Executive Summary Supplemental Guidance

No appendices to the Executive Summary (ES) will be accepted.  

The ES is a valuable tool to explain, clarify and expand on items listed in the CV. While your CV provides a list of what you have objectively accomplished, the ES allows you to narrate your research, clinical, educational, other scholarly, and administrative leadership activities and highlight your achievements. Through the ES, you can identify and articulate the central themes of your career’s work, and the local, national and international impact of your work within those themes. The ES should clearly communicate the accomplishments, contributions, and career outcomes that make you unique and promotable. Describe your themes so they express the specific nature of your expertise. Consider that faculty in other disciplines need to understand your work. 

Go to Appointment and Promotions Guidelines PDF for information as to what specific elements to include in an Executive Summary according to the academic pathway.

Work closely with your chair, division chief, and mentors to develop your ES and assure that it is organized, clear, and strongly stated. The ES should be no more than 3 to 5 pages. The ES should be in narrative form and not an outline of bullet points. Information in the ES must match the details listed within your CV, for example, dates, teaching activities, number of publications, grants, service memberships, etc.     

General organization of the ES

The typical Executive Summary will have an Introduction that is followed by 6 main categories (as applicable to a particular faculty member's work and accomplishments) including: 1) Education and Training, 2) Research and Scholarly Achievements, 3) Academic and Clinical Activities, 4) Teaching and Mentorship, 5) Service and Administrative Activities, and 6) Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) Activities.     Within each category, information should be provided to document a faculty member's accomplishments, contributions, and career progression.

The Introduction should state your academic pathway (Clinician-Educator, Clinician-Investigator, Clinician-Leader or Investigator-Educator), the rank to which you are being proposed for promotion, and your tenure or appointment stream status. Briefly state the themes of your work that will be later explained in detail within the body of the ES. A strong Summary Statement can conclude your ES.

Formatting the ES

  • Write the ES in the third person.
  • Organize the document into sections as noted above. Use consistent headings and formatting throughout. 
  • Include your name and page number in the header or footer of the document.
  • Use 11 or 12-point font in the narrative.
  • Limit the ES to no more than 3 – 5 pages.

Additional guidance for Clinician-Leader, Clinician-Educator, or Clinician-Investigator Pathway

If program development, leadership, or administration is a significant theme, consider including the following. For projects, programs, initiatives, and other major undertakings in which you played a significant role in creation, development, implementation, and evaluation include: clear goals, adequate preparation, appropriate methods, significant results, effective presentation, and reflective critique. 

  • Describe the importance, innovation, and value of the programs you have developed and led. Include information about the IMPACT of your work in terms of increment in patient volume, access to services, quality of care, value to the institution, dissemination of your work.
  • For new programs that you developed, describe the situation before you started the project, describe the methods and rationale for your approach to solving any problems and describe the results (may include data that comes from the overall achievements of the division and the department, e.g., personal clinical productivity, facilitated protected time for other faculty of the division in such a way that the divisional research funding base has increased).  Consider including a reflective critique in which you describe how your work has been evaluated and what can be done to increase its impact in the future. 
  • Provide evidence of local, regional, or national recognition of the clinical program and your expertise.

Faculty members being proposed for promotion in the Clinician-Educator pathway should expand upon themes that reflect teaching and education, particularly to emphasize educational curriculum, program development, and/or leadership.  Consider including some or all of the following:

  • Describe the importance, creativity, innovation, and impact of the most important TEACHING activities included in your CV.
  • Describe the importance, creativity, innovation, and impact of the most important CURRICULUM DEVELOPMENT activities included in your CV.
  • Describe your depth of involvement and the impact of your MENTORING activity.
  • Describe the most important EDUCATIONAL LEADERSHIP activities, including their impact as well as evidence of a scholarly approach to the task/role, your depth of involvement, and any evaluation of your role by others.
  • Include a brief paragraph describing the IMPACT of your work on your learners, the field in which you work, patients, and families.  Include information about how your work has been evaluated but do not include teaching evaluation documents or learner comments in your ES.

Faculty members being proposed for promotion in the Clinician-Investigator or Investigator-Educator pathways should expand upon the theme(s) of their research. Consider including the following:

  • Describe the focus of your research and why this is an important or significant area of research.
  • Describe how your research has impacted the field or the outcome of interest.
  • Describe any novel or innovative approaches (including patents or other innovations).
  • Describe dissemination efforts of your research efforts (presentations at meetings, symposia, publications, invited speaker).
  • Describe your involvement and impact of your mentoring efforts in research and career advancement including work with students, residents, fellows, PhD students, postdocs, junior faculty.
  • Describe how you have incorporated your research into your teaching efforts (courses, lectures, book chapters) and how to have these impacted learners.
  • Describe your leadership activities – committees or work with societies/professional organizations locally, nationally, or internationally

 

Amended 4/12/2022

 

Approved by UPSOM Executive Committee of the Faculty 3/13/18