- Laura L. B. Border
Graduate Teacher Program, Director
- PJ Bennett
MCD Biology, GTP, Co-President 
- Jessica Gorski
MCD Biology, GTP, Co-President - Michael Breed
Professor, Ecology and Evolutionary Biology
- Russ Moore
Associate Vice Chancellor for Research, Graduate School
- John Cumalat
Professor, Physics
- Valentine Roché
Graduate Student Career Services Program Coordinator
- Susan Beatty
Associate Dean, Arts and Sciences
Formed in 2003, the aim of PAC is to provide an environment for individuals in a postdoctoral position (be it research, teaching, or some other type of appointment) that fosters professional advancement through programming, support services, and networking opportunities.
Through these activities, we as postdocs at CU will be enabled to better define our roles in the university and community, allowing us to become successful educators, researchers, and professionals both within and outside of academia.
PAC's mission is to offer appropriate professional development, networking, and social activities to local postdoctoral fellows to enhance their experience in their current positions and to prepare them for academic and nonacademic job opportunities.
To that end, PAC offers a workshop series each fall and spring semester, collaborates with Career Services to expand job networking opportunities for postdoctoral fellows from any academic department or institute on the Boulder campus, as well as postdoctoral fellows working in the National Labs may access the web site and attend events.
PAC currently has a faculty advisory board, two co-presidents, and one National Lab liaison. We would like to expand our collaboration with the National Labs, establishing a liaison with each office. We would also like to develop postdoc representatives from each academic department and institute on the Boulder campus. They would head up a variety of PAC committees: career development, social functions, or international scholars, for instance.
Postdocs are neither students nor traditional tenure-track faculty members. Because postdocs fit into a unique position in academe, they are a unique group with unique needs.
For the purposes of our association, postdocs are employees who hold an earned doctoral degree from an accredited institution and who are not currently enrolled in classes for the purpose of pursuing a degree. Most postdocs are research fellows who are conducting research under the supervision of a CU faculty member or as part of a research group at one of our National Labs. Postdocs are hired under a variety of job titles.
The Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research and Dean of the Graduate School at the University of Colorado at Boulder placed supports for postdoctoral fellows under the Graduate Teacher Program in 2003. An initial postdoctoral fellow focus group requested that the university provide professional development to address postdoc's unique needs and positions, specifying a focus on training for faculty positions, specifying a focus on training for faculty positions as researchers, job search support, research team management techniques, and an introduction to nonacademic or alternative career paths for individuals who hold the doctorate. Because the Graduate Teacher Program offers extensive preparing future faculty activities and two certificates in teaching at the university level as well as a Professional Development Certificate for Business, Government, Industry, and the Arts, postdoctoral fellows were referred to the Graduate Teacher Program for training in teaching.
In 2004, CU Boulder joined a national survey effort on postdoctoral fellows led by Sigma XI. Survey data on the 50 institutions surveyed, as well as answers to the 17 questions posed locally to postdoctoral fellows in the Boulder area, underscored the need to provide professional development for both academic and nonacademic careers for postdoctoral fellows. In 2004, we created the Postdoctoral Association of Colorado (PAC) to give a public face to our support for postdocs in the Boulder area. Postdoctoral fellows at the University of Colorado at Boulder and in the National Labs are welcome to attend teacher training activities through the Graduate Teacher Program and to participate in all Postdoctoral Association of Colorado activities.
For further information, please contact
gtpPD@colorado.edu
