Envisioning & Enacting an Inclusive & Diverse STEM Professoriate: A Three-Part Series

Funded by NSF, Envisioning & Enacting an Inclusive & Diverse STEM Professoriate (2041007) is a series of collaborative think tanks for APLU leaders, STEM faculty, social science and diversity scholars, funders and other non-profits. Each think tank tackles a systemic gatekeeping function in the careers of STEM faculty that may be preventing institutions and the nation from realizing their goal of a more diverse and inclusive STEM faculty.

Partnering with Intentional Futures, the think tanks will be developed using a design thinking approach to help participants identify innovative approaches towards faculty recruitment and hiring, the evaluation of faculty, and leadership that centers equity. View Intentional Futures’ summary of design thinking.

The goals of the convenings are built upon the recommendations of APLU’s Strengthening the Pathways to Faculty Careers in STEM: Recommendations for Systemic Change to Support Underrepresented Groups.

Part 1 – Aligning the Recruitment & Hiring of Diverse STEM Faculty (March 4, 2021)

This convening will engage leaders in an ecosystems approach to conceptualize and operationalize definitions of inclusive excellence in the recruitment and hiring of URG STEM faculty, and identify lines of future research. Concurrent design session topics might include the role and use of statements on contributions to DEI, equity-informed evaluation of scholarly promise, and enhancing networks and relationships between early career URG scholars and STEM departments.

Session 1 summary records.

Part 2 – Equitable STEM Faculty Evaluation & Reviews of Research (June 3, 2021)

This convening will focus on emerging research and implementation strategies to increase the alignment of faculty evaluation and promotion practices to operationalize inclusive excellence for all faculty—two essential aspects of retaining URG faculty. Concurrent design session topics might include reframing “high impact” journals and measures, considerations for what kinds and types of research are rewarded and funded, standards of teaching in STEM, alternatives to student evaluations of teaching, and understanding and valuing the impact and costs of service for underrepresented faculty.

Session 2 summary records.

Part 3 – Inclusive Leadership to Support Diverse & Inclusive STEM Faculty (September 16, 2021)

This convening will focus on engaging institutional leaders in developing an equity-centered framework for institutional leadership, with an explicit focus on leading institutional change for a more diverse and inclusive STEM faculty in the context of the current global pandemic and resulting fiscal crises. Concurrent design session topics might include equity impacts in financial decision making, centering underrepresented group voices and experiences in decision making, and aligning equity considerations with legislative priorities.

Session 3 summary records.

Framing the Dialogue for Systemic Equity Reform in STEM Faculty Careers

The NSF-funded Envisioning and Enacting an Inclusive and Diverse STEM Professoriate Framing the Dialogue for Systemic Equity Reform in STEM Faculty Careers report advances three big ideas we believe are essential for a national dialogue on systemic reform for equity in STEM faculty careers: 1) Tracing, Addressing, and Dismantling Systemic Inequities in STEM Faculty Careers; 2) Tracking in STEM Faculty Careers; and, 3) Broadening the Bar: Redefining What Counts in Hiring and Evaluation. We believe that engagement with these key ideas across the entire faculty career ecosystem (including institutions of higher education, funding agencies, disciplinary societies, publishers, and other external actors) will help to lay the foundation for building consensus towards key equity-advancing transformation in STEM faculty careers.

EEIDSP Dialogue Toolkit Facilitation Guide

Series Planning Committee

• Jessica Bennett, Ph.D., Director of STEM Education, APLU, Planning Committee Chair & PI

• Justine Joo, Senior Associate, STEM Education, APLU

• Kacy Redd, Ph.D., Associate Vice President of STEM Education, APLU

• Damani White-Lewis, Ph.D., Postdoctoral Scholar, University of Maryland-College Park

Series Steering Committee

• Edwin Barea-Rodriguez, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Student Success and Instructional Innovation and Professor of Biology, UT San Antonio

• Kadian Callahan, Ph.D., Assistant Dean for Faculty and Student Success, Kennesaw State University

• Antonio Farias, M.A., Vice Chancellor for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, University of Colorado, Denver

• Tera Jordan, Ph.D., Assistant Provost for Faculty Development, Iowa State University

• Jeremi London, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Engineering Education, Virginia Tech

• Tykeia Robinson, Ph.D., Assistant Director for Research and Policy, AACU

• Christine Stanley, Ph.D., Professor of Higher Education, Texas A&M University

If you are interested in receiving more information about upcoming think tanks, please complete the Google Form.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. 2041007. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.