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PTK Women in Leadership (WPTK)

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Who Should Participate in WPTK?

  • All full-time women professional track faculty members and APTF alumni are eligible to participate. This includes instructional faculty, research scientists, faculty specialists, and postdocs. If you think you may be eligible, please ask!
  • Benefits of participating in WPTK:
    • Understand leadership strengths and values.
    • Contextualize PTK leadership roles and pathways.
    • Create individualized leadership action plans.
    • Build connections in a non-competitive, fun, and empowerment-focused community.
Dr. Sylvette La Touche-Howard

Dr. Sylvette La Touche-Howard is Associate Clinical Professor, Program Coordinator for the BS-MPH Accelerated Degree Program. Her passion lies in proactively working with individuals and communities to bridge behavioral health, research and social impact to create a sustainable and equitable future. She teaches SPHL100 and 600 and serves as the Program Coordinator for the signature SPH Accelerated BS-MPH/MHA program. Dr. L-H serves as a liaison between the School and the local county health department working on policy, systems and environmental change initiatives.

headshot of Sylvette La Touche-Howard

How APTF Works

  • The professional community will meet three times each semester.
  • We ask that participants commit to attending at least 80% of the monthly meetings to receive the full benefits of the program. 
  • Meeting Dates:
  •          Fall 2023: 9/15, 12 - 2 pm; 10/13, 12 - 2 pm; 11/10, 12 - 2 pm.
  •          Spring 2024: 2/16, 12 - 2 pm; 4/19, 12 - 2 pm; 5/3, 12- 2 pm.

PTK Women in Leadership (WPTK) is a year-long peer network designed for professional track faculty who identify as women. Dr. Sylvette La-Touche Howard and Dr. Dawn Culpepper serve as facilitators. 

This year-long peer network (3 meetings per semester with optional meetings between) will focus on enhancing the leadership skills and efficacy of women professional track faculty at UMD. Through interactive skill-building sessions and exercises, group and panel discussion, and group mentoring, participants will generate an understanding of what it means to be a leader in today’s academic environment and the skills that can be leveraged to pursue leadership roles.

The 2023-2024 PTK Women in Leadership Registration has been closed. 

Dr. Dawn Kiyoe Culpepper is the Associate Director of ADVANCE for the Inclusive Excellence Program & Research Assistant Professor. She leads faculty development programs, education and training initiatives, and research related to creating a more diverse and inclusive academic workplace. Her research broadly examines equity, diversity, and inclusion in the academic workplace, with an emphasis on identifying strategies and disrupting practices that limit full participation for women and scholars from racially minoritized groups.

Dr. Dawn Kiyoe Culpepper
head of Dawn