The Women Faculty Moving Forward (WFMF) Workshop is a transformative program designed to empower tenure-track women faculty members in academia. Through personalized mentoring, robust networking opportunities, and strategic preparation for tenure, administration, or other leadership roles, this initiative equips participants to excel in their careers and break barriers in academic leadership.
Aligned with the Kopenhaver Center’s mission to amplify women’s voices and foster advancement in academia, this program embodies the center’s core values of innovation, creativity, and leadership. Participants benefit from access to a dynamic community of scholars and professionals who share expertise and foster growth. The workshop integrates cutting-edge strategies that prepare women and faculty to lead with confidence and vision.
Empowering Women in Academia—Today and Tomorrow
Women Faculty Moving Forward: Pathways to Success
Pre-Convention Workshop
Association for Education in Journalism and Mass Communication Convention—New Orleans, August 4, 2026
Sponsored by the AEJMC Commission on the Status of Women, the Lillian Lodge Kopenhaver Center for the Advancement of Women in Communication at Florida International University, and the AEJMC Council of Affiliates, this 13th annual workshop, Women Faculty Moving Forward, is designed to help junior women faculty members move forward in their careers through mentoring, networking, and preparing for tenure and promotion and administration or other leadership positions. The program, which features senior women professors and administrators, is designed for tenure-track women, but some exceptions may be made. We are seeking a cohort for our pre-conference workshop on August 4, 2026, 1-5 p.m. at the AEJMC annual conference in San Francisco. Applicants must be AEJMC members.
Speakers, panelists, and roundtable leaders include senior scholars and administrators and amazing women colleagues who have achieved significant leadership positions in their careers. Keynote speaker for the workshop is Tracy Lucht, interim dean, Greenlee College of Journalism and Communication, Iowa State.. Panelists: Lisa Margaretha Geertsema-Sligh, Professor of Journalism and Director of Graduate Studies in the College of Communication, Butler University, Indianapolis, Jaime Loke, Associate Professor of Journalism, Texas Christian University; Jeannine Relly, Professor and Associate Dean for Faculty Affairs and Advancement, University of Arizona; Celeste Gonzales de Bustamante, founding Director of the Center for Global Change and Media and Mary Gibbs Jones Centennial Chair in Communication in the Moody College of Communication at the University of Texas at Austin; Ingrid Bachmann, Associate Professor in the School of Communications at Pontificia Universidad Catolica de Chile and director of the Millennium Nucleus on Digital Inequalities and Opportunities, a research project funded by Chile’s National Agency for Research and Development
In addition to the training and networking at this workshop, participants, who will be designated Kopenhaver Center Fellows, will be invited to take part in activities of both the CSW and the Kopenhaver Center during the year and receive communications and invitations from both groups. They will also be invited to reunite with new and previous fellows in a networking session following the workshop at each conference each year.
The deadline for applications is June 15, 2026. If you have any questions, contact Carla Zensen at czensen@fiu.edu