Blog from Iselin Gambert, Director, Fundamentals of Lawyering Program; Professor, Fundamentals of Lawyering; Faculty Co-Director, Animal Legal Education Initiative
My participation in GWALA this year has been nothing short of life-changing. In order to explain why, some context is in order.
To say that I was overwhelmed when I stepped into the role of Interim Director of the then-nascent GW Law Fundamentals of Lawyering (FL) program in July 2020 is an understatement. Our program had launched the previous July after a major overhaul of the first-year law school curriculum and a frantic push to replace 40-something adjunct professors (who taught in our predecessor program) with eight full-time visiting faculty members, each of whom joined the FL program sight-unseen on a one-year contract for too little money and much too much work. When Covid set in in March 2020 and our entire world shifted online, we also faced the reality that our newly-assembled team would need to spend the next 1.5 years working remotely, reinventing the way we teach our highly interactive and still-new curriculum in relative isolation. On top of all that, in the Spring of 2020 the then-Director of FL unexpectedly announced her retirement, and my co-Associate Director announced a two-year leave of absence to work for the government. By the time I assumed the Interim Directorship in July 2020, the amount of uncertainty and instability surrounding the FL program—and the world in general—felt paralyzing.
Thankfully, with the support of our newly-installed Dean Dayna Matthew, the FL program had a number of important successes in those first couple of COVID years: we significantly increased the FL faculty salary, increased the number of FL faculty in order to reduce the student load to a manageable level, and successfully converted the visitor positions to permanent renewable contract positions—with voting rights—so that we could begin establishing much-needed stability in the FL program. I am proud of those accomplishments—and grateful to the Dean for supporting them—but it wasn’t until I took part in GWALA this past year that I felt like I was able to finally address some of the most important aspects of my role as the director of FL—namely working with my colleagues to develop a sense of community and taking steps to increase morale in light of the years of instability we have faced as a team.
My GWALA experience began at roughly the same time that the “Interim” was dropped from my title and I became the Director of the GW Law FL program. This was meaningful, because it meant that I was able to dive into the GWALA programming with the knowledge that I wasn’t merely a temporary place filler, but someone who was thinking about my role as a leader for the long term. Being introduced to a cohort of other leaders across the University was game-changing: before I met my GWALA cohort, I felt isolated in navigating the challenges of being a program director. Suddenly, I was surrounded by a diverse group of incredibly talented people who “got it”—it is impossible to overstate how validating that felt.
The sessions themselves were invaluable. Sometimes they were helpful because they reinforced already-established practices that I had developed on an ad hoc basis, and the sessions validated for me that my approaches were sound. Other times they offered completely new tools for tackling a particular challenge—some of which I have already implemented and many others that I look forward to trying in the months ahead. More than anything, the sessions were invaluable for the community space they offered between the GWALA participants: I looked forward each month to seeing my colleagues, getting into groups, and chatting about the issues of the day. I learned so much from every single person I spoke to—it will be sad to not have these monthly conversations into the future!
My GWALA project has been to work on improving the sense of community and cohesion within my FL faculty team. I am fortunate to have an incredible group of colleagues who are deeply dedicated not only to their students but also to the FL program and its success. While achieving optimal team cohesion in a world with busy schedules and Zoom meetings remains a work in progress, I am proud of the cohesion we have built together and have seen it strengthen over the last two semesters. Using GWALA’s many lessons, I have met individually with all 13 of my full-time colleagues this year and have gained invaluable insights into what makes them feel valued and what they wish would change about our program. We’ve also met several times in person as a team—including once for a holiday luncheon and once for a curricular brainstorming session that yielded a tremendous amount of new ideas and, I hope, helped reinforce for everyone that everybody’s voice matters and is an invaluable part of the FL team.
Looking ahead, I am excited to seek a “360” feedback assessment in the coming months so that I can continue to learn how I can adapt my leadership style to best support my colleagues’ professional development and continue advocating for them within the law school and broader university.
A few final words of gratitude for the GWALA team that made this year possible. Sara Melita is masterful at creating a lively, fun, safe, and inspiring place for GWALA members to gather and think critically about our roles as university leaders and to interrogate the ways in which we can make changes that will improve not only our colleagues’ lives but our own. Jeffrey Brand was also excellent at making us feel at ease, and Zachary Hawk kept the program running smoothly from largely behind the scenes. I know firsthand how much work, time, effort, and organizational skills are involved in running a program like GWALA, and being able to enjoy the fruits of Sara, Jeffrey, and Zachary’s labors was truly a gift—thank you. To Provost Chris Bracey and all of the guest speakers who joined us each month—your time and willingness to candidly share your wisdom with us was invaluable. Thank you. And to Dean Matthew for nominating me, thank you—this experience has been a gift that I will continue to benefit from long into the future.