Northeastern’s ADVANCE Office of Faculty Development oversees, creates, and assesses evidence-based faculty development programs while serving as a resource to interested parties across the university.  The office assists faculty and administrators in accomplishing departmental, college, and university goals concerning faculty recruitment, retention, mentoring, and advancement. The office helps faculty thrive through all parts of the faculty life cycle. ADVANCE Office also strives to contribute to the faculty development literature by disseminating the innovation and effectiveness of our programming. 

The ADVANCE Office of Faculty Development reports to the Provost through the Senior Vice Provost of Academic Affairs. A strong and effective faculty development strategy is part of Northeastern’s institutional mission. We work in conjunction with the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning Through Research (CATLR), Belonging at Northeastern, and Research Development at Northeastern to provide programs and trainings to further develop and support a thriving faculty. 

History of ADVANCE

The Northeastern ADVANCE program grew out of a NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant funded from 2008-09 through 2014-15. The grant, Advancing Women in Interdisciplinary and International Networks, aimed to develop innovative ways to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering careers by promoting positive changes in the work environment to advance all faculty members in research environments that are increasingly interdisciplinary and global.

Working within the Office of the Provost, ADVANCE engaged institutional leadership to build effective collaborative networks for faculty, women in particular, departments, and interdisciplinary programs that incorporated global opportunities. While driven by the need to increase participation and advancement of women faculty, the Northeastern ADVANCE efforts benefited all faculty members and served as tools for initiatives at other academic institutions.

NSF grant (#0811170).