-career faculty members, and institutional leaders to build a strong foundation to design a diversified portfolio of mid-career stage programming is assured. The stories, examples, literature, and resources shared throughout this comprehensive work will provide inspiration, and reality checks, to mid-career faculty and the individuals charged with better supporting them. Readers will be able to:

• Identify their career (or departmental/institutional) goals and next steps
• Determine the gaps in needed skills, tools, and experiences to support goal achievement as next steps are pursued
• Manage the process of taking newfound skills, tools, strategies, and resources to arrive at the intended destination.

Higher education faculty, administrators, and other academic leaders will be empowered to take control of the mid-career stage by using the resources, strategies, and tools offered throughout the book to build, implement, and assess a robust mid-career faculty development program.

Vicki L. Baker, recognized as a 20202021 Top 100 Visionary in Education by the Global Forum for Education and Learning, stands at the forefront of innovation and strategy in faculty and leadership development. The author of Charting Your Path to Full: A Guide for Women Associate Professors, the lead author of Developing Faculty in Liberal Arts Colleges, and the lead editor of Success After Tenure: Supporting Mid-Career Faculty, Vicki has written over 85 peer-reviewed journal articles, book chapters, and invited opinion pieces on the topics of faculty and leadership development and higher education. She is the E. Maynard Aris Endowed Professor in Economics and Management at Albion College and the Director of the Albion College Community Collaborative (AC3). She earned her PhD (Higher Education) and MS (Management & Organization) from Penn State University, MBA from Clarion University, and BS from Indiana University of Pennsylvania.

This guide provides clear, easy-to-use strategies and tools for mid-career faculty to reflect, course correct and reengage in their careers. It also provides a framework for administrators and academic leaders to build much needed mid-career faculty development programs at their own institutions.

Susan M. Drange, PhD, Associate Vice Provost, Office of Faculty Development, Diversity and Engagement, Stanford University

Managing Your Academic Career is the definitive resource for mid-career faculty and administrators navigating the mid-career stage in pursuit of professional and personal fulfillment. Using a bricoleur approach, the book aptly addresses the individualized goals and aspirations of mid-career faculty and those tasked with supporting them, using case studies and reflective activities to create actionable plans.

Candace Hastings, PhD, Director, Office of Faculty Development, Texas State University

Vicki Baker brings scholarship and consultation expertise to examine midcareer faculty (MCF)a season of academic life full of potential but without time boundaries and mentoring of pre-tenure. Real issues coupled with research grounding, reflective activities, and practical strategies make this a must read for MCF and academic leaders.

Marilyn J. Amey, Interim Associate Provost for Faculty and Academic Staff Development, Mildred B. Erickson Endowed Chair Emerita Professor of Higher, Adult, and Lifelong Education Department of Educational Administration, Michigan State University

Vicki L. Baker

Cover image: Lainey Yehl

First published 2022

by Routledge

605 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10158

and by Routledge

4 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon, OX14 4RN

Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business

2022 Vicki L. Baker

The right of Vicki L. Baker to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with sections 77 and 78 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilised in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

Trademark notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for identification and explanation without intent to infringe.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Baker, Vicki L., 1978 author.
Title: Managing your academic career : a guide to re-envision
mid-career / Vicki L. Baker.
Description: New York, NY : Routledge, 2022. |
Includes bibliographical references and index.

Identifiers: LCCN 2021055996 | ISBN 9781032062402 (hardback) |
ISBN 9781032062396 (paperback) | ISBN 9781003201311 (ebook)

Subjects: LCSH: College teachersVocational guidanceUnited States. |
College teachersEmploymentUnited States. | College administrators
Vocational guidanceUnited States. | College administratorsEmployment
United States. | Mid-careerUnited States.

Classification: LCC LB1778.2 .B36 2022 |
DDC 378.1/20230973dc23/eng/20220110

LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2021055996

ISBN: 9781032062402 (hbk)

ISBN: 9781032062396 (pbk)

ISBN: 9781003201311 (ebk)

DOI: 10.4324/9781003201311

Typeset in Sabon

by Newgen Publishing UK

To McKenna and Henley my favorite humans on the planet

1. Reimagining the Next
   Phase of Your Career

Dr. Kimberly Griffin

Professor, Associate Dean of Graduate Studies & Faculty Affairs
University of Maryland

There are times when I read books, and I am a passive observer. Perhaps there is a skill that I am trying to build or develop, or something that I am trying to understand. I can keep the text at arms length, engaging it from a purely scholarly perspective. Managing Your Academic Career: A Guide to Re-envision Mid-Career was not that kind of read for me. Vicki Bakers outstanding text immediately drew me in. It certainly engaged me as a scholar who seeks to better understand career development, mentoring, and efforts to promote equity in the academy. But I could not ignore how this text called not only to what I study, but also so many parts of who I am: The recently promoted full professor, the Black cis-gendered woman, the mom of an active and fun-loving toddler, and the associate dean charged with faculty affairs and development.

Before I finished the first chapter, one of my favorite quotes from ).

But Bakers book reminds us of what may feel obvious; the support, the intentionality, and specific goal with a timeline goes away post tenure. Informally, associate professors are encouraged to step into their authentic selves as academics without the worries of whether they will be viewed favorably by their colleagues. But what does that mean and look like? How does one re-think and re-establish oneself, particularly given that students, colleagues, administrators, and institutional leaders are eager to rush in with new demands and obligations ()? And while I remember feeling like I had done a pretty good job of defining myself and what I did, it became increasingly important to clarify what I