The Teaching Professor Conference on Mental Health and Well-Being
Live: November 6, 2025 — On-Demand through February 6, 2026
Plenaries
Our plenary sessions feature leading voices sharing impactful insights on promoting mental health and wellbeing in higher education. From faculty wellness to building a culture of care, these keynote conversations are at the core of the conference experience.
Opening Plenary
The Joy of Teaching
Sarah Rose Cavanagh, Simmons University
Teaching is a vocation. When supported with resources and security, it is a constantly renewing source of excitement and richness. The last several years of disruption, uncertainty, and overburdened workloads have exhausted teachers and students alike. Monsters have reared their heads, and we have understandably shrunk from them. Faculty are burnt out—sacrificing their own mental health, phoning it in out of desperation, or leaving the profession entirely. Students are experiencing an epidemic of mental health problems, especially of anxiety. As instructors, we can support and encourage student mental health through pedagogies of care. A pedagogy of care involves high-touch practices like frequent communication, flexibility, inclusive teaching practices, learning new technologies and techniques, and being enthusiastic and passionate. All these practices involve both a heavy investment of time and a high degree of emotional labor. How can we support our students without burning ourselves out? How can we revive our sparks? In this plenary, Sarah Rose Cavanagh will present research and food for thought based on her recent book on how higher education should respond to both faculty depletion and the student mental health crisis.
Sarah Rose Cavanagh is the senior associate director for Teaching and Learning in the Center for Faculty Excellence at Simmons University, where she also teaches in the Psychology Department as an associate professor of practice. Before joining Simmons, she was a tenured associate professor of psychology and neuroscience at Assumption University, where she also served in the D’Amour Center for Teaching Excellence as associate director for Grants and Research. Cavanagh’s research considers the interplay of emotions, motivation, learning, and quality of life. Her most recent research project, funded by the National Science Foundation, convenes a network of scholars to develop teaching practices aimed at greater effectiveness and equity in undergraduate biology education. She is author of four books, including The Spark of Learning: Energizing the College Classroom with the Science of Emotion (2016) and Mind Over Monsters: Supporting Youth Mental Health with Compassionate Challenge (2023). She gives keynote addresses and workshops at a variety of colleges and regional conferences, blogs for Psychology Today and writes essays for venues like Literary Hub and The Chronicle of Higher Education.
Closing Plenary
Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Strategies for Connection and Vitality
Rebecca Pope-Ruark, Georgia Institute of Technology
Working and teaching in higher education can be challenging, especially in these uncertain times. How do we develop habits that help us not just survive but also thrive in today’s environment? In this keynote, we’ll explore what burnout is and how it might be impacting our work and teaching. Then, we’ll focus on how we can use the art of connection and the framework of faculty vitality to create environments where faculty, and students, can flourish.
Dr. Rebecca Pope-Ruark is the director of the Office of Faculty Professional Development at the Georgia Institute of Technology in Atlanta. A former tenured professor with 17 years experience teaching undergraduates, as well as an experienced facilitator and certified coach, she is the author of two books: Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal (Johns Hopkins University Press, 2022) and Agile Faculty: Practical Strategies for Managing Research, Service, and Teaching (University of Chicago Press, 2017). She is also the host of the agile academic, a podcast for women in higher education. Pope-Ruark coaches around the topics of faculty burnout, career development, compassionate leadership, and the day-to-day challenges and opportunities of being a faculty member or leader.