The sessions listed on this page are specifically for members of the 2024-25 Institute for Faculty Excellence Cohort. If you are not a member of the 2024-25 Cohort, please do not register for any events on this page.
- Sep23Tue
Now What? Writing Your Way Back to What Matters – (September 23, 2025 12:30 PM – 01:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 153
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 153
Available Seats: 40
Facilitator: Dr. Jessica Smith Join this reflective workshop for a transformative writing session that reconnects you to academic passion. With a background in contemporary American poetry, memoir, and literary trauma theory, Dr. Smith cultivates an atmosphere of honesty, exploration, and healing through writing. Participants are invited to pause, reflect, and move beyond deadlines and goals to rediscover what truly matters in their academic lives. Through guided prompts and supportive peer sharing, participants will uncover personal narratives that illuminate purpose. Come and enjoy the space to explore your values, renew your connection to your work, and emerge with renewed focus and creative presence. IFE Path II
- Oct3Fri
IFE Orientation & Kickoff: The Art of Listening – (October 3, 2025 11:00 AM – 03:00 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 151
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 151
Available Seats: 50
IFE Lunch & Orientation 11:00 am - 12:00 pm Guest Event with Duke Duchsherer 12:00 - 3:00 pm Join us for this special kickoff session for the Institute for Faculty Excellence. This interactive workshop offers a gentle, practical introduction to Nonviolent Communication (NVC), a powerful framework for fostering empathy, clarity, and connection in academic settings. Participants will explore key NVC concepts such as observations, feelings, needs, and requests, while engaging in reflective listening practices that support deeper self-awareness and more meaningful interactions with colleagues, staff, students, and administrators. Our guest facilitator (who will be joining us virtually), Duke Duchscherer, is a Certified Trainer with the Center for Nonviolent Communication and a former board member of the MK Gandhi Institute for Nonviolence. With over two decades of global experience—from university campuses to reconciliation work in post-conflict regions, Duke brings a warm, grounded presence and a deep understanding of how communication can transform individuals and communities. IFE Path I and II
- Oct21Tue
Chapter 2: The Faculty Reset – Vision, Purpose, Action – (October 21, 2025 12:30 PM – 01:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 153
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 153
Available Seats: 40
Facilitator: Dr. Angela Walla In this session, you’ll reflect on your academic journey and re-envision your future with renewed clarity and purpose. Guided by the moderator, participants will engage in a series of reflective activities designed to help assess their career path, explore current goals, and consider new possibilities. This session aims to reignite enthusiasm and offer fresh perspective as you plan the next chapter of your academic career. You’ll leave with concrete action steps and the foundation of a personalized plan to guide your way forward. The session will be broken down into four sections. Each session has a mini-lecture followed by an activity Reflection on past career Exploring the possibility: Identification of passion projects and new areas Identification of Barriers Action Plan IFE Path II
- Oct28Tue
The Hidden Motivators: What Drives Us (and Drains Us) – (October 28, 2025 12:30 PM – 01:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 153
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 153
Available Seats: 38
Facilitator: Dr. Lisa Garner Santa The rhythms of academic life are relentless. Over time, we begin to move through the motions—responding to requests, meeting expectations, saying yes before we even pause to ask why. In this session, we’ll explore the six life-alienating motivators named in Nonviolent Communication: reward, punishment, guilt, shame, duty, and approval. What happens when these motivators go unchecked? And what becomes possible when we bring awareness and choice into the picture? Using Rosenberg’s framework, we’ll identify internalized pressures that may be shaping our academic decisions—and begin to shift from obligation to alignment. “The most dangerous of all behaviors may consist of doing things 'because we're supposed to.’” – Marshall Rosenberg IFE Path I and II
- Oct31Fri
Strengths Part 1: Integrating Your CliftonStrengths to Enhance Faculty Career Planning – (October 31, 2025 11:00 AM – 12:30 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 150
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 150
Available Seats: 39
Facilitator: Dr. Barbie Chambers Faculty & staff juggle many responsibilities in their professional and personal lives. Individuals who can identify and leverage their areas of natural talent are more likely to be successful in planning their careers and experiencing a fulfilling life. Join us to identify your strengths foundation and learn how you can integrate that knowledge into improving your career, research, professional practice, teaching, service, and work/life integration. Participants should take the CliftonStrengths (StrengthsQuest) assessment for this session through the University Career Center at www.strengthsquest.ttu.edu. IFE Path I, II and FMA
- Nov4Tue
Reignite the Spark: Teaching with Learning in Mind – (November 4, 2025 12:30 PM – 01:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 153
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 153
Available Seats: 39
Facilitator: Dr. Angela Lumpkin Join us for an inspiring session designed to reignite your passion for scholarship and pedagogy. This interactive workshop provides faculty with an opportunity to reflect on what makes teaching meaningful and effective. Through guided dialogue and reflective exercises, participants will explore how to align their instructional choices and actions with how students learn best, reigniting purpose and presence in the classroom. Find new inspiration and time to reconnect with your teaching values. IFE Path II
- Nov18Tue
Collaborative Feedback in Academia – (November 18, 2025 12:30 PM – 01:50 PM)
Location:TLPDC Room 153
2802 18th Street
Lubbock, TX 79409Room: TLPDC 153
Available Seats: 40
Facilitator: Dr. Lisa Garner Santa What if giving feedback could be energizing, even enjoyable? In this session, we’ll explore how feedback, when grounded in connection and mutual respect, can become a two-way exchange that strengthens both mentoring relationships and institutional culture. Through the lens of Nonviolent Communication (NVC), we’ll examine how to move from “power over” or “power under” toward “power with,” where everyone’s needs matter. Participants will practice using observations, feelings, needs, and requests to engage in feedback conversations that are clear, kind, and co-created. When mentoring becomes a collaborative process, feedback becomes not only possible but meaningful and rewarding. IFE Path I and II