From Scholar to Leader: A Faculty Playbook for Moving into Academic Leadership

By James L. Mohler

Whether newly tenured or preparing for a leadership position, this is the book every faculty wishes they had read before stepping into a leadership role.

Faculty are selected for leadership opportunities based on their individual contributor roles, but they are seldom trained to be leaders within their institutions. Whether mentoring graduate students, leading a center or lab, chairing a committee, or even rising to the level of department chair (or higher), many faculty flounder due to this lack of training: the skills needed are not innate but must be learned. This book brings together decades of valuable academic leadership and mentorship knowledge and experience to prepare new and mid-career faculty to succeed as mentors and leaders. Written in an accessible style and illustrated with case studies and real-world examples to highlight key concepts, it blends lived experience, practical tools, and scholarly insights, and provides reflective prompts and ready-to-use frameworks and scripts to help the reader apply what they are learning.

Supporting faculty as they transition from individual contributor to academic leader, this book is suitable for individuals seeking to grow their leadership and mentorship skills, training sessions for graduate students and postdoctoral scholars, faculty training and development programs, and new PI or department leader orientation sessions.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 1041243502
• ISBN13: 9781041243502
• Release Date: February 2027
• Publisher: Routledge
• Length: 364 Pages
• Dimensions: 6.0" x 9.0"