The Chronicle’s Strategic-Leadership Program for Department Chairs
January 2026
The Chronicle’s Strategic-Leadership Program for Department Chairs
As a bridge between administration and faculty, department chairs have one of the toughest jobs on campus. We’ve partnered with experienced academic leaders at Dever Justice LLC and leading research experts at Ithaka S+R to design a program that will help guide new and experienced chairs through the challenges and transformative opportunities of their role.
This program offers multiple modes of learning, including large-format seminars, small-group collaborative workshops, and written development exercises. The seminars on broader higher-ed context and practical applications of leadership skills will empower chairs with the tools needed to create meaningful change. Interactive workshops will guide chairs through the process of creating personal and departmental goals and making progress toward their initiatives.
For questions about registration and group rates, please reach out to workshops@chronicle.com.
Program Packages
All-Access Package
For Current and Incoming Department Chairs
This package includes:
- Two 2-hour small-group workshops
- Four 1-hour seminars plus post-event recordings
- The Chronicle’s Guide to Departmental Leadership, a manual of critical data, advice, and analysis
- The Chronicle’s Building a Faculty That Flourishes
- The Chronicle’s Toolbox for Department Chairs
- The Chronicle’s Trends Report
- Individual Development Plan
Seminar Bundle
For Aspiring Chairs and Other Faculty
This package includes:
- Four 1-hour live seminars plus post-event recordings
- The Chronicle’s Trends Report
- The Chronicle’s Toolbox for Administrators
Program Leaders
Agenda
Program Overview
All-Access Program Overview
This program has been designed to provide chairs with access to conversations on the broader higher-ed landscape in which their institutions are operating, as well as actionable skills they can use to better lead their departments. Our live content elements include both workshops and seminars.
- Seminars are live, 60-minute Zoom Webinar events that will include all registrants within the All-Access program and seminar bundles. These events will be recorded and distributed to registrants upon their conclusion.
- Workshops are live, two-hour Zoom Meeting events that will include only a small group of All-Access participants, and are highly interactive in nature. Due to the interactive nature of these events, they will not be recorded for post-event distribution.
All-Access Program Format
Our program will take place over four learning modules. These modules will include:
- Contexts: This module is comprised of two seminars that will provide chairs with broader context on the higher-ed landscape.
- Foundations: This module is comprised of an interactive workshop to develop departmental goals based on the knowledge gained on broader higher-ed trends.
- Application: This module is comprised of two seminars that will illuminate the leadership skills needed to navigate difficult situations and encourage a positive departmental culture.
- Synthesis: This module is comprised of one interactive workshop and two optional office hour sessions that will guide chairs through creating implementation plans for their goals.
Program Pricing
- All-Access Package Early-Bird Rate, through December 19: $1,495 with code CHAIR26
- All-Access Package Standard Rate, after December 19: $1,795
- Seminar Bundle Rate: $495
- Individual Seminar Rate: $150
Seminar
National Trends in Higher Education
11:00 AM, January 20, 2026
Contexts Seminar
Higher education in America is in the midst of a period of rapid change and persistent turbulence—including both the culmination of long-term trends and new shocks. Staying informed about this shifting environment is critical to understanding your institution’s strategy, and to making strategic decisions for your department.
Join us for this 60-minute session to discuss key trends in higher education and its economic and policy context.
In this session, you will learn:
- How to address and adapt to a shifting enrollment and budgetary landscape.
- Strategies for serving new populations of students, with different needs and expectations..
- How to navigate an evolving terrain of technologies and credential types.
- What the dynamic and uncertain state and federal policy landscape portends for higher education institutions.
Catharine Bond Hill
Moderator
Managing Director, Ithaka S+R
Seminar
Understanding the Higher-Ed Business Model
02:00 PM, January 20, 2026
Contexts Seminar
As colleges explore different strategies to achieve a sustainable future, it’s essential for chairs to understand their institution’s financial context.
Where does most of a college’s revenue come from? What is its greatest expense? For many faculty members, the financial realities of their campus – and the sustainability of its operations -- are not often on their radar. And for chairs, understanding the mounting financial pressures facing campuses, whether falling enrollment or the current threats to federal funding, is increasingly important.
