Mission statement
The Office of Faculty Development’s logo reflects the four components of the Boston Children’s Hospital’s mission and the juggling of clinical, teaching, research, and work/life balance.
The Office of Faculty Development (OFD) is dedicated to facilitating the career advancement and satisfaction of Boston Children's Hospital faculty, fostering careers particularly of early-stage faculty, and increasing leadership opportunities for women and faculty underrepresented in medicine (UiM).
2024 Leadership Announcement
Dr. Nicole Ullrich, MD, PhD, MMSci, FAAN, is the Director of the Office of Faculty Development. In a memo to the BCH medical staff, Drs. Peter Laussen, Executive Vice President, Health Affairs and Wendy Chung, Chief, Department of Pediatrics, underscored Dr. Ullrich’s experience and commitment to faculty development goals:
“Dr. Ullrich will be Director of the OFD, leading our mission to support the career development, satisfaction and well-being of Boston Children’s faculty. She will work closely with Health Affairs, Medical Professional Services, the Department of Education, the Chief Scientific Officer, and all Chiefs of departments to empower our faculty, enhance programming and resources, strengthen our dedication to fostering careers of early-stage faculty, and increase leadership opportunities for women and faculty underrepresented in medicine.
For more than 20 years, Dr. Ullrich has served as Director of NeuroOncology at Boston Children's, and Director of Neurologic NeuroOncology at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. During this time, she’s demonstrated a tireless dedication to teaching and mentoring medical students, residents, clinical and research fellows as well as her own peers. Her service in leadership roles on the Harvard Medical School (HMS) Joint Committee on the Status of Women, representing a voice for change through advocacy, action, education, networking, and visibility, will serve her well in leading both the OFD and the Office for Women’s Careers.”
Panel Discussion: Making History on "The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science"
One of the top priorities this past year at Boston Children's Hospital was to bring to the forefront the issue of professional equity. On September 12, 2023, the Office of the Executive Vice President and Chief Scientific Officer, the Office of Faculty Development, the Office for Women's Careers, the Office of Health Equity and Inclusion, the Division of Emergency Medicine, the Boston Children's Book Club, and the Network Community of Care Program hosted a panel discussion of Kate Zernike’s book "Making History: The Exceptions: Nancy Hopkins, MIT, and the Fight for Women in Science". Panelists included: Kate Zernike, National Correspondent for New York Times; Marcia McNutt, President, National Academy of Sciences; Robert Birgeneau, Chancellor Emeritus, UC Berkeley; Nancy Andrews, Executive VP, Chief Scientific Officer at BCH and Home Secretary, National Academy of Sciences. The panel was moderated by Eman Ansari, Division of Emergency Medicine, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, HMS.
OFD Resources
The Office of Faculty Development’s Mentoring Guidebooks, Guidelines for Junior Faculty, and Guidelines for Mentors have been updated for 2023-24 and are now available with other materials on our Community of Mentors webpage and below.
Office of Faculty Development recognition
The OFD is recognized nationally and internationally for contributions to faculty development, career resources, promotion, work life balance, and funded research fellowships.
Funded in 2001 by Boston Children’s Hospital, the OFD summarized the critical components of a hospital-based office in the February 2008 Pediatrics article (first author, S. Jean Emans, MD): Creating a Faculty Development Office in an Academic Pediatric Hospital: Challenges and Successes.
The Office of Faculty Development received the 2017 Program Award for a Culture of Excellence in Mentoring (PACEM) from the HMS Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership.
The PACEM was established to recognize efforts to foster innovation and sustainability in mentoring. The OFD was recognized for its Developmental Networks initiative, based on the work of Kathy Kram, PhD (Boston University Questrom School of Business). For more information on Developmental Networks, visit the Community of Mentors page.
Dr. Emans has been recognized by HMS with two awards: the 2009 William Silen Lifetime Achievement in Mentoring Award and the 2020 Diversity Lifetime Achievement Award.
Orientation for new faculty
Please note that we now have a Dropbox with orientation resources that you can download and print. Items include mentoring booklets (both for mentors and for junior faculty), an overview of Faculty Development Resources booklet, and other informational items.
Resources from the HMS Office for Faculty Affairs
Read the new guidance from the HMS Office of Faculty Affairs related to cancellations due to COVID-19.
Spring-Summer 2024 events
Boston Children's Hospital Book Club
April 25th, 7 PM
"What Strange Paradise" by Omar El Akkad
(National Arab American Heritage Month)
- Winner: 2021 Giller Prize; Pacific Northwest Book Award
- Finalist: Aspen Words Literary Prize; Oregon Book Award; Canada Reads
- Selected: Best Book of the Year - New York Times, Washington Post, NPR, The Globe and Mail
Founder and Host: Eman Ansari, MD
How to Write a Specific Aims Page
Friday, April 26, 12 – 1 PM
Karp 8 Conference Room, lunch provided
Speaker: Peter Nigrovic, MD, Chief, Division of Immunology, Professor of Pediatrics, HMS
The specific aims page is the single most important page in any grant, conveying not just the urgency and rigor of the proposed science but also the suitability of the investigator and the availability of key resources. Here we will discuss how to write a compelling aims page and how to use this document as a tool to optimize the grant as a whole, including for review by others.
To create an interactive session, we invite participants to submit an aims page for discussion at the event – please send directly to peter.nigrovic@childrens.harvard.edu. This is optional and not necessary for participation. These may be distributed in advance to participants who pre-register via the form below.
Registration
*Note that seating is limited.
Co-sponsored by the Office of Faculty Development and the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs.
Drawing Figures for Journals
Tuesday, May 7, 12–1 PM
TBA, Zoom
Speaker: Beth Beighlie, HMS IT
Efficiency & reliability: easily prepare figures for scientific journals with familiar tools & a foolproof workflow that eliminates any chance of rejection for guideline violations.
Co-sponsored by the Office of Faculty Development and the Office of Fellowship Training.
Boston Children’s Hospital joins New England HERC (Higher Education Recruitment Consortium)
HERC provides a free job-seeking database for faculty, staff, and medical positions from a consortium of New England educational and medical institutions. It is a family-friendly tool as dual-career couples may enter their profiles to find matching positions, conduct searches on relocation resources, and explore schools for children. For further information, visit HERC’s website.