The mission of the PFF program is to expose graduate students and post-doctoral fellows to the diverse roles, responsibilities, and rewards of an academic career. In doing so it focuses particularly on the teaching and service roles sometimes not included in doctoral training. Fundamental research skills, such as grant writing, publishing, and academic job searching, are also addressed.

PFF is a national initiative sponsored by the Council of Graduate Schools and the Association of American Colleges & Universities and supported by numerous disciplinary organizations in the life sciences, math, computer science, the social sciences, health sciences, and humanities. PFF involves providing graduate students with information and experiences relevant to academic careers in their field. Each semester, talks and workshops are offered related to the skills required to build a successful academic career.

PFF also awards a Preparing Future Faculty Certificate to students who document completion of a certain number of activities related to preparing for an academic career. Information about and recordings of previous PFF events are provided on the Recordings of Previous PFF Events Page.  Deadlines for PFF Certificate applications are generally the first Mondays in December (for the Fall semester) and May (for the Spring semester).  The application deadlines may change depending on the semester structure.

The PFF program also offers resources for graduate students entering the academic job market on the Academic Job Search Resource Page.

Two PFF events are offered every Fall and Spring semesters. All events are held on Fridays from noon until 2:00 pm. These events are also available online via WebEx (access the WebEx meeting here: http://vs.odu.edu/kvs/interface/?cid=201510_PreparingFutureFacultyVS_94013). Graduate students, post doctoral scholars, and faculty from all ODU departments and affiliated universities are welcome to attend. No registration is necessary.

Any questions should be directed to:
Wie Yusuf
Co-Chair, Career Pathways Steering Committee
School of Public Service
Strome College of Business
jyusuf@odu.edu