Supporting Department Chairs: An Inside Higher Ed WebinarNovember 28, 2012 at noon to 1 p.m.

People don't become academics because they aspire to be department chairs, but every department needs one " and perhaps never more than in these economically challenging times. Many chairs complain that they receive no training and no support " even as senior administrators frequently fault chairs for not doing enough.

Inside Higher Ed presents Supporting Department Chairs, a one-hour webinar focused not on blaming chairs, but on supporting them. Experts from The IDEA Center, which provides a range of training and evaluation programs for chairs, will explain:

• An overview of how to provide support for chairs.
• How to guide chairs in evaluating faculty performance.
• How to help chairs learn to deal with conflict and difficult personalities in their departments.

The webinar will last hour " a 30-minute presentation and a 30-minute question period. The presentation is entirely via the web -- you will not need to dial into a conference call to participate. You may gather colleagues to view the webinar on one monitor, but only one login per registration will be allowed.

This program is ideal for Chairs, Provosts, Deans, Human Resources officials, Academic affairs, and Faculty members who might want to become chairs.

Presenters

Ken Ryalls is president of the IDEA Center, a nonprofit organization dedicated to the support of teaching and learning in higher education. He has served as program director, department chair, and division chair at College of Saint Mary, in Nebraska, and stepped into the role of chief academic officer in 2004 as vice president for academic affairs at Nebraska Methodist College. After almost eight years in the role of CAO, Ken assumed the IDEA Center presidency in 2012.

Mary Lou Higgerson is vice president for academic affairs emeritus at Baldwin Wallace University. Since 1990, she has taught on a variety of leadership communication topics for the American Council on Education in national and campus leadership seminars offered through the Center for Leadership Development. Higgerson has authored Communication Skills for Department Chairs, co-authored Effective Leadership Communication: A Survival Guide for Department Chairs and College Deans, co-authored The Administrative Portfolio: Practical Guide to Improved Administrative Performance and Personnel Decisions , and co-authored Complexities of Higher Education Administration: Case Studies and Issues . She is the board chair of the IDEA Center.

Steve Benton is senior research officer at the IDEA Center , where he designs and conducts reliability and validity studies. Steve is a fellow in the American Psychological Association and American Educational Research Association, as well as an emeritus professor of special education, counseling, and student affairs at Kansas State University. He serves on the editorial boards of The International Higher Education Teaching and Learning Review, The Journal of Psychology: Interdisciplinary and Applied, Contemporary Educational Psychology and Educational Psychology Review.