NSF Award
2204559
The Georgia State University (GSU) ADVANCE project IMPACT (Intersectionality and Mentoring in the Professoriate for Advancement, Community, and Transformation) will implement practices aimed at increasing the number of women, particularly underrepresented minority women, who are recruited, promoted, and retained in STEM tenure track positions and GSU leadership. IMPACT will adapt and build upon a suite of activities demonstrated by Florida International University to effectively produce systemic changes that promote the recruitment and retention of women in STEM faculty positions on the tenure track. Faculty diversity benefits the workforce, national competitiveness, and prosperity and is critical for national social justice.<br/><br/>IMPACT aims to transform the cultural landscape at GSU by profiting from lessons learned from DEI scholars, decades of ADVANCE initiatives, and the strong commitment of GSU leadership to promote faculty diversity. The project aims to 1) institutionalize Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE) training for fair and equitable recruitment and increase the intersectional content of the training, 2) provide bystander leadership training to promote awareness of implicit bias and microaggressions and skills to interrupt them when they occur, 3) offer a university-wide faculty mentoring program that targets faculty at all career stages, and 4) institutionalize policy review that advocates for diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI), with an initial focus on equitable service allocation and faculty review processes. IMPACT activities will contribute to the body of knowledge of institutional solutions for increasing faculty diversity by offering a unique testbed for investigating the efficacy of these activities in a large R1 minority-serving urban institution and will provide lessons learned on effective/ineffective strategies in this setting. Additionally, IMPACT will advance DEI efforts and scholarship by increasing the intersectional content available for faculty recruitment training. The project includes a comprehensive communication plan to disseminate IMPACT activities, findings, and resources widely.<br/> <br/>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 institutions of higher education as well as non-academic, non-profit organizations.<br/><br/>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.
