For Faculty & Staff

While much of the Wurtele Center for Leadership’s programming is geared toward students, we nevertheless strive to live into our mission to equip all members of the Smith community with the creativity, courage and collaborative capacity to lead positive change. We believe strongly that in order to build these skills in our students, we need to engage as learners ourselves as we seek to model collaborative leadership. We also hope to serve as a resource to faculty and staff members who are interested in exploring new ways of building collaborative leadership skills in their students. Below are some ways our center engages with faculty and staff.

The Art of Leading Teams Lunch Series

Join the Wurtele Center for Leadership for this facilitated monthly series of conversations about what it means to work collaboratively in a team at Smith College. Open to all faculty and staff, regardless of title or position. Most sessions are held in-person with a virtual attendance option; lunch is provided for in-person attendees who RSVP.

Download a PDF of the schedule, and sign up for email related to the Art of Leading Teams.

Semester Schedules

September

Leading Change in an Institution

Tuesday, September 16, 12:15–1:15 p.m.
Neilson Browsing Room (lunch available at noon)

Changing how we work within organizations is challenging, and can be especially difficult within large institutions. Whether from a position of formal leadership or not, how might we attend to both processes and culture in ways that challenge preconceptions about the way things have to be? How might we support ourselves and our teams in these moments of growth and transition? Co-facilitated by Chief of Public Safety Jimi Nealy.

October

Making Mutualisms: Lessons in Collaboration from the Natural World

Tuesday, October 21, 12:15–1:15 p.m.
McCartney Hall Workshop Room (lunch available at noon)

In order to collaborate well, either as individuals or across campus silos, we need to create relationships that serve the needs of both parties. The natural world offers inspiration in the form of “mutualisms,” or symbiotic relationships between species. Explore the requirements of natural mutualisms and consider how you might adopt similar ways of generating collaborative relationships. Co-facilitated by Marney Pratt, Senior Lab Instructor in Biology.

December

Cultivating Rest for Sustainable Leadership & Collaboration

Tuesday, December 2, 12:15–1:15 p.m.
McCartney Hall Workshop Room (lunch available at noon)

In a world marked by extreme “busy-ness,” it can feel like self-indulgence to engage in meaningful rest. Yet it’s impossible to maintain energy to collaborate effectively and try to lead change (from any vantage point) if we don’t take care of ourselves. Explore the radical power of rest to help us push past the tyranny of so many “shoulds.” Co-facilitated by Benita Jackson, Professor of Psychology.

January

Generating Courage for Difficult Conversations

Tuesday, January 13, 12:15–1:15 p.m.
Virtual Meeting

Regardless of whether we are in a position of leadership, we all need to engage in difficult conversations with colleagues as a regular part of our work lives. Learn some approaches for listening, asking good questions, addressing challenging topics, and offering tough feedback. Co-facilitated by Carrie Cuthbert, Human Rights Leadership Specialist.

February

Getting Unstuck with Tiny Experiments

Tuesday, February 24, 12:15–1:15 p.m.
McCartney Hall Workshop Room (lunch available at noon)

Sometimes we’re exposed to new ways of thinking about a problem, only to feel overwhelmed by where to begin. This can cause us to keep doing things the way we always have. Explore how to get unstuck: embrace curiosity, accept imperfection, and learn in public by conducting tiny experiments. Co-facilitated by Forrest Hudes, Prototyping Studio Manager, Design Thinking Initiative.

March

Facilitation 101

Tuesday, March 24, 12:15–1:15 p.m.
McCartney Hall Workshop Room (lunch available at noon)

“Facilitation” is really just another word for collaborative leadership: it’s the act of designing and leading an experience for a group that creates the space for the group to achieve a common purpose. Join members of the LEAD Corps, who are trained Smith student peer facilitators, to learn more about this approach to leadership and gain some basic skills for designing and facilitating meetings and gatherings of your own.

April

Building & Tending Reciprocal Relationships

Tuesday, April 14, 12:15–1:45 p.m.
McCartney Hall Workshop Room (lunch available at noon; in-person only)

Some people perceive "networking" as transactional. Yet building a web of reciprocal relationships can be a powerful tool for personal support and collective change. This workshop with professional facilitator Ariel Brooks offers tools for building authentic relationships through the natural ebb and flow of differential strengths and needs, opportunities and challenges. We’ll also discuss the nature of “interstitial” networks for dynamic problem-solving.

“Thank you all so much for facilitating this amazing series! I often was on the fence about joining because I was ‘so busy with everything else,’ but every session I was able to join gave me new tools and connections across campus, and I left so glad I carved out this time for professional and personal development.”
Art of Leading Teams Participant

Student Pedagogical Partners

The Wurtele Center designs and facilitates a series of workshops for students participating in the Sherrerd Center for Teaching and Learning’s Student Pedagogical Partner program. The workshops provide students with a space in which to reflect as a cohort on their experience as a pedagogical partner, explore what leadership looks like in this specific context, and act as peer mentors to one another.

Common Topics

  • Tools and Strategies for Instructional Design
  • Offering and Receiving Constructive Feedback
  • Navigating Power Dynamics Within Your Partnership
  • Translating Skills from Partnership Work to Other Contexts
“Thank you so much for your support and guidance during this past semester with the Pedagogical Partnership. Our monthly sessions were such a joy to attend, and I always felt inspired talking to you and the group. The time was perfectly divided between reflecting, writing, sharing, and discussing. Additionally, all of the tools you used in the meetings (as simple as the great icebreakers) were very engaging and useful.”
Student Pedagogical Partner

Ways to Partner with the Wurtele Center

Curricular Partnerships & Support

The Wurtele Center for Leadership is available for consultation, collaboration, and support for any faculty members whose courses (or other modes of students engagement) are actively team- or group-oriented, and who are interested in exploring how they might work more intentionally with students to develop their collaborative skills in order to lead projects and initiatives forward. Our curricular engagement with faculty has ranged from individual consultation and curricular co-design to guest teaching arrangements to resource sharing.

For more information, please contact the Wurtele Center Assistant Director, Megan Lyster, and/or check out the Resources page of our website.

Co-curricular Partnerships & Staff Support

The Wurtele Center for Leadership also collaborates widely with a range of campus partners to support the collaborative leadership development of students and staff through co-curricular or work experiences. This includes:

  • Ongoing training and development partnerships with student leaders in Residential Life, House Leadership and Student Affairs
  • Support of student club and organization leaders
  • Collaboration with other centers on campus to develop programs, talks and workshops
  • Assistance with meeting design, retreat design and facilitation of team engagement for other units on campus

If you are interested in collaborating with the Wurtele Center in these or other ways, please reach out! 

For more information, please reach out to Annie DelBusto Cohen or Silas McClung, Co-Curricular Leadership, or check out the Resources page.