Professional Development Corner July 2026

 

Contributed by Patty Marbury, Director of Training and Development, UVAFinance

Reminder: Remember to discuss all professional development opportunities with your manager prior to applying for any funds. See below for more information on the Education Benefit.

Why Is Professional Development Important?

Professional development offers a valuable opportunity to stay engaged and navigate the constantly changing landscape of Higher Education—and beyond. Whether you’re looking to learn new skills, sharpen existing ones, enhance your leadership abilities, explore new interests, stay on top of emerging trends, or simply connect with colleagues, there’s something for everyone.

Building Goals that Matter

As many of us begin setting goals for the coming year, it's easy to focus on project deadlines, deliverables, and day-to-day responsibilities. Those goals are important—but don't overlook your professional development goals. Investing in your own growth not only helps you succeed in your current role but also prepares you for new opportunities and challenges in the future.

When thinking about your goals, ask yourself:

• How can my professional development goals support my broader work goals?
• What challenge do I want to become better at handling?
• Is there a project or experience that would help me grow?
• What knowledge or skill have I been meaning to develop but haven't made time for?

Remember that professional development doesn't only happen in a classroom. Some of the most valuable learning comes from leading a project, collaborating with colleagues, seeking feedback, mentoring someone else, or taking on a new responsibility.

As you build your goals, start with what matters most. A well-chosen goal that's meaningful to you is far more valuable than a long list of goals that never move beyond paper.

And don't forget—growth happens one step at a time. Just as we talked about last month in Small Habits, Big Growth, meaningful development comes from small, consistent actions. Choose one goal, identify one next step, and keep building from there.

Professional Development Tip to Try this Month

Choose one of your work goals. Then identify one professional development goal that will help you achieve it. Finally, commit to one small step you can take in the next month.

Professional Development Opportunities

To help with your planning, following is information about a variety of workshops, courses, and resources to support your ongoing growth. While some opportunities are free and others may have a fee, many do not require travel. Please feel free to share other opportunities you come across and I’ll include them in future communications!

Coursera

Remember that we have access to Coursera, an online learning platform that offers a wide range of courses, specializations, certifications, and degree programs from universities and institutions around the world. UVA has a university-wide subscription for Coursera. Check it out and start learning!

Upcoming Offerings

Listed below are links to offerings that may be of interest – as we have done for the past couple of months, we’ll again focus on opportunities for which you can use your centrally-funded education benefit and are offered virtually, or in a few cases, locally, so there are no travel costs! (Remember, if you are requesting departmental funds, make sure you have approval before you register for or enroll in any offering.)

EDUCAUSE Events

What is EDUCAUSE? From their website: “EDUCAUSE is a nonprofit association whose mission is to lead the way, advancing the strategic use of technology and data to further the promise of higher education. We connect and empower our member community through insights, advocacy, resources, and learning opportunities to anticipate trends and strengthen professional practice.”

NACUBO*

Washington Updates

• June 29 Recording
• April 6 Recording

Conferences and Forums

• 2026 Planning, Budgeting, and Analytics Forum – October 5-7 in San Diego, CA (Coronado)
  • Virtual Option – October 5-7
• 2026 Tax Forum – October 25-27 in Indianapolis, IN

• Upcoming Programs – some sessions are free to NACUBO members, which we are, although you need an individual account.* Some also offer CPE credits.
• Recordings
• Self-Paced Courses and Microlearning
  • Strategic Higher Education Finance and Planning ($595)
  • F&A Short Form ($150)
  • Essentials of College and University Accounting ($125)
  • Facilities Management ($49)
  • Endowment Fundamentals ($49)
  • New to Higher Education ($49)

Podcasts

• Career Conversations
• NACUBO in Brief

*Individual NACUBO membership is free through UVA’s institutional membership. To join go to nacubo.org and click on “Login or Join”. From the Login box, click on “Don’t have an account” and fill out the form. In the “Primary Affiliate” field enter “University of Virginia” and select the appropriate affiliate.

SACUBO

• 2026 Fall Conference – November 11-13, Myrtle Beach, SC. Deadline for early bird registration is 9/30/26 ($685 for members); full registration deadline is 10/21/26 ($805 for members)
• 2027 Leadership Forum – Save the date! February 24-26, 2027, in Houston, TX
• 2027 Annual Convention – Save the date! April 4-6, 2027, in Atlanta, GA

EACUBO

• 2026 Annual Meeting – October 12-15, 2026, Buffalo, NY. Deadline for early registration is 7/31/26 ($810 for members); full registration deadline is 9/15/26 ($925 for members); late registration deadline is 10/12/26 ($1,070 for members.)

Additional Professional Organizations and Resources

The Chronicle of Higher Education

• Professional Development Programs
• Virtual Events (many are on-demand and/or free)

NCCI (Network for Change and Continuous Innovation)

NCCI positions higher education institutions to be agile, lifelong learning models to transform lives and communities around the world. All efforts of NCCI trace back to the goal of advancing sustainable excellence in higher education by promoting successful practices and approaches used to drive change, innovation, and continuous improvement across academic and administrative functions.

AGA

AGA is the association that connects and empowers professionals who support government, from financial management to IT, human resources, cybersecurity and more, to advance good government initiatives, grow their expertise and accelerate their careers. (Requires membership .)

LearnBFSI

Several interesting for-fee courses – note this company is in Australia.

UVA Organizations

• UVA Organizational Excellence has many learning opportunities, resources, and articles.
  • Subscribe to OE’s newsletter .
• UVA Miller Center always has interesting programs.
• UVA Human Resources offers many free programs and courses .
• Learning Tracks | UVA HR – HR offers three learning tracks: Aspiring Managers, New Managers, and Personal Growth (for individual contributors.) These are about a year-long commitment and require completion of an online form.
• LinkedIn Learning – Human Resources also has links to microlearning courses and to LinkedIn Learning. (Participating in these courses does not require submitting a Professional Development Request Form.)
• UVA Darden Executive Education – UVA staff get a 50% discount on the cost of registration for programs. Use the discount code UVA50 when registering. (The prices listed are for the full cost. Confirm the discount before registering!) See the Darden Executive Education program schedule for upcoming dates.
• UVA’s School of Continuing and Professional Studies (SCPS) offers many Certificate programs.

Other Institutions

• Harvard Business School Online offers multi-course credentials and certificate programs – many are less than $2,000.
• University of Pennsylvania Wharton School of Business online programs; many are $1,000 or less.
• Stanford University Executive Education

Education Benefit

Each year you have $2,000 of centrally funded education benefit for professional development or $5,250 to use for tuition toward a degree-seeking program. See UVA’s Education Benefits information for more information. (To be eligible for this benefit, you must have had six months of service in a benefits-eligible position at UVA by the start date of the class, with the intent to remain on the active payroll during the entire term of the class.)

Questions?

UVAFinance team members – if you have questions about Professional Development opportunities, please contact Patty Marbury, pam5w@virginia.edu .

Article on Leadership

The Top 20 Leadership Challenges —this informative article provides many links to other articles and resources. ( Center for Creative Leadership )

Please feel free to share other opportunities you come across and I’ll include them in future communications!

Professional Development Tip to Try this Month

Choose one of your work goals. Then identify one professional development goal that will help you achieve it. Finally, commit to one small step you can take in the next month.