Chapter 25: Distributed Leadership: A Structure for STEM Faculty Development Workshops

Distributed Leadership (DL) abandons the heroism of an individual leader, and instead, capitalizes on participants’ expertise and collaboration, implemented by an overlapping web of leaders and followers. DL structures provide opportunities for faculty to step into leadership roles according to their expertise, while organizers provide support. This chapter describes a DL-informed workshop and explores how it motivated faculty development. Responses to exit surveys were analyzed; salient themes were ownership, diversity, connections, and active learning. The DL structure reportedly “made space for all the expertise in the room,” and “diverse voices were amplified by sharing leadership.”