Supporting Faculty Resilience: Department Chairs' Role in Community Building Amid Trauma

<i>In the face of increasing major emergencies, higher education administrators must strategically recalibrate institutional policies and leadership practices to enhance resilience. While contemporary scholarship underscores the pivotal role of leaders in fostering resilience, further evidence is needed to understand this relationship within higher education, and the impact of department chairs on faculty resilience remains underexplored. This phenomenological study utilized semi-structured interviews with full-time instructional faculty to explore faculty's lived experiences during recurring traumatic events, COVID-19 and Hurricane Ian, at a public university in Southwest Florida, achieving data saturation through the depth and richness of the interviews. Themes emerged through constant comparative thematic analysis, revealing the significant role of department chairs in fostering faculty resilience. Positive leadership support strengthened resilience and community cohesion, while inadequate support weakened the relationship between faculty and the institution, thus impacting the resilience of the faculty and organization. These themes underscore the need for academic leaders to develop strategies that bolster faculty support, positioning department chairs as central to fostering and cultivating resilience in higher education.</i>