Category: Uncategorized

Written by: Roshni Singh, LEAD Kindling Crew

Dr. Chetna Chianese is the Senior Director of Research Development at Syracuse University, serving as the lead for the central RD office since 2023. In this role, Dr. Chianese assists faculty across Syracuse University with the development of new research priorities and proposals. She provides research development leadership for the university-identified research priorities, facilitates multi-million-dollar and inter-school/college proposal submissions, and leads internal funding programs provided by the Office of Research. Chetna has a Ph.D. in inorganic chemistry from the University of North Carolina – Chapel Hill and a B.S. in chemistry from Vanderbilt University.

Prior to her appointment as the Senior Director of Research Development, Chetna had served as the office’s Associate Director since 2019. She has also served as the Associate Director of Research at SyracuseCoE, a Syracuse University research center, aiding faculty on research proposals and projects related to energy and the environment. 

Before arriving at Syracuse University, Chetna spent three years as an AAAS Science and Technology Policy Fellow in the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. She discovered the AAAS fellowship program during grad school, which sounded better than being a bench scientist. This led her first to serve as a program manager for the DOD contractor SAIC at the Naval Research Labs in Washington DC. There, Chetna learned the basics of proposal development and project management. She took those skills to DOE where she became an expert in critical minerals and eventually designed a grant funding program with a portfolio of $120 million.

However, she quickly realized the government bureaucracy was not for her and found her niche in Research Development. RD allows her to leverage her prior experiences which translates into successful proposals for the faculty members. Chetna gets a “rush when things work out” and she feels she has made a difference.

In her current role, Chetna has spearheaded the expansion of the central RD office from 2.5 FTE to ~7, and plans to keep building opportunities to allow her team’s roles to evolve. She is focused on creating opportunities for her team to grow and develop their niche and she works to effectively communicate strategic priorities while removing barriers. Her desired impact and legacy are to lead the office effectively during a period of change and come up with a framework for her office, given its larger budget and institutional leadership support.

In her current role, Chetna leverages strategic intelligence to understand funding programs and their priorities. She often hears herself saying to the faculty members “read the review criteria” and, “it depends on the funder”. From her experiences, she has learned to be cautious and applies the same strategy when working with the faculty members as she thinks “we only know what we’ve been exposed to and otherwise we’re making an educated guess.”

Chetna is a member of the NORDP Nominating Committee and the Fireside Chat/Career Stories Kindling Crew. She has previously served as the Region II Co-Chair and a member of the Member Services Committee. She highly recommends NORDP and thinks it’s great place to network and learn from everyone.

Fun Fact: While working at the DOE, Chetna had the opportunity to participate on two White House interagency working group.

Chetna would love to answer any questions you have for her, so please feel free to email her at cchianes@syr.edu

To listen to her full interview by the career/kindle team, please click on this link (you must log in as a NORDP member to access): MC LMS – NORDP LEAD presents: “Career Stories” – Chetna Chianese – March 5, 2024

Contributors: iKnoW members:

Elizabeth Lathrop, University of Maryland, College Park

Meira Orentlicher, Touro University

Prapti Mody, UT Southwestern Medical Center

Yoanna Ferrara, Syracuse University

The NORDP affinity group – Immigrant Knowledge and Wisdom (iKnoW) – seeks to empower and engage research development (RD) professionals who identify as immigrants or allies of immigrants. From the initial 15 founding members in 2023, we have grown to >30 members thus far. Members of iKnoW come with diverse perspectives to share experiences, interests, and goals contributing to inclusive excellence, resource generation, recruitment and retention of RD professionals to further advance NORDP mission. Collectively, iKnoW is a place for members to share international knowledge and immigrant experiences in the context of RD professionals, with opportunities for advocacy, networking, mentoring, and leadership development on immigrant impact to foster a culture of diversity, equity and inclusion within NORDP.

The iKnoW launched our inaugural networking events at the 2023 NORDP in-person Conference in Arlington, VA. As an iKnoW Co-chair, Samarpita Sengupta organized the highly popular “Monuments by Moonlight” bus tour, which provided opportunities for networking and relationship-building within the growing iKnoW community. iKnoW also hosted a member meetup dinner as well as an interactive poster session to meet existing members in person and to recruit new members. We encourage everyone to be on the lookout for  iKnoW activities at the upcoming 2024 NORDP Conference in Bellevue, WA.

