In this episode Eric interviews Leslie Cramblet Alvarez for a Part 2 interview from the University of Denver (DU) in Denver, CO. Leslie chats about the before-times, and her job transition from Adams State University in relatively small Alamosa, CO, to the Director of the Office of Teaching and Learning at the University of Denver, in Denver, CO. The smaller-town college life comes with strengths and with substantial limitations. Leslie shares her story of being on the job market, giving up tenure, and landing her OTL staff position at DU. Then there is the story of the sabbatical and the "time to be served" after the sabbatical. Leslie generously shares her story throughout this interview, just as she does every day.

In this episode: a conversation about applying for honors and awards, the benefits of applying for an award and receiving an award (beyond benefits for the individual), handling the imposter syndrome, paying it forward when writing letters of recommendation; accolades can open doors

In this AskPsychSessions feature, Marianne talks with Dr. Deidre Johnston from Hope College and Dr. Irene Lopez from Kenyon College about how to create classes with global engagement. You can learn much more including how to assess the impact of these experiences by reading their book The Wiley Handbook of Collaborative Online Learning and Global Engagement.

In this episode, Kenzie and Mona chat with Melissa Robertson of Purdue University. Listen as we discuss her research on mentoring and work relationships, ways to assess mentoring, and her experiences and advice on important mentoring processes, including navigating mutual self-disclosure. Melissa shares results from a project on inclusive mentoring and the three main themes that emerged - professional integration, personal integration, and protection. We also talk about boundaries, power, hierarchies, directionality (e.g., traditional unidirectional Godfathers and Yoda mentoring), phases of mentoring, and the importance of practice. And we stumble into a possible future line of work on mentoring and self-expansion.

In this episode, Kenzie and Mona chat with Sarai Blincoe of Longwood University. Listen as we discuss her experiences as the Disciplinary Based Educational Researcher for a multi-year NSF S-STEM grant and her research on the strategies that STEM faculty mentors use to support undergraduate STEM mentees. Sarai shares her experiences with mentoring, different mentoring styles and how identities/individual factors influence this, "meta mentoring," and the importance of asking more questions (including tips on how to do this). She also provides insights on mentoring from a variety of fields, including professional coaching, counseling, and clinical psychology.

In this episode, Kenzie and Mona chat with Amy Hunter of Seton Hall University. Listen as we discuss various ways that mentoring can happen, including watching others, having role models, mentoring one-on-one vs. in an administrative role, and doing "stealth mentoring." Amy also provides insights on power dynamics, thinking of mentees as peers in the field, elevating and providing opportunities, and the importance of networking broadly outside our discipline. We also talk about the Society for the Teaching of Psychology's Professional Development Mentoring Network, which Amy currently serves as Director. For those interested in mentoring or receiving mentoring, you can find more information about this program here: https://teachpsych.org/page-1603031

In this episode: learning the scholarly skill of peer reviewing, what graduates go on to do and not do, clarifying for our students how the publishing world works

In this episode Garth interviews Melissa (Missy) Beers from the Ohio State University in Columbus, OH – for our first Part 3 episode on PsychSessions. Missy first recounts her career path, from graduate school to business and industry, then government, then research, then back to higher education. She teaches as an adjunct faculty member for a while and then steps into the Director of Introductory Psychology at Ohio State. With redevelopment of the general education curriculum in 2016, Missy was a key player on the Implementation Committee, foreshadowing the future. Missy now directs the "bookend courses" in the gen ed curriculum, about 500 course sections serving about 10,000 students annually. And then there is the assessment conversation, universal design, pedagogy, and inclusion. The interdisciplinarity of the future is now.

In this episode: we discuss the ceremonies and ritual of academic life, including commencements, convocations, and Psi Chi inductions, and the comparison to life's rituals, like birthdays and weddings (Eric's daughter about to be married at the time of this recording); walking across the seal at Seton Hall, the blue turf at Boise State; feeling the loss of rituals during the pandemic

In this episode: how to address professors and professionals, by first name or formal name; pronunciation of names, individual person preferences