2026 Non-Tenure Track Faculty Conference
Making it Count: Leveraging Teaching Excellence in Your Career Growth
Wednesday, February 4, 2026 | 8:30am-12:15pm
This conference brings together non-tenure track faculty to recognize their essential contributions, explore topics and strategies for professional development, and build networks to support career planning and faculty success.
This annual event is geared towards non-tenure track faculty, however, all faculty, department chairs, associate deans, and deans are welcome to attend.
Conference Keynote
Nancy L. Chick, Executive Director of Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship & Professor of English, Texas Woman’s University
Nancy Chick is a SoTL scholar, scholarly teacher, and faculty developer. In 2011, she left full-time faculty work as an English professor to focus on SoTL. She has many publications on the results of her SoTL projects and on the field of SoTL, including her new open access book The SoTL Guide: (Re)Orienting the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning, co-written with Peter Felten and Katarina Mårtensson. Nancy was also the founding co-editor of Teaching & Learning Inquiry, the journal of the International Society for the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (ISSOTL). Learn more about Nancy Chick >>
.png)
8:30-9:00am | Check in and Breakfast
9:00-9:15am | Welcome and Introductions
Arturo Saavedra, Interim Provost and Executive Vice President for Academic Affairs; Lisa Abrams, Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs
9:15-10:30am | Keynote
Nancy L. Chick, Executive Director of Teaching, Learning, and Scholarship & Professor of English, Texas Woman’s University
10:45-11:30am | Teaching Excellence in the New Term Faculty Promotion Policies
This session is designed to support faculty in navigating the new promotion guidelines and the varied ways to consider teaching excellence. Drawing on dimensions of teaching described in the Assessing Teaching Effectiveness report, we will move beyond traditional metrics to explore holistic strategies for documenting the full scope of your teaching contributions and impact.
Lisa Abrams, Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Affairs; Susan Coombes, Director, Center for Teaching and Learning Excellence
11:30am -12:10pm | Round Tables: Navigating the Promotion Process - Peer Strategies and Insights
Understanding the varied strategies and processes colleagues use to successfully navigate their promotion cycle can be invaluable. This round table session is designed to facilitate focused, individual conversations within a supportive environment for learning directly from your colleagues.
12:10-12:15pm | Closing