Mission & History

CFDE Mission Statement

The Center for Faculty Development and Excellence supports the work of the office of the Vice Provost of Academic Affairs in encouraging faculty development and excellence, particularly through the sponsoring of faculty programs in teaching, writing, research and institution building. Each program sponsored will build intellectual community by:

1. honoring the work of faculty at all levels and career stages;
2. encouraging and rewarding creativity and innovation;
3. disseminating information across disciplinary, departmental, and school boundaries; and
4. providing opportunities for follow-up and integration of programs within the regular life of the university.

The History of the CFDE

Emory has long held a focus on faculty development. The emphasis on small class instruction that began on Oxford’s campus in the nineteenth century has continued to thrive in the vital teaching and learning on the Druid Hills campus from the turn of century through the Second World War and the civil rights era. As a Research-1 university, Emory has only deepened and widened its commitment to scholarship in a variety of areas, from vaccine and cancer research in the Woodruff Health Sciences Center to trans-Altantic data bases on the slave trade in African American Studies to literary biographies in Emory’s special manuscript collections (MARBL). Emory’s history includes a number of unusual faculty career paths, such as those of Elizabeth Stevenson, who wrote her way from faculty secretary in the Institute of Liberal Arts (ILA) to a National Book Award for Biography and a Candler Professorship in that same department. The challenge of creating and sustaining a vibrant faculty, and an energetic intellectual community in a world as diverse as Emory’s is particularly important in twenty first century university academic life.

UACT and other Programs

The challenge of creating and sustaining a vibrant faculty, and an energetic intellectual community in a world as diverse as Emory’s is particularly important in twenty first century university academic life.

The predecessor to CFDE, the University Advisory Council on Teaching (UACT) was created in the spring of 1998, following the 1997 Commission on Teaching’s report, “Teaching at Emory.” The report suggested an agenda for the future of the university, to balance and value teaching at the same level as research. The report urged a commitment to both teaching and research in hopes of closing the gap between a common university rhetoric of commitment to teaching and the reality of a lack of structured support for teaching. (Teaching at Emory. Report of the Commission on Teaching Emory University 1997: 23.)

“Teaching at Emory” outlined ten recommendations for immediate action, including the affirmation of teaching from the offices of both the President and Provost, the cultivation of a lively intellectual community across schools and divisions, the expansion of teaching aids and technology, awards for teaching excellence, and the development of a university-wide teaching center, as well as individual teaching centers for each school within Emory.

In the years immediately after “Teaching at Emory” was released: the University Teaching Fund (UTF) was created to underwrite innovation in teaching pedagogy and curriculum development. Emory College established the Center for Teaching and Curriculum (CTC) to address the specific teaching needs of undergraduate faculty. The Center for Academic Excellence was also established on the Oxford campus. Finally, UACT was created to bring together representatives from each school to engage the increasingly large population of excellent teachers at Emory. Furthermore, teaching awards given by Emory and Oxford Colleges and the professional schools were established to recognize and encourage excellent teaching.

The Creation of CFDE

Many faculty also suggested that the next logical step in improving and expanding teaching resources should be the centralization of university teaching resources in a staffed, university-wide center for faculty development. In the spring of 2009, CFDE opened its doors.

As a centralized clearinghouse for faculty development, CFDE includes support for teaching, research, and administrative activities at Emory. It provides a visible location for individual faculty to seek help with questions about teaching and obtain information regarding teaching and learning styles. CFDE incorporates a research and writing component through its Author Development Program, publishing and writing workshops, Digital Scholarship workshops, and longstanding University Research Committee (URC). CFDE also sponsors three university-wide seminar series incorporating many of the themes established by the university’s strategic plan (Race and Difference, Religion and Health, Sustainability, and Public Scholarship).

Through its departmental focus groups in support of the assessment process, CFDE also contributes to the body of knowledge on teaching, learning, and faculty development. Our staff will help identify successful programming models, and help determine the efficacy of Emory faculty resources.

Other regular CFDE programming topics include instruction on building a teaching portfolio and dealing with pressures of advancement and tenure-all designed to improve and support teaching at Emory. CFDE also hosts a university-wide reception for new faculty; ongoing faculty development for established faculty; and a one-on-one teaching consultation program.