Join this session to learn:
- The financial fundamentals of different kinds of institutions
- How external pressures are reshaping colleges’ finances
- The most common financial strategies colleges pursue and how they affect academic departments
Robert Kelchen
Professor and Department Head, Department of Educational Leadership and Policy Studies, University of Tennessee, Knoxville
Workshop
Foundations Workshop
Multiple time and date options
This two-hour session, facilitated by Dever Justice LLC, will help department chairs think strategically about how to succeed in their role, learn from and collaborate with their peers, and lay the groundwork for developing innovative solutions for the pressing challenges and competing demands of the role.
Time Options:
Participants can select from the following dates and times:
Time Options:
Participants can select from the following dates and times:
- Wednesday, January 21
- 9 a.m. ET
- 12 p.m. ET
- 3 p.m. ET
- Thursday, January 22
- 9 a.m. ET
- 12 p.m. ET
- 3 p.m. ET
Seminar
Strategic Program and Enrollment Management
11:00 AM, January 23, 2026
Application Seminar
Chairs play a pivotal role in managing their department’s program structure and enrollment. In the face of declines in high school graduates, institutional budget challenges, and a rapidly-evolving learning landscape, department chairs are under greater pressure to innovate and update their academic offerings to improve student outcomes, enrollment, and retention.
As a connector between the administration, faculty, and student stakeholders, chairs have their finger on the pulse of many aspects that contribute to successful program and enrollment strategies, like curricular design, course scheduling, program promotion, and budget needs. In this 60-minute session, experts will help contextualize program management and enrollment challenges with national perspective, and explore how to couple these insights with your unique circumstances and knowledge to create an effective, data-informed department strategy. We’ll cover:
- Effective oversight and review of programs
- Strategies to lead departments to student-friendly curriculum and scheduling
- Ways to create a departmental culture and shared practices supporting student success among faculty, staff, and the students themselves
Seminar
Managing Conflict
02:00 PM, January 23, 2026
Application Seminar
When asked about their top one or two challenges, department chairs consistently mention managing conflict. Whether it’s working with difficult colleagues or managing the incompatible worldviews of faculty and deans, chairs are often required to advance sensitive conversations with diplomacy and tact. What are the most effective strategies for handling those situations when they arise? And how can chairs reduce the stress they experience from challenging encounters?
Addrain Conyers
Assistant Provost for Faculty Development and Associate Professor of Crime and Justice Studies, Marist College
Kate Temoney
Associate Professor and Chairperson of the Department of Religion and Special Advisor to the Provost for Interdisciplinary Initiatives, Montclair State University
Workshop
Synthesis Workshop
Multiple time and date options
Department chairs will reconvene after the first week of programming to apply the concrete knowledge and strategies they’ve learned to an individual development plan. This plan will focus on an identified challenge and help participants overcome their obstacles and create achievable go-forward plans.
Time Options:
Participants can select from the following dates and times:
There will be two optional office-hours sessions, held on the Thursday and Friday following the Synthesis Workshops.
Time Options:
Participants can select from the following dates and times:
- Monday, January 26
- 9 a.m. ET
- 12 p.m. ET
- 3 p.m. ET
- Tuesday, January 27
- 9 a.m. ET
- 12 p.m. ET
- 3 p.m. ET
There will be two optional office-hours sessions, held on the Thursday and Friday following the Synthesis Workshops.
Testimonials
Thank you for your ingenuity in creating [these] training sessions for Department Chairs. I applied for them because they appeared to offer something others did not. Your sessions were not simply how to do the 'mundane' things of being Chair, but more open and inviting on navigating the challenges of being chairs, which I feel most of us need.
Gertrude Tinker Sachs, Georgia State University
This training and the resources are critically needed for new chairs especially - to help us not make early mistakes that add difficulty to the role. Wish I knew of this training before my first year in this role. The knowledge is invaluable!
Merlyn Griffiths, University of North Carolina
Just had a meeting with my department and by the end of the meeting they initiated the very goal and action plan I wanted them to. I felt like a Department Chair Ninja!
Marianne Miserandino, Arcadia University