There is now a transparent and equitable process for academic professionals and lecturers to seek promotion.

“We’ve made great strides toward recognizing the contributions of and strengthening this community, who provide a critical service to Georgia Tech,” said Bonnie Ferri, vice provost for Graduate Education and Faculty Development. “Our academic professionals and lecturers teach and advise our students, coordinate our labs and studios, run student and faculty programs, provide leadership across campus, and much, much more. I’m honored to have been a part of seeing their work recognized and celebrated.”

In October 2016, the Academic Faculty Senate approved the new appointment and promotion guidelines for the nontenure track faculty in the academic professional and lecturer titles, and added the additional category of “principal academic professional.”

These guidelines apply to about 300 members of the academic faculty who are full time. Prior to this, nontenure track faculty members’ promotions were considered on a case-by-case basis with no standard guidance or criteria for when someone should or could be promoted.

Starting in 2017, the Office of Faculty Affairs implemented the new process. Between last year’s and this year’s cycles, 38 academic professionals and lecturers have been promoted from lecturer to senior lecturer, academic professional to senior academic professional, or senior academic professional to principal academic professional.

This year, Ferri reviewed the process — getting input from faculty, associate deans, and chairs — which has resulted in a few tweaks to the process. In April 2018,  the faculty approved some revisions to the Faculty Handbook based on the feedback.

These changes included clarifying the roles of the academic professionals, providing more specificity on the external letters, and adding language that the colleges and other units should provide guidance on how the criteria apply to their faculty.

The guidelines can be found in the Georgia Tech Faculty Handbook, section 3.2.2 at: http://www.policylibrary.gatech.edu/faculty-handbook/3.2.2-non-tenure-track-academic-faculty-members-hiring-and-promotion-guidelines. More information about nontenure track hiring, reappointments, and promotions can be found at faculty.gatech.edu.

In May, Faculty Affairs will release a guidance document and will host several summer workshops to provide further direction and answer questions on this process.

Congratulations to the following individuals who have received these promotions over the last two cycles: 

College of Computing

• Cedric Stallworth
• David Randall White

College of Design

• Joyce Medina
• Chris Moore
• Tim Purdy
• Michelle Rinehart

College of Engineering

• Leyla Conrad
• Jeffrey Donnell
• Amit Jariwala
• Wendy Newstetter
• Robert Allen Robinson
• Yonathan Thio
• Wayne E. Whiteman

College of Sciences

• Morag Burke
• Shana Kerr
• Jennifer Leavey
• Christy O’Mahony
• Mary E. Peek
• Kimberly Schurmeier
• Teresa Snow
• J. Cameron Tyson

Institute Diversity

• Julie Ancis

Ivan Allen College of Liberal Arts

• Amy D’Unger
• Andrew Frazee
• Lionel Gall
• Justine Riley
• John Thornton

Georgia Tech Professional Education

• Suzi Lee
• Lauren Lukkarilla
• Karen Peterson
• R. Katherine Samford

Graduate Education and Faculty Development

• Jason Borenstein
• Ruth Poproski
• Leslie Sharp
• Jana Stone
• Carol Sullivan

Library

• Marlee Dorn Givens
• Wendy L. Hagenmaier
• Fred H. Rascoe
• Estella M. Richardson

Undergraduate Education

• Steven Girardot
• Christopher Reaves