ADVANCE Adaptation: Advancement through Healthy Empowerment, Networking and Awareness (ATHENA) at University of Louisville

University Of Louisville Research Foundation Inc, Louisville KY

Investigators

Abstract

The University of Louisville (UofL) ADVANCE Adaptation project called the Advancement through Healthy Empowerment, Networking, and Awareness (ATHENA) will improve equity for STEM faculty. UofL is a state-supported research university, with a mission to pursue excellence and inclusiveness in research, teaching, and service. The project will lead to the creation of an ATHENA Center for STEM Equity which will enhance UofL's institutional capacity in STEM equity research and will help to sustain the ADVANCE Adaptation project strategies shown to be effective. The institution has done a self-study to identify equity issues for STEM faculty by gender and have identified promising practices from other ADVANCE grantees. Areas that will be addressed by the ATHENA project include: 1) implicit bias; 2) recruitment and retention; 3) differential time in rank for STEM faculty; and 4) professional isolation. Strategies that will be implemented include: changing the search, recruitment and hiring practices by adapting components from the University of Michigan's Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Increase Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE); creating a mentoring program with an emphasis on improving opportunities for mid-career promotion based on Florida International University's Faculty Mentoring Program (FMP); establishing a program to support the career progress of faculty going through major life events; implementing data collection to support evaluation and monitoring efforts; and educating faculty about gender-by-ethnicity biases that affect the advancement of women in STEM disciplines through theatre based workshops. The NSF ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of diverse faculty in academic institutions. Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate. ADVANCE "Adaptation" awards provide support for the adaptation and adoption of evidence-based strategies to academic, non-profit institution of higher education as well as non-academic, non-profit organizations. 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.