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In This Issue...
- You're Invited: Spring Gathering
- Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Ten-Year Anniversary Celebration
- Membership Opportunity: Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition
- Opportunities from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation
- Individual Development Plans (IDPs)
- Postdoc Distribution List
- Future Faculty Program
- Institutional Memberships
- Postdoc Spotlight: Anna O'Grady (Mellon College of Science)
| | | Join Us for a Spring Gathering! | |
Event: OVPF Ten-Year Celebration!
This year, the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty is celebrating its ten-year anniversary!
To commemorate this milestone, we hope that you will join us on April 27 for our end-of-year event to recognize the office and its impact on CMU faculty and postdocs.
Our event will include a brief overview of our office’s history, remarks from faculty and leadership, and a networking reception to celebrate the accomplishments of our faculty and postdocs.
Light refreshments will be served. Please register to help us estimate refreshments.
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Membership Opportunity: Center for the Neural Basis of Cognition (CNBC)
The CNBC is a collaborative environment that fosters innovation and cross-disciplinary research, connecting with experts and emerging scholars in fields ranging from neuroscience to computer science and psychology.
Membership is open to faculty, postdocs, and students in the Pitt-CMU neuroscience community, and CMU postdocs are encouraged to apply.
There are two types of membership – affiliate and core. Affiliate is for those who want to receive updates about goings-on in the CNBC, but aren’t ready to fully participate in the program at this time. Core membership comes with a service expectation for faculty and postdocs, and a graduate certificate for students who fulfill the training requirements. It also gives priority access to CNBC funding as well as many other exciting opportunities! Affiliate members can switch to Core membership at any time.
To join the CNBC, please complete this membership form. If you have any questions, please reach out to CNBC postdoc committee member Marissa Laws at mlaws@andrew.cmu.edu.
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Opportunities from the Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation
Postdocs have access to a variety of opportunities for support from the Eberly Center, including the following:
Teaching Demo Workshops: In this interactive workshop, participants deliver a prepared 20-25 minute synchronous lesson and receive feedback on their teaching from the other participants and the workshop leader. All participants receive a written observation memo after the workshop documenting their teaching strengths and strategies. This is a great opportunity for graduate students or postdocs who are interested in teaching but who may not have the opportunity to do so. We typically offer two of these workshops per semester. Register at seminars.eberly.cmu.edu.
The Eberly Overview: This 15-20 minute presentation covers all of the programs and services the Eberly Center offers to graduate students and postdocs, whether or not they have an active teaching appointment. It is a great way to introduce them to the teaching and mentoring resources they can take advantage of while here at CMU. If your department is interested in bringing in an Eberly Consultant for an overview, please respond directly to this email or reach out to me anytime with the following information: department name, desired date and time of the Overview, # of expected students, and who they are (e.g. 1st year PhD). If you have any other questions, please don't hesitate to ask.
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Individual Development Plans (IDPs)
Individual Development Plans (IDPs) are meant to promote professional and personal growth by formally documenting goals and facilitating dialogue, collaboration, and accountability between advisors and advisees.
You can find resources and support for completing an IDP within CMU and beyond:
CMU Resources
Carnegie Mellon has created IDP templates for postdocs and advisors. The IDP templates are available here.
Additional Resources
For additional support in creating an IDP, you can explore myIDP, a free IDP tool designed to help graduate students and postdocs in the sciences define and pursue their career goals.
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Postdoc Distribution List
The CMU Special Faculty/Postdoc Distribution List is a moderated list open to all postdocs and special faculty at CMU. Request to join with your Andrew email address. Postdocs are not automatically subscribed to this list, so please click the link!
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Future Faculty Program
The Future Faculty Program (FFP) provides postdocs with a way to engage with the full range of services at The Eberly Center for Teaching Excellence & Educational Innovation and to document their professional development with teaching. You will have the opportunity to get direct feedback on your teaching (this can be a guest lecture, if you don't have a teaching appointment), attend seminars, and get feedback on a teaching statement as well as a syllabus for a hypothetical or real course.
You do not have to be enrolled in the FFP program to take advantage of these services, but it can be helpful to have this on your CV when applying to faculty jobs (and is a good way to get to know our services!). Learn more about FFP here!
The Future Faculty Program has a rolling enrollment process, and you can join at any time by emailing eberly-assist@andrew.cmu.edu.
| | INSTITUTIONAL MEMBERSHIPS | | |
National Postdoctoral Association
The National Postdoctoral Association (NPA) seeks to improve the postdoctoral experience by supporting a culture of inclusive connection. At the individual, organizational, and national levels, the NPA facilitates enhanced professional growth, raises awareness, and collaborates with stakeholders in the postdoctoral community. As noted above, the NPA also hosts a variety of programming for National Postdoc Appreciation Week.
Carnegie Mellon has an institutional membership with the NPA, which gives all CMU postdocs free access to NPA resources, including guides, webinars, and trainings. We encourage you to sign into the NPA website with your Andrew ID and take advantage of these opportunities!
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NPA SmartSkills Courses
Every month, the NPA offers an expert-led class focusing on skills that are critical to career and personal success. Postdocs who attend 10 of 12 sessions live will receive a certificate of completion from the NPA. The schedule and registration information are available on the NPA website. All CMU postdocs have access to NPA resources, including the SmartSkills program, with their Andrew ID.
150 Years of Postdocs!
The 2026 NPA Annual Conference celebrated 150 years of the U.S. postdoctoral position. NPA members are invited to contribute their own ideas regarding what contributions postdocs might make in the years ahead. Congratulations, postdocs, on a century and a half of contributions!
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NCFDD
NCFDD is a leading provider of professional development in higher education. CMU has an institutional membership, so be sure to take advantage of this resource if you haven't already! To do so, go here and select Carnegie Mellon University from the list of members. Then, select “Activate My Membership” and complete the registration form using your CMU email address. Finally, a confirmation email will include an “Activate Account” link. Please note that the myriad resources available through this organization are not limited to professional development opportunities for faculty or future faculty. This resource is available to all postdocs, not just faculty or future faculty.
Two offerings to explore:
The Core Curriculum: This series offers 10 key skills and provides the opportunity to complete them at your own pace. The skills include “Every Semester Needs a Plan” and “The Art of Saying ‘No.’”
The NCFDD Mentor Map: Skill #7 of The Core Curriculum, “Cultivating Your Network of Mentors & Sponsors,” offers a webinar that fully introduces this tool. You can access a visual representation of the Mentor Map here.
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Anna O'Grady
Postdoctoral Fellow, Mellon College of Science
Click here to read the full Spotlight!
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