Another notable accomplishment includes a NORD pilot project award: in collaboration with iKnoW members from four institutions (Touro University, University of Michigan, University of Arizona, and University of Vermont), Meira Orentlicher is spearheading a study to increase the understanding of immigrant faculty researchers’ experiences and needs, and to begin to identify strategies for addressing the needs and supporting their growth and development in the US academic institutions.

A few testimonials from current iKnoW members highlight the impact this tiny-but-mighty group has had on them!

Prapti Mody: As a South Asian who immigrated to the USA and has tons of diverse immigrant friends and colleagues, I identify strongly with iKnoW’s values and mission goals. I joined this affinity group after meeting with Gagan last year at the 15th NORDP annual conference, so I have been a member for just under a year now. Our meetings are equal parts fun time and resource generation brainstorming. It’s so interesting to connect with people from all across the world as part of this group, learn about their experiences and share ideas. For example, in one of our meetings, we designed a flyer highlighting points to be aware of while traveling internationally. iKnoW is a great resource group and a beautiful network of RD professionals.  

Yoanna Ferrera: Initially, I joined iKnow out of curiosity. At the affinity group dinner in Arlington (NORDP 2023), I met remarkable people who, like me, had moved to the United States from worlds away or, as second-generation immigrants, have straddled continents and cultures. I value the sense of community and everyone’s willingness to support others. We have discussed care options for aging parents who are non-US citizens or non-English speakers. This topic may also be of interest to many faculty. We have bonded through book clubs. We plan approaches to recruit immigrants to the RD profession and support members looking to switch jobs, e.g., through mock interviews and career guidance. Samar’s and Gagan’s leadership is inspirational—they encourage the iKnow-ers to be involved in the various NORDP committees, pursue leadership roles, and contribute immigrant perspectives to the organization.

Faina Thompson: Absolutely thrilled to share my experience with the Immigrant Knowledge and Wisdom (iKnoW) group! Meeting the members at the 2023 NORDP conference was an absolute delight and sparked an immediate connection. It was a moment where I felt seen, understood, and welcomed into a vibrant community. iKnoW is an outstanding network of RD professionals, eager to share their expertise. The conversations are as diverse as they are informative, with topics spanning the globe. iKnoW welcomes you with a remarkable sense of community and professional camaraderie. It’s not just a group, it’s a global community that enriches you both professionally and personally. I wholeheartedly recommend it.

The iKnoW affinity group meets monthly, on every 3rd Tuesday of the month, at 4pm ET/3pm CT/2pm PT. We welcome you to join our community by contacting the current Co-Chairs: Samarpita Sengupta (SS141@alumni.utsw.edu) and Gagan Bajaj (gagan.bajaj@med.uvm.edu) for meeting information!

Written by Elizabeth Christensen and Susan Elkins

The NORDP Professional Development Committee coordinates the development and delivery of professional development training and resources for NORDP members. The Committee’s current focus is online professional development in three main strategic areas: (1) career planning, (2) operational resources for research development, and (3) skill building.

The Professional Development Committee is led by a proactive team of co-chairs:

Erin Christian, EdD

Research Grants Business Specialist, Common Spirit Health

Emily Devereux, PhD

Director of Research Development, Research Office in the College of Engineering and Computing, University of South Carolina

Susan Elkins, CRA

International & Research Services Development Manager and Grants Administrator, Office of Research and Innovation, Drexel University

Series and Webinars

The NORDP PD Committee helps to curate, advertise, and find speakers for the ever-popular Tools and Tips (TNT) Series and Webinars on a variety of topics of interest to NORDP Members. Most of these sessions are recorded and available on through the NORDP website learning management system (LMS).

TNTs (Tools and Tips) are short 30-minute sessions that explore a tool or strategy that many find helps them be more efficient/organized. These range a wide range of topics from the use of SciENcv to what’s at your desk that you use to de-stress.

The Career Stories series is a partnership of NORDP LEAD, the Professional Development Committee, and the Member Services Committee.  These informal “fireside chats” highlight the professional trajectories of NORDP members by showcasing the multiple ways that members end up in research development as well as the variety of paths available for career growth and advancement.

Webinars are typically 60 minutes in length. They usually have stated aims/goals associated with the session and one to three facilitators. Participants will walk away with increased knowledge base of the subject matter.

