Banishing Burnout, Flourishing as Faculty: A CFD Signature Series

Academic burnout is defined widely as a negative emotional, physical and mental reaction to prolonged study that results in exhaustion, frustration, lack of motivation, and reduced ability. It affects teaching and research faculty, staff, researchers, administrative professional faculty, adjuncts, and of course students.

Burnout is the culmination of long hours of continuous study and multitasking between numerous academic responsibilities while trying to maintain a personal life. It is complicated by other academic stressors like tenure and promotion, or for career faculty, the pursuit of advancement. (See ).

Institutions contribute to burnout. As universities demand more productivity, research and teaching excellence, and service commitments, many academic professionals are being stretched beyond their limits, and they feel overwhelmed. Over the last several decades, many scholars argue, universities have become corporate entities, and capitalistic systems exploit their workforces contributing directly to burnout. With tight budgets, declining enrollments, and reduced federal funding, universities will continue to ask faculty to do more with less.

Burnout in a relatively new term and only officially recognized in 2019 by the  (WHO) as an occupational phenomenon and was added to their International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Burnout was amplified during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Burnout Symptoms are greater than just feeling tired. Burnout can cause total energy depletion, psychosomatic problems, and depression. It can make academics feel like they can’t catch up. It can drain energy and cause sufferers to become angry, edgy, and pessimistic. It can lead to avoidance and social isolation. Burnout makes it harder to sleep and so getting anything done can become challenging. (See .)

During the fall of 2025, the Center for Faculty Development hosted a burnout series that was developed after two CFD surveys identified it as a major faculty concern and after holding several ZOOM conversations with faculty in the spring of 2025. Provost’s Fellow for Faculty Development Dr. Jay O’Toole helped CFD Director Annette Finley-Croswhite organize and lead many of these sessions. Early in the semester, several events were held  for faculty to talk about burnout, engage in storytelling, and express their frustrations. Panel discussions followed. The first panel included Drs. Andrew Bennett, Associate Professor, Management, Judith Preston, Clinical Assistant Professor, Counseling and Human Services, and Jason Saltmarsh, Assistant Professor, Educational Leadership and Workforce Development. A second panel followed with Drs. Konstantin Cigularov, Associate Professor, Psychology, Mallory McCord, Assistant Professor, Psychology, and Marciana Szklo-Coxe, Associate Professor, Epidemiology, Biostatistics, and Environmental Health. The panels created spaces for exploring understanding of burnout and considering mitigations. Both panels can be visited again on the CFD website main page. Later in the semester Dr. Brynn Sheehan, Associate Professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and the Director of the Research and Infrastructure Service Enterprise (RISE) in the Macon & Joan Brock Virginia Health Sciences at Old Dominion 91����Ƶ, held a workshop entitled “Mindful Communities: Integrating Mental Health Strategies for Sustainable Wellness.” To allow faculty a “safe space,” this workshop was not recorded; however, Dr. Sheehan gave the audience myriad interventions, not the least of which was an exercise tracking how often we grab for our phones. She also emphasized building daily wellness habits such as 1) Considering gratitude and writing about positive aspects each day; 2) Helping others as a means of doing good and increasing positive emotions; 3) Pairing less enjoyable tasks with pleasurable ones; and 4) Connecting with others, moving away from social isolation and establishing community.  All our panelists emphasized the importance of human connection as a significant intervention to combat burnout.  

These formal panel discussions and dedicated workshops were enhanced with other conversations that occurred during the CFD Days of Teaching and the Academic Affairs Vitality Days events. Open-Writes offered faculty time to block off their calendars for group writing, hopefully easing the stress of carving out time to research and write. Professor of Psychology, Dr. Kristin Heron helped the CFD facilitate these open write events and led several sessions.

The CFD burnout series ended this semester with a book read of Rebecca Pope-Ruark’s. Unraveling Faculty Burnout: Pathways to Reckoning and Renewal. A review of the book is on the CFD website along with an annotated bibliography of scholarship on burnout. The best part of the book read was that Associate Provost for Undergraduate Education Dr. Amy Johnson arranged for Dr. Pope-Ruark to attend our final book read session. In this discussion Pope-Ruark emphasized the importance of campus leaders owning the issue of burn out, organizing more conversations about it, and identifying where it is and is not occurring on our own campus. In the end, universities need to cultivate wellbeing as a strategic priority, build a language around it, and find ways to mitigate it.

While this year’s CFD series has concluded, you are encouraged to participate in the wellbeing series Dr. Shanda Jenkins is offering through the Office of Faculty Recruitment and Retention. The more we discuss burnout the more we work to de-stigmatize it. The more we focus on wellbeing, the more we increase the chances for faculty happiness and success.