At Columbia, faculty drive innovation, collaboration, and the continued strength of our scholarly community. They are particularly well-positioned to pilot programming that can elevate the work of their colleagues and provide the evidence base for a modern and responsive educational and scholarly experience.
Faculty-Led Initiatives, supported by the Office of the Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement (OVPFA), were established as an opportunity for faculty to excel in these efforts. Past initiatives demonstrate how peer-led initiatives can build resilience, connection, and capacity. Explore them below.
We Invite Your Ideas
All full-time Columbia faculty, across all ranks and schools, are welcome to share ideas. Faculty interested in exploring an initiative are invited to send us a brief email at [email protected] outlining your ideas.
We welcome ideas for both pilot programming as well as panel discussions or small symposiums on topics relevant across faculty and schools.
While Faculty-Led Initiatives can take many forms; strong ideas should contribute to one or more of the following goals:
- Support the pedagogical, scholarly, and/or professional development needs of participating faculty
- Address unmet or emerging needs/ topics identified by faculty as relevant to scholarly advancement
- Consider how a pilot program or discussion/ symposium could be sustainably expanded in the future, if successful
OVPFA will review submissions on a rolling basis. For ideas that meet these goals and that are within the scope of our available resources, the OVPFA team will reach out to co-develop the idea and determine relevant administrative, budgetary, and other resource needs.
aiX Faculty Leadership Fellows Program
Led by: Tian Zheng, Provost Senior Leadership Fellow and Professor of Statistics, Faculty of Arts and Sciences
The aiX Faculty Leadership Fellows Program supports Columbia faculty in advancing innovative, cross-disciplinary approaches to AI education. Fellows collaborate to integrate artificial intelligence with their disciplinary expertise (“aiX”), develop and share teaching resources, and promote responsible, context-driven applications of AI. The program fosters a dynamic community of educators committed to shaping the future of AI learning across the University.
Professor Tian Zheng, a former Provost Leadership Fellow (2019–2021) and Ivy+ Provost Leadership Fellow (2022), is an applied statistician who develops statistical methods for analyzing complex data to address important questions across scientific disciplines. She has been recognized with major honors, including fellowships in ASA, IMS, and AAAS, as well as faculty distinctions at Columbia. She served as Chair of Columbia’s Department of Statistics (2019–2025), inaugural Chair of the Steering Committee of Curricular Governance in A&S (2023–2025), and Associate Director of the Data Science Institute (2017–2020), contributing to numerous initiatives that advance interdisciplinary research and education.
University-wide Faculty Writing Accountability Groups
Led by: Dustin T. Duncan, ScD, Associate Dean for Health Equity Research and Professor of Epidemiology, Mailman School of Public Health
This initiative aims to support faculty across all Columbia schools in developing sustainable writing practices, enhancing scholarly productivity, and fostering interdisciplinary connection and peer mentorship. The Faculty Writing Accountability Group (WAG) Initiative provides structured, peer-supported spaces designed to strengthen writing habits, accelerate research output, and cultivate a collaborative academic culture across the University.
Dr. Dustin T. Duncan is an internationally recognized social and spatial epidemiologist and serves as Associate Dean for Health Equity Research and Professor of Epidemiology at Columbia's Mailman School of Public Health. The first Black male tenured full professor in Columbia’s Department of Epidemiology, he leads NIH- and CDC-funded research examining how neighborhood environments and social networks shape health in Black and LGBTQ+ communities. His leadership is grounded in data, inclusion, and collaboration, and he has contributed to numerous university-wide initiatives advancing equity and research innovation. As founder of the Dustin Duncan Research Foundation and architect of the Health Equity Research Production Model, he champions health equity, leadership development, and community-driven scholarship that drive lasting impact.
CollegeWatch
Edited by: Michael Shapiro, Professor of Journalism, and Nushin Rashidian, Adjunct Assistant Professor of Journalism, Columbia Journalism School
American higher education is in the midst of a time unlike any other. CollegeWatch's mission is to report on what it means, why it began, and where it might lead. Each Tuesday, the newsletter offers a focused look at one story, providing both detailed reporting and broader context, as well as perspectives from those most directly impacted, with the goal to bring clarity and depth to a rapidly evolving landscape that remains vital to understand and document.
