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OFDD Update:
Summer 2026
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Dear Colleagues,
We hope you are enjoying summer!
We're writing to announce faculty recipients of the prestigious Schwartz Visionary Grant Award and to update you on programs planned for this Fall, including sessions on financial literacy, workshops for faculty search committees, and our popular writing accountability program, Making Time to Write. Registration links are included below.
In other news, we are happy to welcome Patty Gabriel who joined Avery's office as executive staff assistant in January. If you have not met her, you will have opportunities this Fall. OFDD's communication and program manager Lori Sonken is retiring this summer. You are welcome to stop by for bagels and coffee on Aug 21 from 9:30-11:30 AM in 122 Day Hall to wish her well. In the meantime if you know someone who might be appropriate for OFDD please let us know. Or send them this link.
Keep on enjoying summer!
Avery August, Deputy Provost
and
Yael Levitte, Senior Associate Vice Provost for Faculty Development and Diversity
| | Huberman, Feaga Awarded Schwartz
Visionary Grants | | Lori Huberman
Assistant Professor
School of Integrative Plant Science
Plant Pathology and Plant-Microbe Biology Section | |  | Heather Feaga
Assistant Professor
Department of Microbiology | | |
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Lori Huberman and Heather Feaga, assistant professors in the School of Integrative Plant Science and Department of Microbiology respectively, are recipients of the 2026 Schwartz Visionary Grant award. Each will receive $300,000 to support their innovative research plans.
Huberman is using her grant to understand how fungi detect and grow toward nutrient signals produced by a host-- work that could lead to treatments for fungal diseases that kill almost 4 million people and cause 30% of crops to be lost annually.
Feaga is investigating whether bacteria cells communicate with other bacteria to protect themselves when protein-making ribosomes stall due to stress.
The Schwartz Visionary Grant award is endowed by Joan Poyner Schwartz ’65 and Ronald H. Schwartz ’65, chemistry majors who held long careers at the National Institutes of Health. This is the 10th year they have supported Cornell faculty through the Schwartz Visionary Grant and Schwartz Research Fund awards.
“We are extremely grateful to Drs. Joan and Ron Schwartz for their generous decade-long support,” said Avery August, Ph.D. ’94, professor of immunology in the College of Veterinary Medicine and deputy provost. “Their giving has been impactful to our faculty who have been able to use the seed funds and visionary fund to advance leading edge discoveries.”
See the Cornell Chronicle story for more information.
| Faculty Search Committee Workshops: Multiple Sessions Planned in Fall 2026 | | |
This Fall OFDD will hold Effective Search Practices, Parts I and II, monthly on zoom for faculty on search committees.
Part I: Best Practices for Recruiting and Selecting Candidates offers practical tools to address meeting dynamics, avoid cognitive bias, broaden candidate pools, and engage in effective non-discriminatory search practices. The social science research underlying the topics will also be discussed.
Search committee members who have not attended Part I within the past year are asked to join a Fall session before the search begins. Click on links in dates below to register.
Monday, Aug 17 | 2-3:15 PM
Thursday, Sept 17 | 2-3:15 PM
Wednesday, Oct 14 | 1:30-2:45 PM
Tuesday, Nov 10 | 9:30-10:45 AM
Faculty attending Part II, Best Practices in Academic Interviewing will watch a video depicting three scenarios that can arise during the interview process.There will be a facilitated discussion about the impacts the scenarios can have on the candidate, department, and institution. Issues to be discussed include procedures and policies, legal boundaries, social media, and department and institutional climate.
Click on links in dates below to register.
Tuesday, Aug 18 | 2-3 PM
Friday, Sept 18 | 3-4 PM
Thursday, Oct 15 | 2-3 PM
Wednesday, Nov 4 | 10-11 AM
Email ofdd@cornell.edu if you have questions.
| | Financial Literacy: Three Programs Planned | | |
OFDD offers financial literacy programs to support faculty in their work/life aspirations. This Fall, OFDD will have three programs on Zoom.
Designed to boost one's financial literacy but not give financial advice, the sessions will address such topics as savings and retirement account options and their tax implications, as well as financial decision approaches,
Naya Sou, a financial advisor with Forum Financial Management, LP, and Emily Garbinsky, an associate professor of marketing in the SC Johnson College of Business, are leading the sessions. Details are listed below.
On a related topic, last Spring Suzanne Shu, the John S. Dyson Professor of Marketing in the SC Johnson College of Business, presented her research on retirement income decision making. Shu shared research findings examining such questions as how to spend down (decumulate) assets to provide a reliable stream of income at retirement; optimizing Social Security; ways to draw down retirement funds, and accounting for pensions and life annuities. If you did not attend the Zoom session or would like a refresher, you can listen to the recording.
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Naya Sou
Financial Advisor, Forum Financial Management, LP
Exploring the Alphabet Soup of Savings and Investment Accounts
Thursday, Sept 24
10-11 AM
Register
and
To Roth or Not to Roth
Monday, Oct 19
2-3 PM
Register
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Emily Garbinsky
Associate Professor of Marketing
SC Johnson College of Business
Love, Lies, and Money: Understanding How Couples Make Financial Decisions
Tuesday, Oct 6
12:15-1:15 PM
Register
| | | Making Time to Write:
A Popular Writing Accountability Program | |
OFDD is offering its writing accountability program, Making Time to Write this fall, beginning Aug 31. To date, more than 400 Cornell faculty have participated. The program assists faculty in setting aside aside time on their calendars to write.
One recent attendee said "I was able to finish two manuscript revisions this semester, which was my main goal. The first revision I submitted came back as an acceptance and I spent the last session going over the page proofs. That was a nice way to cap off the semester!"
Another participant said, "The program is great any time, but it is a complete lifesaver when I am chairing the department; it is nearly impossible to get any research/writing done otherwise."
Register here by Aug 7.
| OFDD Hosts Multiple List Servs | | | | |
