Staff & Professionals - Policies, Governance & Professional Development

W&M Opportunities & Resources

W&M Human Resources – Talent Development offers courses, tools and trainings to help you meet your goals in areas such as leadership, communication, and personnel hiring and management.   Leadership training is available for all levels of experience.  Other trainings and workshops such as Employee Relations 101, Revitalizing Your Resilience, Creating Desktop Procedures Workshop and Enhancing Your Presentation Skills broaden the scope of offerings. Check the Learning Opportunities page for more details.  Many of the programs are offered on the Williamsburg campus, but with enough interest, some of them can be brought to VIMS.  Contact the Assistant Director for Administration in the Office of the Dean & Director, for more information.

As a member of the W&M Community, you also have access to LinkedIn Learning in Cornerstone, the online learning management system for faculty and staff. Topics cover a range of business, creative and technical topics, from leadership “soft skills” to design principles to programming. 

W&M Diversity & Inclusion celebrates inclusive excellence champions and supports professional development through a Lunch & Learn series, IDEA grants, Cornerstone Learning and an Annual Diversity & Inclusion Symposium.

The Studio for Teaching & Learning Innovation (STLI) provides resources and teaching-related professional development opportunities.  They also offer one-on-one consultations.

The Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI) provides W&M compliance committee members (IACUC, PHSC, and IBC, RAD), principal investigators, students, and staff with on-line trainings that document compliance with various federal mandates.  For more information on how to access the correct training modules for VIMS employees, visit Research Support.

VIMS Opportunities & Resources

Through this portal, VIMS provides guidance and resources to support work across Research, Advisory Service, and Academic, Teaching & Student-Advising.

Information on promotion pathways and job families at VIMS is provided by VIMS Human Resources (intranet).

VIMS staff are regularly invited to participate in professional, skill-building, and other workshops or trainings hosted at VIMS or W&M.  Examples of recent offerings include a GIS and Remote Sensing Workshop Series and a Sharing Science through Social Media Workshop.  Keep an eye on your email and the W&M Digest for information about these opportunities as they arise. 

The VIMS Diversity & Inclusion Committee (known as Dive-In) offers trainings and hosts events that are open to faculty, staff and students. Watch email for announcements.

VIMS Professional & Staff Development Fund

VIMS professionals and staff have access to funding for professional development through the Professional and Staff Development Fund (intranet).  An application is required.  Announcements are made via VIMS e-mail and applications are due in the summer.  Visit the VIMS PPF Council webpage (intranet) for details.

Here are some examples of external professional development opportunities VIMS staff have pursued with support from this fund:

Atlantic Estuarine Research (AERS)  Society Meeting
Course in R Graphics
Crystal Reports Online Boot Camp 
ESRI International Developer Summit
LANDesk Systems & Security Management Boot Camp
Marine Aquarium Conference of North America
Marine Systems Certification MS 400
Mid-Atlantic Education Assoc Conference
MSCE Certification Exams plus training review program
Primer (statistical software) workshop
SETAC Annual Meeting
Statistical Analysis of Real-time PCR Data
VA  Association Science Teachers  Annual Professional Institute
VA Contracting Association Officer Certification Program - registration costs

External Resources (Science-focused)

Professional scientific societies offer a broad range of professional development opportunities.  If you haven't already tapped into these resources, check out the list of opportunities we compiled for graduate students.

Making the Right Moves (pdf) is an older publication, but it remains a valuable resource for early career faculty, postdoctoral and professional scientists. 

W&M Awards & Opportunities

Quick links: W&M Awards & Opportunities; Duke & Aceto Awards; Inclusive Excellence Champions

VIMS Awards

The VIMS community gathers in May every year to recognize and honor exemplary performance by faculty, staff, and students during the previous calendar year.  Learn more about how we celebrate service and excellence at VIMS.