Faculty Leadership Development Conversations are a series of discussions with campus leaders about what it means to hold a leadership position at Lehigh. Each session is structured as an informal discussion with a campus leader, or a panel discussion with a group of leaders, centered around a specific topic, with Q&A from participants.
The 2026-7 Faculty Leadership Development Conversations will be held on Thursdays in HST 211 at 4:00 PM (unless listed otherwise below). The speakers and topics are listed below. Light refreshments will be served.
Who Should Attend?
The series is open to all interested faculty, especially faculty who think they might one day be interested in holding a leadership position (or who already do). If you have ideas that you think will benefit your department, center, college, or Lehigh as a whole, and think that a leadership position will help you pursue those ideas, this series is for you.
Registration
To attend, please register for the event by October 16, 2026. Space is limited, and registrations will be accepted on a first-come, first-served basis.
We ask that you register only if you can commit to attending at least 5 of the 6 conversations.
2026–7 Agenda
Each discussion will be moderated by Larry Snyder, Deputy Provost for Faculty Affairs.
Friday, October 30, 2026 at 1:00 PM: Leadership as a Means to an End: Helping Good Ideas Win
Nathan Urban, Provost
In higher ed, good ideas don't just naturally succeed on their own. Leading change requires thinking holistically and understanding what others are trying to accomplish. This session will focus on breaking down siloed thinking and institutional friction, and thinking of leadership not in terms of the role, but in terms of the changes that the role will allow one to make at the institution. Expect threads on topics such as change management, understanding the internal landscape, and balancing internal goals with external forces.
Thursday, November 19, 2026 at 4:00 PM: Leading Diverse Teams
Carol Packard, VP for Development and Alumni Relations
This session discusses leading a large, functionally diverse team with very different personalities, working styles, and roles. The conversation will discuss how Carol's understanding of leadership evolved from a "command and control" approach to something more adaptive and individualized. It will touch candidly on the personal costs of leadership — the shift from peer to boss, the loneliness of tough decisions — as well as practical lessons on fundraising and donor relationships for faculty leaders who find themselves managing people, and sometimes donors, for the first time.
(Note: The November 19 meeting will be held in Maginnes Hall 101.)
Thursday, January 28, 2027 at 4:00 PM: Why We Said Yes: A Conversation with Department Chairs
Ricki Bliss, Chair of Philosophy; Luis Nunes Vicente, Chair of Industrial and Systems Engineering; Marietta Peytcheva, Chair of Accounting
This panel brings together three Department Chairs to talk candidly about what it actually means to lead a department, and what they hoped to achieve for their departments that made them say yes to the job. The conversation will cover the sometimes difficult transition from faculty member to Chair, the tradeoffs between consensus-building and decisiveness, and what they've found rewarding about the role.
Thursday, February 11, 2027 at 4:00 PM: Beyond "Yes or No": A Conversation with Lehigh's General Counsel
Matt Lahey, Vice President, General Counsel & Secretary
This session explores the relationship between legal risk and institutional purpose — and how a legal question is sometimes a mission question in disguise. The conversation looks at approaching risk as a strategic partner rather than as a gatekeeper, and what it took to bring a clear, intentional vision to an office people sometimes associate with caution and "no." Expect a candid discussion about using one's strengths and weaknesses as a leader to shape the vision for one's unit.
Thursday, March 11, 2027 at 4:00 PM: From PI to Center Director
Paolo Bocchini, Director of the Center for Catastrophe Modeling and Resilience; Elsa Reichmanis, Director of the Institute for Functional Materials and Devices; Carlos Romero, Director of the Energy Research Center
This session brings together three center directors who view the role less as a destination than as a means to do the research they care about at a larger scale. The conversation will explore the gap between expectation and reality in running a center — what it takes to keep a center sustainable past its founding, the personal tradeoffs involved (from losing parts of one's own research program to becoming more exposed and less individualistic), and how a shifting federal funding landscape is changing how directors advise their faculty.
Thursday, April 1, 2027 at 4:00 PM: Raising Your Hand: Leadership, Opportunity, and the University's Role in Society
Joe Helble, President
This workshop explores reconciling the university's obligations to the broader public with the internal work of running a campus, and why it's important for faculty to "raise their hands" when a leadership opportunity arises. Expect candid reflection on the university as a community convener, how higher ed has misread the public mood, and engaging thoughtfully with radical interdisciplinarity.