Diane C. Calleson, PhD¹, Sarena D. Seifer, MD², and Jen Kauper-Brown, MPH². (1) Public Health Leadership Program School of Public Health, Department of Family Medicine, School of Medicine, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, CB#7595, Department of Family Medicine, Chapel Hill, NC 27599, 919-843-2284, calleson@med.unc.edu, (2) University of Washington School of Public Health and Community Medicine, Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, UW Box 354809, Seattle, WA 98195-4809

A frequently cited barrier to faculty conducting community-based participatory research, service-learning and other forms of "community-engaged scholarship" is the risk associated with trying to achieve promotion and tenure. Community-engaged scholarship (CES) poses significant challenges to traditional definitions of scholarship and is often not supported by the promotion and tenure process. Many academic institutions confer tenure and promote faculty based primarily on the quantity and caliber of peer-reviewed publications, disregarding the value and contributions of other scholarly products. Thus, It not surprising that faculty are reluctant to pursue CES as a centerpiece of their academic careers. It is too professionally risky.

Health professional faculty can overcome these challenges in part by creating strong portfolios that document their CES. This presentation highlights an innovative toolkit that faculty can use to successfully navigate their institution's promotion and tenure process. The toolkit includes two main sections: a planning section on the role of mentors, developing one's vision for work with communities, and strategies for documenting one's work across the academic missions; and a faculty portfolio section on how to prepare a strong career statement, curriculum vitae, teaching portfolio, and letters from peer reviewers and community partners. Each section includes user friendly strategies and examples from actual faculty portfolios across a range of health professions disciplines. The toolkit was developed as part of Community Campus Partnership for Health’s Community-Engaged Scholarship in the Health Professions Initiative, with funding from the WK Kellogg Foundation. The toolkit can be used for faculty development, or individually by faculty.

Learning Objectives:

• Understand and anticipate the challenges faced by community-engaged faculty in the promotion and tenure system.
• Identify strategies for documenting a faculty member's community-engaged scholarship in their portfolio for promotion and tenure.
• Describe successful approaches for recruiting mentors, identifying external reviewers and preparing community partners who each play key roles in the promotion and tenure process.

Keywords: Community-Based Public Health, Participatory Action Research

Related Web page: ccph.info

Presenting author's disclosure statement:
Organization/institution whose products or services will be discussed: Community Campus Partnerships for Health
I have a significant financial interest/arrangement or affiliation with any organization/institution whose products or services are being discussed in this session.
Relationship: I was funded to create this toolkit by Community Campus Partnerships for Health, as a CCPH Fellow and now with funding from the WK Kellogg Foundation

Handout (.ppt format, 128.0 kb)