Towards a Professional Development Vision for the Sea Grant Network
Sarah KolesarPlaza
The session will open with a brief presentation of work by the Ad Hoc Professional Development (PD) Group to date and an overview of the draft “Sea Grant Network PD Framework” that the group has developed. The overview will highlight existing models of Sea Grant PD (e.g., academy, national virtual, regional in-person and virtual) and results from network PD surveys that have informed development of the framework. Following the overview, participants will engage in small group breakout sessions to provide feedback and further develop the various PD tracts in the Framework - new-to-SG, mid-career, leadership, topical. Participants will reconvene after the breakouts to report out and engage in a facilitated group discussion to identify elements of the PD Framework in need of future funding support and develop strategies for obtaining such support. The outcome of this session will be a draft PD framework (or vision) that will guide future requests and programming. The Sea Grant Ad Hoc PD group members represent all 6 SG functional networks and SGA leadership elements (communications, education, extension, fiscal, legal, research/fellowships, Networks Advisory Council [NAC] and Program Mission Committee [PMC]) and has met approximately monthly over the past two years. All are welcome to participate in the session and the Ad Hoc SG PD group is open to new members. Some PD priority topics that have emerged include: Mentoring Non-Advocacy Work / Life Balance and Wellness Accessibility / Compliance of Sea Grant material Administrative elements of Sea Grant (i.e. Omnibus preparation) Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Justice, Accessibility (DEIJA) and Traditional and Local Knowledge (TLK).