Partnerships for Adaptation, Implementation, and Dissemination (PAID): Collaborative Research - The CCAS ADVANCE Initiative

College Of William And Mary, Williamsburg VA

Investigators

Abstract

This ADVANCE-PAID project will adapt best practices from an existing ADVANCE-supported leadership development program in order to transform a national association of academic deans, the Council of Colleges of Arts and Sciences (CCAS). Specifically, CCAS will partner with the University of Washington's (UW) Leadership Excellence for Academic Diversity (LEAD), a national professional development workshop of documented effectiveness, to infuse STEM gender equity content into CCAS's existing professional development programs for deans and department chairs. The objectives of the CCAS ADVANCE Initiative are to: 1) infuse gender equity content and activities into CCAS's professional development programs in a sustainable way; 2) maximize opportunities for positive impacts of the initiative on individuals underrepresented in STEM disciplines; and 3) develop, utilize, and make widely available a set of robust case studies that incorporate gender equity elements. The CCAS professional development programs and activities that will be targeted for infusion of STEM gender equity content are the New Deans' Seminar, Department Chairs' Seminar, Annual Meeting, selected Topical Seminars, and Pre-/Post-conference Workshops. LEAD program personnel will facilitate CCAS's adaptation and dissemination of successful practices from LEAD's workshops for chairs, deans, and emerging faculty leaders. Strategic efforts will be undertaken to increase the participation in CCAS workshops of individuals from minority-serving institutions (MSIs). Case studies are an important learning tool used in CCAS's current professional development programs. Multiple cases addressing gender equity scenarios commonly encountered by STEM deans and chairs will be developed and implemented throughout CCAS's programming. The initiative's intellectual merit derives from its innovative and multitiered approach of transforming an association of academic administrators as a means of promoting change among its member institutions. As well, because this project will effect lasting changes to a well-established and self-supporting professional development infrastructure, it will be sustainable. The project offers high potential for broad impact, in that CCAS membership includes nearly 500 higher education institutions ranging from baccalaureate liberal arts through major research universities whose representatives include approximately 1,600 deans, associate deans, and assistant deans. CCAS's professional development activities also reach 80-120 department chairs annually. Educating these key populations - individuals who play pivotal roles in the recruitment, mentoring, development, and advancement of STEM faculty - will cultivate academic leaders who are more knowledgeable about STEM gender equity issues, more able and motivated to address those issues, and thus better positioned to effect positive transformational change in their own colleges and departments. Further, with a membership that includes 48 MSIs and targeted efforts to solicit project participation by MSI representatives, there is substantial potential for impacts on populations underrepresented in STEM disciplines.