Recognizing and rewarding community engaged scholarship in public health

Faculty who define their teaching, scholarship, and service in the context of community engagement may face particular challenges as they prepare for tenure and/or promotion review. Their choice of teaching and learning strategies, and the focus of their related scholarly work, may challenge traditional models of disciplinary approaches and require focused preparation in order to illustrate their excellence as a teacher and a scholar. Senior faculty, who conduct the reviews, may have traditional perspectives on what constitutes “quality” scholarship and may not be familiar with new models and highly valued strategies for community-engaged scholarship. Despite the orientation to community that is core to public health, faculty teaching in schools and programs in the public health disciplines face similar challenges to those of their colleagues in other parts of the academy. This presentation will draw upon the learning of “Faculty for the Engaged Campus” which is a national program developing new resources to support community-engaged scholarship, as well as the experience of faculty in various public health programs across the country. We will highlight the challenges of current tenure and promotion rewards systems for community-engaged scholars, and articulate strategies and resources that can assist community-engaged public health scholars to make a compelling case in tenure and/or promotion reviews. Resources include both faculty development programs, and on-line public access materials for peer review. Faculty for the Engaged Campus is supported in part by a grant from the Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education in the U.S. Department of Education.