Commemorating 20 Years of ADVANCE: Design Thinking Sessions for a Digital Exhibit and Archive

Wepan Inc, Washington DC

Investigators

Abstract

This award will convene members of the ADVANCE community to develop and launch prototypes of an exhibit and archive commemorating 20 years of NSF ADVANCE. The in-person focus groups will take place at the 2022 ARC Network Equity in STEM Community Convening, which serves as the biennial meeting of the ADVANCE community, with the virtual focus group immediately following the Convening. The meetings will be conducted as collaborative brainstorming using design thinking to seek broad input on content creation, distribution, and evaluation for the exhibit and archive. Inputs gleaned from the 2022 Community Convening will be refined afterward through an online focus group and participatory webinar to reach those members of the ADVANCE community who were not in attendance. In this way the broader ADVANCE community will co-create the framework for the archive and thereby generate shared ownership. The intellectual merit of this conference proposal lies in its focus on rendering visible the contributions of the diverse individuals that have designed, implemented, evaluated, and researched ADVANCE projects over the last 20 years. This effort is designed to capture and share the contribution of these teams and individuals to gender equity work in STEM. This project will also share knowledge on how organizational and institutional change occurred as a direct result of NSF ADVANCE awards. The creation and dissemination of this digital archive is intended to enhance the impact of all ADVANCE projects by highlighting the diverse composition and participation of people in these activities. This includes capturing the longitudinal career impact on people of having participated in ADVANCE. 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. 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.