Lindsey Weiler (right) with her Campus Connections colleagues. From left to right: Toni Zimmerman, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Lise Youngblade, dean of the College of Health and Human Sciences, and Jen Krafchick, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.
For faculty members on the tenure-track in academia, hard work and creative, independent research help them achieve a significant goal: tenured status. For Lindsey Weiler, that goal is now a reality.
Weiler, the first graduate of Colorado State University’s Applied Developmental Science Ph.D. Program in the Department Human Development and Family Studies, has been promoted to associate professor with tenure at the Department of Family Social Science in the College of Education and Human Development at the University of Minnesota.
“I think I’m most excited about the opportunity to follow my research passions in new and fresh ways,” said Weiler, whose research focuses on developing and testing preventive interventions for youth and families. “It feels like I have some breathing room to get more creative in order to have greater impact.”
Tenure offers professors academic freedom and independence. A tenure-track professor is allowed to design their own research and concentrate on a specific subject. After completing a Ph.D., faculty are hired into tenure-track positions at the rank of assistant professor. Typically after a six-year period of research and publishing, they apply for tenure through a rigorous process that entails a review by their department, college, and the university. If their application is granted, they are promoted to associate professor with tenure.
Weiler graduated from CSU in 2013 and then completed a one-year postdoc at the University of Colorado School of Medicine. In 2014, Weiler was hired at the University of Minnesota as an assistant professor.
“I am incredibly proud of what I’ve been able to do thus far,” said Weiler. “Earning tenure is proof that I belong here.”
Training and mentorship at CSU
From left to right: Jen Krafchick, associate professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Toni Zimmerman, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies, Lindsey Weiler, first graduate of the Applied Developmental Science program, and Shelley Haddock, professor in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies.
Weiler attributes her success to the training and mentorship she received at Colorado State University. Alongside her coursework and training, she was invited to co-develop the Campus Connections intervention program. Since then, she has continued to collaborate with CSU faculty.
Campus Connections, a program in the Department of Human Development and Family Studies that provides youth with on-campus, after-school programming that includes mentoring, mental health therapy services, and learning experiences for CSU students, not only helped youth, but also Weiler.
“Her talent and intelligence quickly became apparent, and she soon joined our team in the development of Campus Connections Youth Mentoring,” said Jen Krafchick, director of Campus Connections. Weiler was Krafchick’s teaching assistant.
Weiler runs the Weiler Research Lab at the University of Minnesota, where she works to identify effective strategies for fostering healthy development among marginalized and vulnerable populations. Most of the lab’s work focuses on what she learned at Campus Connections, leveraging adult-youth mentoring relationships, and the alliance between caregivers and other caring adults to promote positive outcomes.
In 2018, Weiler won the Engagement Scholarship Consortium Excellence in Community Partner Community Engagement Award alongside her Campus Connections colleagues.
“Dr. Weiler is a brilliant scholar and has become a leader in the field of mentoring. Congratulations to Dr. Weiler on this important step in her career and all she has accomplished,” said Krafchick.
At Campus Connections, Weiler has felt like a valued team member. The confidence that faculty in Campus Connections placed in her played a large role in her success.
“During my time at CSU, I was never treated less-than,” said Weiler, a first-generation college student. “I fully needed and wholeheartedly appreciated the guidance I received by many at CSU.”
Throughout her graduate studies, Weiler was allowed to engage in applied research, teach independently, and serve the community through clinical work at the CSU Center for Family and Couple Therapy and Campus Connections.
“Dr. Weiler is an innovative, thoughtful, and engaged scholar. These qualities were clearly evident in her years as a graduate student, and have grown substantially in the early years of her career,” said Lise Youngblade, dean of the CSU College of Health and Human Sciences and former department head in Human Development and Family Studies. “She is a highly regarded scholar in the science of mentoring, and it has been a joy to watch her career unfold. Receiving tenure, along with her promotion to associate professor, is a singularly significant step in the academy, and I am truly delighted to congratulate her on this well-deserved recognition.”
The Department of Human Development and Family Studies is part of CSU’s College of Health and Human Sciences.