Discussion Panels are typically 60 minutes in length. They are less structured. There will be a facilitator and a number of subject matter experts. The audience will also have an opportunity to add to the conversation as well as ask questions of the panel. The goal is to have an interactive discussion on the topic being discussed.

Working Groups

The Professional Development Committee runs several Working Groups led by some amazing NORDP members:

Webinar Production – led by Dawn McArthur and Emily Devereux. This group selects topic areas for the coming year’s NORDP webinars from our topic framework and then identifies and invites webinar presenters in those areas, using NORDP conference evaluations as a resource. If you have an idea, please reach out to us!

Webinar Planning – led by Katie Shoaf and Josh Roney. This group serves as technical production hosts for NORDP webinars, working closely with the “webinar host” and the presenter(s).

The Professional Development Committee also coordinates with other NORDP Working Groups to facilitate collaboration across the NORDP community, providing many resources and benefits to NORDP members:

NORDP Communications Working Group – PD liaison is Susan Elkins. This working group leads publicity and announcement of activities for NORDP. These communications can be internal among the NORDP Membership and shared externally (e.g., LinkedIn & Twitter).

NORDP Board Liaisons – We have board members who work with PD who tell us anything from a board perspective that we need to be aware of. We also can communicate any issues/questions that we as a committee have and they will take this to the next board meeting on our behalf.

Goals and Objectives

The objective of the NORDP Professional Development Committee is to provide NORDP members with meaningful, timely, and engaging opportunities to expand their research development knowledge and add valuable skills to both their professional and personal toolboxes. The PD Committee’s goals are to:

• Develop, implement, and organize engaging and worthwhile professional development content based on the needs of the NORDP membership;
• Provide opportunities for NORDP members to offer their relevant expertise and to gain valuable leadership skills by leading webinars and developing other professional development materials;
• Recruit knowledge experts to contribute time and relevant intellectual resources to the NORDP community;
• Collect and disseminate best practices in research development, for use by NORDP members;
• Compile and maintain a database of professional development resources for NORDP membership.

Volunteer Opportunities

There are many opportunities to participate in the NORDP Professional Development Committee.  The Committee meets monthly via Zoom to develop and produce Professional Development materials, decide on upcoming programming, and to research specific topics and methods for professional development. The Committee also recruits members and other experts to lead webinars and develop professional development resources for NORDP’s membership.

Activities that engage and invite new Volunteers to get involved are the virtual and in-person Open Houses held throughout the year.  The Professional Development Committee also sponsors an annual Holiday Party via Zoom. The committee hosts at least one open house event for all members to meet with us to learn more about what we do and talk about the volunteer opportunities.

For those who may be on the fence about volunteering to serve on the professional Development Committee, co-chair Susan Elkins says: “Serving on the Professional Development Committee is a great opportunity to seek out new members and try out a NORDP leadership role.”

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The Details:

Committee meeting scope/schedule: The goals of the Professional Development Committee are to help provide opportunities for Research Development Professionals to build their skills and knowledge and to share information about research development practices and activities that have been used successfully in various settings.

The professional development committee leadership meets the second Thursday at 3pm Eastern. The entire committee meets the third Thursday at 3pm Eastern. Each working group also meets as needed.

Current Co-Chairs: Erin Christian, EdD, Emily Devereux, PhD and Susan Elkins, CRA

You might enjoy serving on this committee if: You are interested in providing the NORDP membership development learning opportunities. This committee does a lot and your involvement can fit around your needs. We would be grateful if you can tech host assist for a few offerings a year. Or if you have the bandwidth, we are looking to have a total of six co-chairs.

How to get involved: Email the committee co-chairs at PDCommittee@nordp.org (We’d love to hear from you!)

Written by: Roshni Singh, LEAD Kindling Crew

Sarah Robertson is the Director of Sponsored Research at Bryn Mawr College. In this Primary Undergrad Institution (PUI) environment, she strategizes to enhance sponsored research programs, through grant trainings, editing, internal competitions, and creating networks for collaborative efforts in research, as well as managing compliance and financial issues related to research.

Dr. Robertson is an alumna of Bryn Mawr College where she completed her AB before earning her PhD in Cell and Molecular Biology at the University of Pennsylvania studying intracellular trafficking. She is delighted to have returned to her alma mater where she is helping the faculty members develop their ideas, think like a reviewer and get funded; as this type of work is also essential to her growth and sanity!

