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In this 61st episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I share some early reflections on caregiving, grief, and academic life following the loss of my father this summer. I discuss the often-invisible labor of elder caregiving, the multiple pressures faculty can feel to remain productive and composed through profound loss, and why higher education needs to make more room for care, grief, and our full humanity. You can find the full written transcript along with other resources at RisewithClarity.com/61.  Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

This episode reflects on the narrow set of expectations that are often cast upon academics in higher ed. In North American institutions of higher ed, there are prescribed milestones set up for us, like landing a tenure track position and achieving tenure. In this encore episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I talk about the importance of being able to name and honor your personal milestones as well as your academic ones. Find the full transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/25 or RisewithClarity.com/60, along with all of my other podcast episodes and resources for women of color faculty. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

Are you a new professor who is beginning your first year on the tenure track this fall? If so, then this episode is just for you!  In this encore episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I reflect on the different components of the onboarding process for new faculty, and offer you 5 tips on how to manage some of the overwhelm that may come with this big transition.  Find the full written transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/59 (or RisewithClarity.com/41), along with all of my other podcast episodes and other resources for women of color faculty in higher education. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

What are your non-negotiables right now? In this moment of precarity and change in higher ed, faculty are being asked to rethink what they will and won’t compromise on. In Episode 58 of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I address the shifting political pressures facing the academy, especially for women of color faculty. I share 10 reflective questions to help you get clarity on what your non-negotiables are in relation to this changing work environment. You can find the full written transcript at RisewithClarity.com/58, along with all of my other podcast episodes and other resources for women of color faculty in higher education. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

In this 57th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I wanted to use this time to share with you a new program that I am launching later this summer as well as the reasons why I’m doing this.  The program is called “Writing Support for Faculty Caregivers,” and it’s a pilot group coaching program that I’m developing for faculty who are trying to make meaningful progress on a specific writing goal this summer, while also navigating elder caregiving duties. You can find the full written transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/57, along with all of my other podcast episodes and other resources for women of color faculty in higher education.   Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

What happens when you finally give yourself space to reflect on full circle moments and milestones--both personal and academic? In this episode, I share a meaningful full circle moment (returning to Harvard as a keynote speaker nearly two decades after organizing the same conference as a graduate student), alongside the milestone of turning 50. In this 56th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I talk about growth, change, and what becomes possible when you step out of the relentless academic grind to allow yourself to intentionally pause for reflection.  Find the full written transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/56, along with all of my other podcast episodes and other resources for women of color faculty in higher education. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

Mentoring and coaching aren’t mutually exclusive practices in the higher education environment. There’s actually a powerful middle space where they can overlap. In this 55th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I explore how academic mentoring and professional coaching can coexist, especially for faculty who seek both informed guidance and a nonjudgmental space to think, reflect, and plan their own next steps. For women of color faculty navigating promotion, writing, politics, and sustainability in higher ed, this blended approach can offer the best of both worlds: field-specific insight plus a non-directive, supportive thinking partnership. Find the full written transcript for this episode, along with other useful resources for women of color faculty at RisewithClarity.com/55. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

Do you need an academic mentor or a professional coach? Or both? Or asked another way, what kinds of support can you expect from a mentor vs. a coach when you are trying to reach your career goals? If you’re a little fuzzy on what some of the distinctions are between mentorship and coaching, then don’t worry, this episode is for you. In this 54th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I talk about mentoring and coaching within the context of higher education. In order to think through the question that I just posed, we actually need to parse out what some of the differences are between professional coaching and academic mentoring.  And in a future episode I want to think through some of the places where mentorship and coaching can also overlap. Hopefully this discussion will help you to decide which one—coach or mentor—may be most helpful for you at this stage of your academic career. Or maybe it will clarify for you that it would be great to have supportive mentors along with a supportive coach. Find the full written transcript at RisewithClarity.com/54, along with all of my other podcast episodes and other resources for women of color faculty in higher education. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

