I have a faculty member who is invited to China to give a presentation/talk; November 13-15th.

Margie, the faculty works in your school, right? If so, she needs to apply for an F type. She just need to prepare the required documents and then go to the consular office to submit them. The documents include her passport, a copy of the passport's photo page, a completed application form attached with her bare-headed photo taken agains white background, and an invitation letter from PRC. For more details and downloading the application form, go to the US embassy page on this website.