After almost a decade at grant funding foundations, Dr. Robertson returned to academia to start her research development career after she successfully convinced the University of the Sciences that they are in urgent need of a Research Development position to assist the faculty members more their research to the next stage. She replaced their first director, only 6 weeks before the uniform guidance went live. UG implementation was successful thanks to self-taught skills and great mentorship.

Dr. Robertson brings an extensive professional background in grants, both in grant administration and research development, to her role at Bryn Mawr and her volunteer roles. She has extensive experience in thinking like a funder and reviewer. This is due to her roles with oversight of the Susan G. Komen® research grant portfolio, educational programs, and the community health grant portfolio. In addition, at the American Association for Cancer Research, she worked closely with some of the leading experts in cancer research planning educational events, writing grants, and participating in the Foundation’s grant application review. She has also served as a reviewer for the NSF, NIH, and CUR.

The exposure to different areas of research, bringing in new ideas, and wearing different hats inspires her to go to work every day as she likes being on the ground, and she firmly believes that the “dreaming stage changes the world”. Her experience in customer service from an early age while working at her mother’s business has helped her hone her outgoing, relationship building skills despite being an introvert that is happy alone. She believes there are no dumb questions no matter what stage of life one is in. In her experiences, even reviewers can get nervous and have doubts, so faculty members are no different, and our jobs as RD professionals is to make them successful by not judging, but helping and supporting. She also firmly believes that women should be ready to take risk and apply for jobs even if they don’t qualify for 100% of the job description, as one should not be defined by bullet points.

Being a member of NORDP since 2015, Dr. Robertson has benefited from its resources ever since. She has served as a member of the Program Committee in 2019, served as a member of the Nomination Committee from 2020-2023, and has been active in the Mid-Atlantic Region executive committee since 2020. Given her role at a PUI, she joined the PUI Affinity Group in its first year and is delighted to serve as its Co-Chair this year. Her collaboration with the others in the PUI Affinity Group leadership led to the development of a funded NSF GRANTED conference grant.

Dr. Robertson’s tips for new RD members are to network, learn from others, utilize NORDP’s mentoring program, and use their resources as NORDP site has a wealth of resources.

Dr. Robertson loves working at Bryn Mawr College and hopes to retire here. We wish Dr. Robertson all the best in her role that her diversity, experiences, and passion for the RD profession brings her.

Dr. Roberston would love to answer any questions you have for her, so please feel free to email her at serobertso@brynmawr.edu.

To listen to her full interview by the career/kindle team, please click on this link ((you must log in as a NORDP member to access): MC LMS – NORDP LEAD presents: “Career Stories” – Sarah Roberts December 12, 2023

Collaboratively written by: Mentoring Committee Marketing and Communication (McMc) Communication subcommittee (Jessica Brassard, Vess Vassileva-Clarke, Brooke Gowl, Elizabeth Lathrop)

Mentoring Dyads and Mentoring Cohorts are paired in July and wrap up in June every year. That said, we are somewhere in the middle of the NORDP mentoring year. The “middle” is always a great time to touch base and check in with your mentoring groups and ask how things are going. 

The NORDP Mentoring Roadmap is a useful tool to reflect on what you can focus on during this time. The Roadmap can be found on the NORDP WisdomShare Mentoring platform under Learning. (NOTE: the links in this blog post will forward you to WisdomShare where you will need to have an account.)

The Roadmap highlights using the MESHH Network and the Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP) as guides. 

The MESHH (Mentorship Expertise Support and Helping Hands) Network encourages us to identify the personal, community, and professional social capital in our lives. The people we name in the MESHH Network are the individuals who can help us reach our goals. A fillable MESHH form can be downloaded here or in the WisdomShare library here for participants to develop their professional network mentors.

REFINE: Month 3-6  (excerpted from the NORDP Mentoring Relationship Roadmap)

• Review My MESHH Network in-depth. 
• Think of types of people or position titles as appropriate. 
• Use of My MESHH Network can inspire a close(r) look at one’s professional, community and personal social capital and how that capital can be better exercised to meet one’s professional needs and goals. 
• The webinar (slides and video) and FAQ provide additional guidance. 

The Individual Professional Development Plan (IPDP) encourages reflection on strengths, challenges, setting SMART goals, and communication. If you have already used the IPDP this year, now is a great time to revisit and set some next steps for your growth. If you have not used the IPDP yet, now is a great time to open it up and see what you might focus on in the next few months. A fillable IPDP form can be downloaded here or in the WisdomShare library here for participants to develop their professional network mentors.

