A great place to start for general questions related to appointments and promotions is the UW School of Medicine faculty appointments and promotions guide. More resources are also available at the bottom of this page including teaching portfolio advice, example peer evaluations, and CV format.
Please note, each department has different processes and requirements for promotions. You may view department criteria here. Please contact your department or division administrator for additional information regarding appointments and promotions for your individual path.
2025-2026 Promotions Workshops
Click the name of each workshop to register
Sept 24 | 9-11am Preparing for Your Promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor
Nov 19 | 9-11am Mid-Career Faculty: You Got Promoted to Associate Professor, Now What?
Jan 27 | 9-11am Creating Your CV – How to Highlight All You Do
Feb 25 | 8:30-11am Thinking of Retirement? What You Need to Know!
Mar 17 | 9-11am Creating Your Teaching Portfolio for Promotion: 2025 Teaching Portfolio Guidelines
Apr 8 | 9-11am Preparing for Your Promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor
Past Promotions Workshops
Click each workshop for recording and materials
Preparing for Your Promotion from Assistant to Associate Professor
Past workshop recording and materials
Slides from Sept 24, 2025 workshop by Sahar Rooholamini, MD, MPH and Sarah Prager, MD, MAS
You may view the recording of this workshop here.
Mid-Career Faculty: You Got Promoted to Associate Professor, Now What?
Past workshop recording and materials
An Overview of the A&P Process at the UW SoM by Sarah Prager, MD, MAS
The Path to Professor by Sahar Rooholamini, MD, MPH
Leveraging your time as an associate professor to meet your goals! by Sherilyn Smith, MD, ACC
You may view the recording of this workshop here.
Creating your CV - How to Highlight All You Do
Past workshop recording and materials
Sample CV
CV Frequently Asked Questions
You may view the recording of this workshop here.
Assistant Professor Timeline / Years 1-6
Years 1-2
Appointed as Assistant Professor (initial 3-year term with 3-year renewal)
- Identify mentorship
- Establish primary mentor(s) and establish meeting schedule
- Consider convening Mentoring Committee on an annual basis
- Write an individual development plan (IDP)
- Begin to develop local/regional reputation in research, clinical care or education
- Maintain CV in UW SOM format and update regularly
- Review teaching portfolio requirements
- Develop system to keep track of:
- Speaking engagements/ invited talks
- Evaluations of teaching, mentoring and administrative leadership roles
- Mentoring of trainees
Year 3
Reappointment to Assistant Professor at 3 years in rank
- Working towards independent funding (R01 or equivalent)
- Add to peer-reviewed publications
Years 4-6
Preparing for promotion: Typically not before 4 years in rank. Promotion is mandatory in year 6.
- Confirm components of promotion package and individual responsible for obtaining each item (e.g., self, division head/ department chair, staff)
- Create teaching portfolio (if appropriate)
- Identify individuals both internal and external to the UW to write letters of support
- Steps toward promotion: Timeline varies depending on size and structure of your department. The entire process may take up to 18 months.
- Division faculty vote (in some departments)
- Department faculty vote
- School of Medicine committee vote
- Provost approval
Associate and Professor / Variable Time Frame
Promotion to Associate Professor
- Consider continuation of Mentoring Committee – evaluate and update membership to reflect new status
- Work on establishing regional/ national reputation:
Study section
Invited talks
Editorial boards
Roles in national societies (e.g., committees, leadership roles) - Establish independence as an investigator
- Become a mentor
- Continue to publish with goal of moving from first to senior author
Promotion to Professor
- Continue to expand national/ international reputation:
Study section
Invited talks
Editorial boards
Roles in national societies (e.g., committees, leadership roles) - Build leadership skills and take on new leadership roles
- Expand mentoring and expand mentor role(s)
- Continue to publish/ promote independence of mentees
Additional Promotions Resources
Below are additional resources for updating your CV, department-specific formats and promotions criteria, and peer evaluations.
CV – School of Medicine Format
For information on creating and editing your CV as well as a template for your self-assessment, see the format guidelines below.
Here is the most recent CV format: UW School of Medicine CV format and here is the CV format for courtesy faculty.
The Department of Medicine uses an Augmented CV format. Please check with your department for specific formats.
Teaching Portfolio
Learn about the UW School of Medicine 2025 Teaching Portfolio Guidelines in the teaching portfolio page here.
Self-Assessment
A self-assessment is required for promotion, in addition to your CV.
Here is a template for creating your self-assessment. Your self-assessment should focus on areas that are not adequately explained in your current CV. It is also a place to explain less traditional contributions, any situations you encountered that have made progress difficult and your improvement and growth over time.
Sample Evaluation Tools
Evaluations are an important component of the promotions process for faculty. Here are some evaluation forms from the Department of Medicine to consider as you complete your evaluations:
Administrative Leadership Evaluation
Clinical Peer Evaluation
Research Mentor Evaluation
Teaching Peer Evaluation
Individual Development Plan (IDP)
Some departments use a structured approach to crafting an individual development plan (IDP). Below are sample templates from the Department of Medicine and Department of Global Health.
Faculty Appointments & Promotions Guide and Faculty Code
Faculty appointments and promotions, timelines, criteria, pathways, and more can be found in the A&P Guide.
In addition to the A&P guide, you may reference this table for promotion details about all of the faculty tracks and ranks.
For promotion guidelines specific to your department, we encourage you to visit this page.
Section 24-54 of the Faculty Code details procedure for promotions in the School of Medicine.
For Department Administrators looking for more information, please see the Academic Appointments and Compensation site (NetID Protected).
Department Promotions Criteria
Many of the resources you will need to get promoted are specific to your School of Medicine department. Please spend some time reviewing the criteria for your department at this page.
We offer general promotion workshops for those going from assistant to associate professor, as well as associate to full professor, but these events do not cover information specific to individual departments.
Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure (APT) Toolkit
This Appointment, Promotion, and Tenure (APT) Toolkit is designed to aid early-career faculty, department chairs, and APT committees in recognizing supporting, and rewarding interdisciplinary research and collaboration at the University of Washington, specifically across the Health Science Schools and the College of Engineering. The APT Toolkit provides strategies, templates, and exemplars, including:
- Standardized language and definitions to incorporate into APT criteria
- Goal/Self Advocacy Statement
- Curriculum Vitae highlighting interdisciplinary research efforts
- Promotion Letters
- UW Structures and Policies to aid interdisciplinary research
The APT Toolkit was developed by the Institute for Translational Health Sciences (ITHS) Team Science Core and colleagues. The Toolkit is a living document that will be updated as more information, feedback, and examples of successful promotion and tenure of team science-focused researchers are gathered.
Promotion Clock Extensions – COVID-19 and Current
COVID-19 Waivers
As a result of the extraordinary circumstances associated with COVID-19, the University of Washington is offering automatic approval for all faculty who request a waiver for the 2019-20, 2020-21, and/or 2021-22 academic years to automatically extend their promotion and/or tenure clock by up to two years.
Find more details and learn how to request a waiver here.
2026-27 waivers for faculty scheduled for mandatory promotion and tenure review
All meritorious faculty scheduled for mandatory promotion and tenure review in AY 2026-27, who have no more than three previously approved clock waivers, are automatically eligible for a waiver of the 2026-27 academic year.
AAMC Human Resources Toolkit
The Human Resources Interest Group of the AAMC Group on Business Affairs has developed a pooling of academic medical center-oriented HR resources, such as template job descriptions, policies and draft faculty letters for promotions, offers, administrative appointments and the like. The templates have been consolidated into a standard format, anonymized and put into a Word-accessible format form on the website so you can click, edit, and save. Access the toolkit here.