From Evidence to Narrative: How to Connect Your Research, Teaching, and Service in a Cohesive Portfolio
Preparing a promotion portfolio is more than an exercise in compiling documents. It’s about crafting a story that communicates your contributions and that shows how your work helps extend disciplinary conversations and meet institutional goals.
Whether you’re seeking promotion from assistant to associate professor or from associate to full professor, your portfolio must present your research, teaching, and service as connected parts of a larger narrative.
Through my own promotion at an R1 university and my experience coaching faculty, I’ve seen how a cohesive narrative can make the case for advancement compelling.
For many faculty, a promotion portfolio is one of the most high-stakes academic projects of their career, because it shapes how their work, trajectory, and future potential are evaluated well beyond a single review cycle.
Below I outline how to conceptualize and connect the elements of your portfolio as a story that demonstrates your impact and positions your work as aligned with institutional expectations.
1. Start With Your Core Narrative
Before you begin assembling documents, identify the overall story your portfolio tells. Ask yourself:
What is the major contribution my research makes to my field?
How does my teaching extend my scholarship or demonstrate innovation?
How does my service connect to my research and teaching?
The overall story of your narrative will guide how you present the individual pieces of your work. Every section, statement, and document should support your core narrative.
2. Connect Research, Teaching, and Service
Promotion portfolios often require three sections: research, teaching, and service. Your goal is to show how these elements are connected and mutually informing. Consider:
Highlighting how your research informs your teaching or curriculum development.
Showing how service activities advance are connected to your disciplinary or pedagogical work.
Using narratives or reflective statements to explain why each contribution are related.
When each element speaks to and reinforces the others, the portfolio becomes a cohesive argument rather than a list of separate achievements.
3. Use Evidence Strategically
The documents you include in your portfolio are evidence that support the claims you present in your narratives. Publications, syllabi, course evaluations, nomination and award letters, grand proposals, and even letter of gratitude from students and peers are all proof of your accomplishments. To make the evidence work effectively:
Include evidence that directly supports your core narrative.
Summarize key points where needed to help your reviewers quickly and easily recognize patterns and relevance.
Organize the presentation of your evidence with a table of contents. If you are sharing these documents electronically be sure to use consistent file names and folders.
Your goal in creating your promotion portfolio is to make it easy for reviewers to understand both what you’ve accomplished and why it matters.
4. Align Your Story With Institutional Expectations
Every institution defines excellence differently. Use the guidelines, mission statements, and strategic priorities of your university as a structure fr your narrative. Ask:
How does the evidence in my portfolio help the institution accomplish its mission or goals?
How does my portfolio demonstrate the criteria outlined for promotions?
Explicitly aligning your work with institutional language shows reviewers that your work is both excellent and strategically relevant.
5. Iterate and Seek Feedback
Even the strongest case for promotion can benefits from outside perspective. Colleagues, mentors, or a faculty coach can help you:
Clarify points of impact
Ensure narrative flow
Identify gaps or areas that need context
Review from another perspective can help you refine both the story and presentation of your work, increasing confidence in your submission.
Conclusion
A promotion portfolio is an opportunity to tell the story of your academic career. By connecting your research, teaching, and service efforts into a coherent narrative you can show how your years of work help extend disciplinary conversations, departmental goals, and university missions.
The narrative in your promotion portfolio can also do the important work of demonstrating the future promise of your ongoing work.
If you want structured support in crafting a portfolio that clearly communicates your scholarly story, visit our Faculty Portfolio & Academic Career Narrative Coaching page to explore one-on-one coaching options.
Chris McRae, PhD — Academic Book Coach helping busy professionals and faculty turn dissertations into publishable books, navigate high-stakes academic projects, and deliver presentations with impact.
Aubrey Huber, PhD — Co-Founder & Academic Book Coach supporting working professionals with strategic writing, presentations, and completing high-stakes projects efficiently.