The University of Cincinnati ADVANCE program integrates programming and policy change in an effort to broaden participation and improve the climate for STEM women faculty. This is accomplished through bottom-up initiatives, top-down leadership reform initiatives and advocacy and accountability initiatives. These initiatives will be implemented through a range of strategies that includes, but is not limited to professional development workshops for STEM women faculty at all career stages, learning communities for informal and formal mentoring and mini-grants to support research, professional development, and collaborative activities. Also, an Accountability and Advocacy Council (AAC), comprised of various institutional stakeholders, coordinates and ensures the integration of these various top-down and bottom up strategies with the goal of producing actionable and sustainable change. The social science research that forms much of the framework of this effort is centered on discourse analysis as it relates to online communications to STEM scientists. Through traditional means of dissemination, the work of the University of Cincinnati has the potential to influence not only other ADVANCE programs, but all of higher education. This project is expected to also seminally contribute to the body of knowledge related to of research on the underrepresentation of women in the STEM disciplines.