Are you in a toxic higher ed work environment? Should you stay or should you leave?  There’s no easy answer to these questions…especially if you have invested a lot of time and energy in landing a tenure track position in today’s higher ed job market.  Deciding whether to stay or leave entails a lot of reflection, some soul searching, the weighing of pros and cons, and if you do end up leaving--planning out your next moves. And unfortunately, this is often a decision that you can’t speak that openly about.  In this encore broadcast of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I discuss questions you may want to ask yourself if you want to leave your toxic work environment. I’ll be introducing the concept of “Change Talk” as a way to engage more concretely in your thinking and any next steps that you may want to take. Find the full transcript for this episode, along with other resources for women of color faculty at RisewithClarity.com/22 or RisewithClarity.com/53. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

For those of you who are at the midpoint of your academic careers: who are your mentors right now? Have you mostly stayed connected with your mentors or advisor from earlier on in your academic career? Or have you had to continually seek out mentors throughout job transitions and different stages of your career? I raise these questions because lately I’ve heard from a few mid-career women faculty that it has been challenging to find good mentors in the academy. And this isn’t for their lack of trying.  In this 52st episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast I reflect on what mentorship at the mid-career level may look like for you, and I offer you some questions that can help to clarify what kind of support you need, and who you may be able to ask for that support. You can find the full written transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/52, along with all of my other podcast episodes and other resources for women of color faculty. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

Professors: What kind of support systems do you have to lean on right now, in this current moment?  I think this is a really important question to ask yourself and to answer. In an earlier episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I shared some ways that you can better identify your support systems within and beyond higher education.  In that episode—which was number 40—I take you through a kind of brainstorming exercise so that you can better identify and articulate what types of support you may actually need and then I ask you to think of possible next steps to move towards getting that support. In this 51st episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I share with you several resources that some of you might not know about and that you may find helpful as you try to navigate the remainder of this already disruptive academic year. You can find the full written transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/51, along with all of my other podcast episodes and other resources for women of color faculty in higher education. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

In this 50th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, and the first one of 2026, I’m going to be reflecting on how I’m going to really try and lean into my word of the year, which is NOURISH.  There are a couple definitions for nourish: To provide with the food or nutrients that are necessary for life, health, well-being, and growth.To cherish or foster.To strengthen, build up, or promote.To keep a feeling or belief in one's mind (typically for a long time).I love that this word has different dimensions to it, and that it can be applied to other people, other living things, and to oneself. You can find the full written transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/50, along with all of my other podcast episodes and other resources for women of color faculty in higher ed. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

2025 has been a year of peak disruption for faculty in higher ed. It’s not surprising, then, that this year has spurred some of you to begin to consider what a Plan B, Plan C, and Plan D could look like for you. This episode is for those of you who are facing some pretty big decisions on the horizon—like whether to stay at your current institution, apply for jobs in different states, start a side hustle, or pivot out of higher ed completely. In this 49th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I want to acknowledge this moment of frustration, uncertainty, and fear. But I’d like to suggest that this can also be a moment of possibility for you. And I want to share a few questions that may help you as you reflect on what your next steps may be. You can find the full written transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/49, along with additional resources connected to this particular episode as well as other resources for women of color faculty. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

Does your research stop after you’ve left academia?  This is a question that I explore in the 48th episode of the Rise with Clarity Podcast. I offer some reflections on a few professional experiences that I've had this year as an author, a consultant, and as a speaker, and I think of the ways in which research has been embedded in these experiences even though I'm no longer in the academy. You can find the full written transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/48, along with all of my other podcast episodes and other helpful resources for women of color faculty in higher education. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.

Prior to starting your first job, how many of you were trained to lead an effective graduate seminar? Was your first experience with facilitating a graduate seminar during your first year on the tenure track? And do you remember how that went? In this encore broadcast of the Rise with Clarity Podcast, I’ll be talking about some of the challenges with leading graduate seminars for your first time. And I want to offer you some strategies on how to avoid over-preparing and stressing out about teaching your first graduate seminars. Find the full transcript for this episode at RisewithClarity.com/47 or RisewithClarity.com/14 as well as other resources and links to other podcast episodes for women of color faculty in higher education. Dr. Katherine Lee is a Higher Ed Coach and Career Strategist and a former tenured professor at an R1 university. She helps women of color faculty to manage the tenure track, navigate politics, and take the next steps to advance their careers. To find more resources or to work with Katherine, check out her website at: Rise with Clarity.