Academic leadership searches: evolving best practices

cademic leadership searches: evolving best practices (4453) Total Article Views Authors: Peter F Buckley, Donna Dauphinais, D Douglas Miller, et al Published Date July 2010 Volume 2010:2 Pages 61 - 67 DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.2147/JHL.S7848 Peter F Buckley1,2, Donna Dauphinais1, D Douglas Miller1, James V Rawson3, Geoffrey Young1,2, Nikia D Curd1 1School of Medicine, Dean’s Administrative Staff, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia;2Department of Psychiatry, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia;3Department of Radiology, Medical College of Georgia, Augusta, Georgia, USA Abstract: Conducting searches for new leadership at academic institutions is an important, often underappreciated, ongoing institutional commitment. Search committee recruitment strategies and processes have evolved to attain a higher level of consistency and equity in the recruitment of leadership. This trajectory toward ‘Best Practices’ is described herein. Institutional leaders are now exploring alternate models, including variants of centralization of the search process, to address the challenges found in the traditional academic search model. Also described is a unique approach – The Core Operations Administrative Team for Searches (C.O.A.T.S.) – which incorporates ‘Best Practices’ in academic searches, as well as building institutional ‘search capacity’.