IMPLEMENT: Month 6-9 (excerpted from the NORDP Mentoring Relationship Roadmap)

• Review the IPDP in-depth. 
• Use of the IPDP can strengthen overall outcomes by focusing efforts for both mentor and mentee. 
• The IPDP is excellent for action plan development and for structuring substantive future meetings. 
• The webinar (slides and video) and FAQ provide additional guidance.

Mark your calendars! There is a McHuddle coming up (Wednesday, February 7 at 1pm Eastern). McHuddles are informal gatherings hosted by the NORDP Mentoring Committee facilitators, and give our members an opportunity to reflect, share ideas, ask questions, and collectively learn from other mentees/mentors in breakout sessions.

The November 2023 Career Stories featured Katie Lindl, Deputy Director, Program Development Support Office, Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL).

Dr. Katie Lindl has been at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) for 5+ years working in the Program Development Support Office (also known as the “proposals” group or PDSO), first as a proposal manager and for the past year and a half as the group’s deputy director. She has a bachelor’s degree in molecular biology from Princeton and completed a PhD in neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania. Together with the PDSO director, she heads a group of 12 people.

Calling this an accidental career, Dr. Lindl found her first job as a grant writer at a neuroscience start-up in Menlo Park through her rowing team, a sport she picked up during graduate school. Following her stint at this start-up, Katie took a break from research development and began work as a Pilates instructor and studio manager, hoping to have time for creative writing while also dabbling in freelance work in scientific editing. Once again chance pulled her back into research development when one of her Pilates clients found out about her science and science writing background and recruited her into the PDSO at LLNL. Currently, her day-day job includes proposal management and editing, training and mentoring, approving and assigning work that comes into the PDSO, and interacting with PIs and leadership at the Lab.

The diversity of work proposed across the lab keeps Dr. Lindl’s job interesting and exactly matches the breadth of work she had hoped to find when she finished graduate school, as she adds “During my time in graduate school, I realized that I’d rather help others communicate and improve their science than do my own research.” She is inspired by writing proposals for big science, having a very appreciative group of PIs, participating in training and growing her skills, as well as investing in and growing the careers of others. Two of her biggest sources of inspiration are her dad, a scientist, and her curiosity about people and the world around her.

Even though Dr. Lindl’s work is very rewarding, she knows research development work can be overwhelming at times and that people in our field of work tend to want to “take it all on.” Hence, her tip to the NORDP community is to learn to say no when needed.

Dr. Lindl continues to row regularly on a competitive masters team in Sacramento, CA; hike year-round with her overgrown puppy, Koda; ski in the winter; and teach Pilates, while splitting her time between her ranch in Livermore, CA in the San Francisco Bay Area and her place in Truckee near Tahoe in the Sierra Nevada. Her full-time remote work option at LLNL has allowed this lifestyle, for which she is grateful.

When asked if she had learned anything from her time in rowing that has helped her in her career in research development, Dr. Lindl noted that, yes, she learned that “You can’t win the race by yourself, but you can lose the race by yourself.” She has loved the connections she has made through NORDP and feels she has benefitted from learning the ways others do their RD work at their institutions and has shared these insights with her team at LLNL.

Dr. Lindl would love to answer any questions you have for her, so please feel free to email her at lindl2@llnl.gov. To listen to her full interview by the career/kindle team, please click on this link (you must log in as a NORDP member to access): MC LMS – NORDP LEAD presents: “Career Stories” – Katie Lindl – November 8, 2023

Who: Dr. Susan Ferrari, Assistant Dean and Director of Corporate, Foundation, and Government Relations

Where: Grinnell College 

Number of Years Working in RD: 10 years

Length of NORDP Membership: 10 years

Entering the field 

Susan, who leads an office with a team of three, was hired into a grants office in 2013 for a research administration role. At a small institution, she’s worn many hats related to RD, corporate and foundation relations, and faculty development. Susan earned her PhD in biomedical sciences but credits her general nerdiness, including many years of Quiz Bowl competition, for providing a broad foundation of knowledge that enables her to work across disciplines. 

Throughout her career, Susan has championed faculty outreach and support, and she’s coordinated with other units to lead initiatives in these areas. Another common thread through her career is bringing people together, especially to support humanists and challenges related to those disciplines. 

