Assistant Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement
Adjunct Associate Professor of the Practice in the Program in Education
As a professional certified coach (PCC) with the International Coaching Federation (ICF), Maria LaMonaca Wisdom is committed to helping Duke faculty flourish as researchers, educators, mentors and leaders. She leads Duke’s only university-wide coaching program, which since 2021 has supported the professional development of over 500 faculty from all disciplines and schools at Duke. The program includes small group coaching for both tenured and non tenure-track faculty at all career stages as well as 1:1 coaching for emerging and established department chairs and other unit leaders. She oversees OFA’s programs for retiring and emeriti faculty and, in partnership with Duke Graduate School, develops and facilitates workshops to foster robust faculty-graduate student mentoring relationships.
While an associate professor of English literature (Columbia College, SC) and humanities center executive director (UNC-CH), Wisdom published research on Victorian women’s writing, including an NEH-supported monograph, “Masked Atheism: Catholicism and the Secular Victorian Home” (Ohio State UP, 2008). Her subsequent reflections on mentorship, coaching and faculty life for The Chronicle of Higher Education culminated in a second book, “How to Mentor Anyone in Academia” (Princeton UP, 2025). She is currently writing a follow-up book under contract with Princeton UP (forthcoming 2027), “How to Relate: An Academic’s Guide to Generating Meaningful and Generative Relationships with Everyone.”