Many of us either are asked to serve as chair of our department as a cyclical rotating chair or have made the decision to pursue the chair position on our own. Regardless of the path taken, it’s important to consider the professional and personal timing; reflecting desired goals, opportunities, and challenges.
Once the decision is made, it is time to make the transition between being a faculty member and being chair. There are many excellent resources on learning to be a chair. There is less, if any, information available for how to responsibly make the transition to chair and move from the inward view of one’s own research and teaching agenda to a more outward view of an entire department or college. Whether one remains as chair in the same department, college, or university in which one is already a faculty member, or if one moves institutions, many of the steps of the transition are similar.