The Center for Instructional Excellence is run by an advisory board made up of faculty,  student-facing staff, an office manager, and a part-time faculty director who reports to the Vice President for Educational Services. CIE helps to administer professional development funding and programming for full-time and adjunct faculty, administers faculty sabbaticals, and facilitates the Faculty Excellence Awards. CIE partners with Ed Tech in the Center for Teaching and Learning and also works with the NMC Library and the Professional Development Institute (staff PD).  View the CIE Handbook to learn more.

Meet the Board

CIE Activities

New Faculty Institute

New Faculty Institute includes orientation in August and monthly meetings for provisional faculty and new adjuncts.  Provisional faculty are required to attend monthly meetings for their first two years and are welcome in their third year. New adjunct faculty receive a stipend for attendance during their first three years.

New Faculty Institute meets on the second Friday of the month. Programs include meetings with support staff and faculty from around the college. We focus on the logistics of teaching at NMC and best practices for college instruction. 

Friday Forum

Faculty meet monthly for programming on topical issues at NMC and in higher education, usually on the first Friday. Faculty and staff present on a range of issues from study abroad to generative A.I. to teaching controversial topics. Provisional faculty are required to attend; adjunct faculty and staff are always welcome. CIE provides lunch. 

Friday Forums meet from 12:30-2 p.m. Fall 2025 meeting dates:

• September 5
• October 3rd
• November 7th
• December 5th
• February 6th
• March 6th
• April 3rd

Coffee Club

Held in the cozy Library Reading Room, these meetings provide a discussion format for timely topics facing faculty and staff at NMC. CIE provides coffee and donuts.

Meetings the following Fridays from 10 – 11 a.m.

• September 19th
• November 21st

Professional Development Days

The main professional development events of the year are three PD sessions required for all full-time faculty. Here are this year’s dates:

• AUG 20 – AI Literacy
• OCT 14 – October Conference
• JAN – TBD

CIE Books

Co-Intelligence: Living and Working with AI.  Something new entered our world in November 2022 — the first general purpose AI that could pass for a human and do the kinds of creative, innovative work that only humans could do previously. Wharton professor Ethan Mollick immediately understood what ChatGPT meant: after millions of years on our own, humans had developed a kind of co-intelligence that could augment, or even replace, human thinking. Through his writing, speaking, and teaching, Mollick has become one of the most prominent and provocative explainers of AI, focusing on the practical aspects of how these new tools for thought can transform our world.

See Janet Lively for a copy.

CIE Resource Library

CIE maintains a section of books and resources within the NMC Library for faculty use.  Browse the titles online.