Collaborative Initiatives

The WSU Mindfulness Symposium is a collaborative event spotlighting the benefits and practices of mindfulness. Since 2016 (with a hiatus due to Covid), the Center for Transformational Learning & Leadership has partnered with leaders from the mindfulness community in the WSU system to offer this event for students, staff, faculty, and community members.

The MESI program, active in the Honors College since 2018, is expanding to the broader WSU community. Since 2021, our team has collaborated with the Provost’s Office to scale MESI, working with units across the WSU system to introduce MESI concepts and programs to students, faculty, and staff. Current projects include incorporating MESI in HD 205 [COMM] Effective Communication and Life Skills and research on the effects of mindfulness, values, and social support systems on mental health and overall wellbeing. The website for the broader MESI at WSU initiative is under development.

Despite equal commitment in STEM, women face challenges advancing to leadership roles. VAuLTS, backed by a $1.2 million NSF ADVANCE Partnership Award, empowers change agents to eliminate barriers hindering women’s progress to the highest ranks of professoriate in diverse higher education settings across the Pacific Northwest.

Core to Career is a professional development fellowship program at WSU that supports faculty members who are interested in intentionally incorporating career readiness into their UCORE general education courses.

WSU faculty are passionate about their work in classrooms, research settings, and one-on-one with WSU students. The LIFT Fellowship is designed to support instructors in this work. We use teaching methods that have been shown to improve students’ engagement, connection, and learning, to decrease course withdrawal and fail rates, and to increase retention.

The Provost’s Leadership Academy (PLA) is an opportunity for Deans and Chancellors to recognize early- and mid-career faculty who show promise as leaders and are positive role models in their colleges or campuses. The PLA provides faculty with training to develop self-awareness, confidence, leadership skills; expand their network within WSU; connect with University leaders and build knowledge of the University and the challenges facing higher education more broadly.

The WORD program is designed to support faculty in designing, developing, and implementing more effective writing assignments, writing instruction, and writing assessment. By exploring practical and simple approaches to teaching with writing, WORD faculty fellows will learn to spend less time for more impact on assigning and evaluating writing.