A Professional Development Workshop Series for STEM Faculty

Fielding Graduate University, Santa Barbara CA

Investigators

Abstract

The Committee on Equal Opportunities in Sciences and Engineering has urged the National Science Foundation to utilize its convening power to impact its broadening participation portfolio through workshops and online resources. The planned STEM professional development workshop series led by the Fielding Graduate University in partnership with Historically Black Colleges and Universities will address two broadening participation challenges: the lack of diverse STEM faculty in leadership positions and the dearth of culturally relevant leadership development opportunities and resources that can support women faculty of color. The project aims to implement a state-of-the-art professional development approach through convenings that integrate leadership development, scholarship, coalition building and professional/personal wellness to have a systemic impact on broadening participation. The workshop series will consist of three major convenings: 1. Leadership Academy, designed to increase leadership self-efficacy of STEM women faculty of color through cutting-edge in-person and virtual culturally-responsive leadership development opportunities, 2. Author Development Institute, designed as a four-day intensive, in-person training with year-long follow-up support to increase the scholarly contributions of STEM women faculty of color to the STEM reform discourse, and 3. Leader Wellness Workshop, designed as a two-day capstone experience that prioritizes well-being as an essential component for effective leadership development and advancement. The work of this project holds great promise for addressing the persisting disparities related to women of color in academic leadership positions in STEM. This project will offer a postgraduate certificate in leadership studies and enrich opportunities for increasing the submission and success rates of STEM leadership/reform publications by women of color. This project will develop a cadre of academic STEM leaders who have been empowered to lead broadening participation efforts and address diversity challenges at a national level. This project is co-funded by the Directorate of Biological Sciences (BIO), the Directorate of Geosciences (GEO), the Office of Integrative Activities (OIA), and the Directorate of Education and Human Resources (EHR) with significant support from the NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program, which targets increasing the number of historically underrepresented minority faculty in STEM disciplines and the Historically Black Colleges and Universities-Undergraduate Program (HBCU-UP), which enhances STEM education and research at HBCUs. This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.