ADVANCE Leadership: Advancement of Research Oriented and Education Oriented Associate Professors to Full Professors

Computing Research Association, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

The goal of this project is to improve the Computer Science and Engineering (CSE) national academic workforce by increasing the participation of women at all levels. CSE is the only scientific discipline that has experienced a significant drop in the participation of undergraduate women in the last twenty years. In order to keep the nations competitive edge in the global science, technology and economy, women must be recruited and retained in critical fields such as CSE. Women in CSE academic programs have few role models among their most senior and visible faculty: In the academic year 2003/2004, less than 10% of CSE full professors were women. Successful, senior female faculty provide the role models, teachers, mentors, and "existence proofs" that female students need if they are to see careers in CSE as viable and that male students need if they are to develop appropriately balanced views of female colleagues. This CRA-W project addresses the problem of too few full professor women faculty by expanding the Associate Professor Cohort Program (CAPP) that aims to increase the percentage of CSE women faculty with the rank of full professor by forming and mentoring a cohort of women from the associate professor ranks. The cornerstone of the Cohort Project is the involvement of senior women, appointed as CRA-W Distinguished Professors, who actively participate as role models, mentors, and advisers. The project builds a community of associate professors, providing them with mentoring, leadership training, encouragement and ongoing peer-support activities. The program includes Professional Development Workshops - one for women faculty whose primary function is research (CAPP-R) and one for women faculty whose primary function is education (CAPP-E), a series of smaller meetings in conjunction with technical conferences/seminars, and ongoing electronically-based support activities.