The inaugural cohort of the Engineering Leadership Fellows program begins its year-long leadership development journey this September.
About the program
The Engineering Leadership Fellows Program offers full professors from all faculty tracks (tenure, teaching, and research) an opportunity to work collaboratively with their engineering colleagues to:
- Assess their leadership strengths and identify areas for growth
- Explore various leadership pathways within the college and beyond (e.g., within CMU, professional organizations, leading research centers, etc.)
- Develop the skills necessary to navigate organizational challenges and opportunities, including risk, change, and innovation
Each cohort of faculty Fellows will participate in monthly sessions and leadership coaching to explore different leadership pathways (e.g., in research, in education, etc.) and to develop the requisite knowledge and skills to succeed in a variety of leadership roles.
The Engineering Leadership Fellows Program supports the Center for Faculty Success’s mission to empower all faculty to be successful at all stages of their careers. Additionally, it supports the College of Engineering’s goals to:
- Encourage a culture of leadership among engineering faculty
- Expose engineering faculty to various dimensions of leadership
Eligibility
Full professors from all faculty tracks (tenure, teaching, and research) who have paid appointments in the College of Engineering are eligible to apply. Those individuals selected as Engineering Leadership Fellows must attend and complete all of the program components described under the “Program Structure” heading below.
Application and review process
The application window has closed for the 2025/26 academic year. It will reopen in Spring 2026 for our next cohort.
To apply, faculty should submit:
- A brief CV (2-3 pages, an NSF-style CV is sufficient)
- A leadership statement discussing:
- Goals for your leadership development
- A description of how the Engineering Leadership Fellows Program would contribute to your long-term career goals
Program structure
Engineering Leadership Fellows participate in a 9-month program that consists of required, monthly, in-person sessions as well as outside-of-session prework. Fellows should be able to commit approximately 6 hours per month, including all in-person sessions, to the program. The program structure with programming dates is provided below:
- A kickoff retreat (full-day) on September 5, 2025
- 6 monthly sessions (approximately 90 minutes each w/ lunch served)
- Dates: Sept. 26th, Oct. 24th, Dec. 5th, Jan. 16th, Feb. 20th, Mar. 27th
- Approximately 1-2 hours of individual, out-of-session “pre-work” every month
- A half-day, end-of-year graduation event on May 1, 2026
Interactive leadership sessions consist of content delivery as well as group discussion, self-
assessments, case studies, and other activities. Session topics are expected to include but
are not limited to:
- Leadership pathway exploration
- Leading research teams and centers
- Building and sustaining educational ecosystems
- Conflict management and difficult conversations
- Academic budgeting and resource management
- Leadership to build healthy communities
- Leading in times of uncertainty and change
Contact information
If you have questions about the Engineering Leadership Fellows Program, please send them to
eng-cfs@andrew.cmu.edu. For information about other Center for Faculty Success programs, please visit our website.