The value of her NORDP membership became apparent when Susan realized how NORDP could support her in developing programing for faculty. She was especially inspired by members working in the liberal arts space, including Claudia Scholz (formerly of Trinity College and Spellman College, now at the University of Virginia School of Data Science) and Kendra Mingo (formerly of Willamette University, now at UC San Diego). 

Susan has been part of what is now a movement towards RD within liberal arts college research administration circles. Supporting faculty who teach many courses and who may not need to write books or win grants to earn tenure creates an all-carrots, no-sticks environment, presenting unique challenges and opportunities. 

Research Development work

Susan calls her work in RD ‘cradle to grave’; it includes everything from hands-on work with faculty and proposal preparation, both research and curricular grants, community-involved efforts, and communications. She works with everyone from artists to scientists.

Susan had been working with Communications on efforts to share information about faculty research (including improving internal communication about new faculty members’ research and teaching agendas), which grew into initiatives to rebuild community after the pandemic. Recently, she established a faculty writing group program, now in its second round, a huge success with 55 participants out of approximately 200 faculty!

During the pandemic, Susan conducted a study with 46 faculty interviews on research culture at Grinnell to assess needs and guide future efforts. This work identified key issues, such as loneliness and lack of community around research, interest in more discussion of the research process (not just products), and areas where particular demographics or disciplines were not being well-served by current institutional structures. Conducting the project and sharing the results across campus helped Susan build closer relationships with faculty members and inspired other partners to work with Susan’s team to address the issues identified in the study—for example, the Grinnell College Libraries has launched a weekly faculty-staff research series.

Susan’s study also helped her make an institutional case for the value of faculty research. In liberal arts colleges, research activity is generally valued for its benefit to the curriculum and student experience. However, Susan’s research indicates that further benefits exist. These include supporting faculty retention and well-being and providing faculty a sense of autonomy. Her research also indicates that these benefits are especially strong for minoritized individuals. Further, her work showed the benefits that faculty members derive from their research communities beyond the College. This work demonstrates that RD supports faculty and communities broadly and is much more than dollars at the door. 

Susan’s history with NORDP 

Susan joined NORDP in 2013 and became more active in 2018, inspired by great work from members in the liberal arts space.  Prior to becoming a board member, she engaged most with the PUI affinity group and the creative arts, social sciences and humanities (CASSH) group. 

Susan has also been involved with the NORD grant committee since receiving a grant in 2020 that supported a study of faculty members at liberal arts colleges who direct institutional grants that blend pedagogy and research. 

Susan went to her first conference in Providence (2019) as well as online conferences and gatherings, and she’s presented both in person and virtually on faculty programs at NORDP events. 

Motivation to run for the NORDP Board

Susan notes that it’s a challenging time to be in humanistic or qualitative social science fields because of a retreat from those fields by some of their traditional funders. She sees RD as part of what can address that challenge, so she promotes RD within her professional circles, including in her role as past president (2020-2022) of Colleges of Liberal Arts Sponsored Programs (CLASP), which supports grants professionals at over 300 primarily undergraduate institutions.

A large part of Susan’s motivation to run for the Board was driven by her desire to expand what people think about when they think of RD and by her enthusiasm around the cultivation of an RD community of practice at smaller institutions and for smaller efforts. This community of practice includes more diverse schools, minority-serving institutions, and emerging research institutions. It’s important to Susan that perspectives from those within this community are respected and honored, and she emphasizes that we can all learn from each other. The productive exchange of ideas and learning has been exemplified by the CASSH group. 

What Susan is most excited about as a new NORDP Board member

Susan is excited to get to work with people that she’s seen shaping NORDP in recent years. She’s excited about our new management company. She’s ready to tackle challenges related to declining funding and enrollments in the humanities and the near- and long-term impact of the SCOTUS decision. She acknowledges challenges but embraces them with enthusiasm. 

Susan remembers going to her first NORDP conference and knowing that she ‘found her people’. That was topped when she went to her second conference and first-time-participant friends from CLASP and other liberal arts colleagues told her that they found their people. Embracing connection, Susan is looking forward to continuing to bring more into the fold. 

It’s difficult to believe that it is already time for holiday planning, but here we are! 

Please save the date for our upcoming Holiday Soiree on Thursday, November 30 from 3:30-5PM Eastern. There will be general merriment and games, so make some time to celebrate the season with your NORDP colleagues and friends. More details and registration info will be forthcoming.