Piloted in 2018, the Provost Fellows Program is designed to provide focused leadership and administrative experience for tenured faculty members. Nominations for 2026-2027 will be announced soon.
The Provost Fellows Program is designed to support strategic initiatives at the university level and develop leadership skills for tenured faculty. The program complements the University’s commitment to develop and mentor effective leaders by providing intense and focused experiences in leadership and administrative roles at the senior levels of the institution.
Fellows are involved in an issue of strategic importance to the university and become familiar with campus-wide academic initiatives, strategic planning, and shared governance. Fellows will assume leadership responsibility for a focused project that supports a strategic need of the university. They are provided opportunities to participate in leadership meetings and engage with colleagues in the Office of the Provost and other academic and administrative units.
The Office of the Provost will provide partial support for teaching release and/or other service or assigned duties during the appointment period. Fellows may be provided funding to continue their involvement during the summer and modest discretionary travel and/or professional development funds. The specific details will be negotiated between the Senior Vice Provost for Academic Affairs, unit head, and fellow. These resources can be used to fund activities on campus, to learn about organizational and academic leadership structures and processes at other institutions, to participate in formal mentoring opportunities, and/or to attend professional conferences.
2025-2026 Provost Fellow
Jason Ideker
Professor in the School of Civil & Construction Engineering and the 2025/2026 Provost Fellow
What is the best part about Oregon State University? In addition to being in Corvallis – the students! During sabbatical in 2023 I realized that I never complain or am grumpy about my students, either those I directly advise or those I teach. So, I’ve shifted my attitude as best I can to focus on them; I’m getting so much satisfaction from seeing them build their career paths.
What interested you in the role of Provost Fellow? To me, it was a rare opportunity to receive mentoring and leadership experience to complement the faculty role. The timeline and 0.5 FTE appointment were also really appealing. In the end, if I enjoy the work, I’ll look for opportunities to do more. If it turns out not the right fit for me – fine – I can rock out for nine months and go back to being a full-time Professor. I was able to start with a few hours a week this summer and that was an incredible onboarding experience. So far – I’m loving it!
What is the focus of your work as Provost Fellow? My first priority is collaborating with Alix Gitelman and Sara Daly on the P&T guidelines to promote alignment across faculty roles, especially where similar work—such as teaching—is being accomplished. I am also working towards enhancing clarity and consistency within the document, ensuring our policies support all faculty effectively and accurately. We are also in conversation with Faculty Senate to expand the P&T guidelines to include impacts of engaged scholarship and transdisciplinary work.
I’m also working with Ashley Holmes to deliver the New Academic Faculty Academy (NAFA) programming this year. We have a combination of in-person and hybrid events to provide resources for our new faculty to be successful as they start their roles. We’ll also have a few social events for networking, engagement and for answering those questions that don’t quite fit a particular programmed topic.
Finally, I’ll be working with Andrea Ballinger, as part of a committee to investigate the possibility of a new CRM for the university. We already have some very high expectations for what the ideal CRM should do for us – this will be tall order to be filled and an exciting challenge.
The P&T Guidelines website can sometimes be cumbersome to navigate and search (ok these were my own words) – can anything be done? Yes! I am leading the effort to redesign the P&T website to be more user friendly and to provide a clear entry and navigation point for all our faculty roles on campus. There will be some quick links to provide resources to better reflect innovation and entrepreneurship in the dossier and for units to include this in evaluation. While forms will still be embedded within the guidelines where appropriate, we’ll also have a quick link to a single page where you can access any forms or templates. We will also ensure accessibility of the new site.
You’re a Professor in Civil and Construction Engineering – what do you teach and research? Concrete! Concrete! Concrete! And several courses including the first year Transitions course for engineering students (ENGR 110) and an upper division slash class titled Green Building Materials (CCE 422/522).