Planning leadership activities

I met this morning with Iris Shai, M.D., Ph.D. and her Ph.D. student Tal about my availability to do some leadership development with the science faculty.  Dr. Shai is very excited, and we discussed what would and would not be appropriate.  For example, a lot of the leadership work that I have done in the States was to prepare women faculty for administrative positions, such as department chairman, dean, etc.  But Israel has so few universities, that these opportunities are extremely unlikely, and unsought.  We talked about how almost all their faculty have had obligatory military experience which has given them intrinsic leadership training, in contrast to U.S. faculty.  But we found a lot of ground on which I can contribute.  They are very interested to know how Israeli faculty and post-docs are viewed in Europe and the States, and what behavioral things would be helpful for their international exchanges.  My big kablooey presentation will probably be in May, so that it can be put on everyone's (including the university president's) calendar.

Tal is going to teach me about the restaurant scene in Beer Sheva.  Learn by doing!