Dr. Gabriela Marin Thornton, an instructional associate professor of international affairs at the Bush School of Government and Public Service, has assumed the presidency of the Texas A&M Women’s Faculty Network (WFN), the campus organization committed to encouraging and promoting the professional development of women faculty. WFN uses both formal programming and informal networking to assist women faculty and also sponsors professional development opportunities, addressing such issues as research, teaching, and retention of women faculty.
“The WFN sponsors and supports a range of educational, social, and mentoring activities for women faculty,” said Thornton. “We’re also engaged in recruiting and retaining women faculty at the University as well as creating opportunities for contact and communication among women faculty at Texas A&M,” she said.
Dr. Thornton joined the WFN Steering Committee in 2012, representing the Bush School. The committee coordinates the year’s program of meetings and activities, including the mentoring program. Each year the WFN presents an outstanding mentoring award to a female faculty member who has shown special diligence in mentoring women faculty across the campus. As a member of the Steering Committee and as the secretary of the organization, Dr. Thornton was the organizer and co-organizer of several WFN campus-wide coffee talks and luncheons in 2013, which celebrated fifty years of contributions by women at Texas A&M.
“The purpose of mentoring meetings, coffee talks, and luncheons is to educate and mentor Texas A&M women faculty as well as to promote and celebrate their outstanding accomplishments,” said Thornton. “I’m looking forward to this new challenge and will work tirelessly to further the objectives of the Women’s Faculty Network.”
