Your Next Act Can Be Your Best One!
"We turn not older with years, but newer every day." – Emily Dickinson
Late-career faculty and seasoned leaders carry the wisdom, memory, and institutional storyline of academic pharmacy. Yet this stage also brings a unique tension: How do you honor what you’ve built while preparing for what’s next?
Whether you’re stepping out of a leadership role, considering retirement transitions, embarking on a passion project, or simply reshaping your identity beyond full-time academic life, this chapter is not an ending.
It’s a reinvention. Your Career Compass shifts again— focusing on purpose, legacy, meaningful contributions, and choice.
Here are three ways late-career faculty can move forward with purpose, influence, and momentum:
1. Rediscover Who You Are Without the Title
Key Idea: Identity often becomes intertwined with roles— chair, director, coordinator, dean. But stepping out of leadership invites a deeper question: Who am I when the role changes?
Try This:
Identify the strengths, values, and contributions that remain constant— regardless of position.
Reflect on the parts of your work you want to take with you and those you’re ready to release.
Redefine success in this chapter: mentorship, scholarship, consulting, teaching, and/or personal growth.
Example:
A department chair transitions back to faculty and realizes they deeply enjoy mentoring emerging leaders. They craft a plan on leadership development scholarship and serve as a coach for rising faculty— reinvention that aligns with purpose.
2. Build a Blueprint for Legacy.
Key Idea: Legacy isn’t the work you did— it’s the people you influenced along the way. Late-career faculty have unparalleled opportunity to shape culture, expand capacity, and elevate the next generation..
Try This:
Document key processes, insights, and decision frameworks for those stepping into your role.
Mentor two early career faculty members with intention.
Share your professional story— lessons learned.
Example:
A longtime department chair creates a “Clinical Partnership Playbook” for new faculty, transforming decades of tacit knowledge into a resource that strengthens the entire program.
3. Prepare for What’s Next (Even If You’re Not Ready to Name it Yet)
Key Idea: The most successful transitions happen long. before the moment of transition. Readiness— financial, emotional, professional— creates options.
Try This:
Identify 2-3 possible next-chapter roles: adjunct teaching, consulting, scholarship, community service, or part-time clinical practice.
Build one micro-habit that supports your chosen direction (writing, networking, skill sharpening).
Have “future conversations” with colleagues who have transitioned well.
Example:
A longtime pharmacy practice faculty member begins moonlighting in community outreach programs— they discover a renewed passion for public health education, forming the basis for their post-retirement portfolio.
Final Thoughts:
Late-career isn’t a winding down. It’s a widening out. Clarity helps you see the possibilities. Direction helps you choose your path and readiness helps you step into it with confidence. You are not closing a chapter— you are opening the one only experience could prepare you to write.
Next Steps to Transition Your Career Compass:
Looking to bring clarity, direction, and momentum to your academic pharmacy career? EduLead-Rx offers individualized leadership coaching and consulting to late-career faculty and leaders to design meaningful transitions, refine professional identity, and shape legacy with intention.
#AcademicPharmacy, #PharmacyLeadership, #FacultyDevelopment, #EduLeadRx, #PharmacyEducation, #ProfessionalCoaching, #ExecutiveCoaching