In the proposed project, Universidad Metropolitana and the University of Maryland Baltimore County will conduct a pilot workshop that will bring together noted experts from several communities, including the ADVANCE community, the NSF and gender studies researchers to broaden the professional and mentoring networks of Latina postdoctoral fellows and junior faculty. These institutions have a longstanding partnership in increasing the number of underrepresented minority students who earn the doctoral degree that dates back to 2003. However, since 2007, this partnership has been formalized through a memorandum of understanding that includes a focus on collaborations among faculty at both institutions. It is expected that the pilot workshop will provide a foundation upon which more meaningful and deliberate investigation of Hispanic women in the academic STEM disciplines can be examined. The workshop is characterized by relevant plenary and group breakout sessions that will provide attendees with the opportunity to better define the course of study on Latina STEM faculty and determine pathways to broader and future emphases as it relates to this target population.
, also known as the "ADVANCE Hispanic Women in STEM" project is a collaborative effort between Universidad Metropolitana (UMET) in Puerto Rico, and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC: An Honors University in Maryland). Building upon a partnership between UMBC and UMET that started with training undergraduate students for graduate school, and utilizing best practices of UMBC's successful (now institutionalized) ADVANCE Institutional Transformation project for women faculty in the STEM fields, the "ADVANCE Hispanic Women in STEM" project based operations in Puerto Rico to develop conferences and meetings for women STEM faculty, deans, and high-level administrators to bring attention to issues of academic advancement and career-life balance for women STEM faculty. This project included several distinct activities: A Networking Workshop in Puerto Rico (2012), A Climate Survey administered to women STEM faculty in Puerto Rico (2012, 2014), An Outcomes Workshop (2014), and a series of meetings with chancellors, deans, and university administrators (2013, 2014). Workshops I (2012) and II (2014) covered the following topics: Inequality and Exclusion Negotiation and Power Best Practices from ADVANCE programs Assessing Needs Balancing Work and Family and Health The Jessica Alert (discussions of domestic violence) The Superwoman Syndrome Roundtables to share resources Reports from 2012 Participants on Career Advancement and Work/Life Balance Panel: Academia, Industry, Knowledge Transfer, and Grants – Ideas, Success Stories, and Potential Strategies The project was introduced to various stakeholders across Puerto Rico. Formal meetings with university administrators of Puerto Rico took place in three phases: 1) An introduction to ADVANCE – an agenda item for the Asociación de Colegios y Universidades Privadas de Puerto Rico (ACUP), 2) Presentation during the October 2013 Conference of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), 3) and presentations in March 2014 as part of the ADVANCE Networking Workshop II (Outcomes). These meetings covered 23 ACUP and 7 UPR institutions. Discussions are continuing for new projects in Puerto Rico that will focus on advancing women in engineering, computer science, and IT. Excerpts from evaluation reports from Dr. Angela Byars-Winston and Dr. Frances Carter Johnson are used for the following synopses of the Climate Survey: 2012 Results: Consistent with the literature on advancement of women academe in general, we find that Hispanic women faculty in STEM in Puerto Rico are concentrated in assistant and associate faculty positions and support teaching courses at their universities. We see that some of the women included in the study have research grants; however, the majority of the women represented do not have temporal, financial or institutional resources to participate in or support research at their universities. Similarly, the women support service at their universities with more emphasis on teaching related committees and limited service leadership roles. The evaluation revealed the absence of work-life balance hiring and retention policies, such as dual career hiring, childcare, and tenure holds/rollbacks, which suggests that these important interventions shown to support women’s career advancement in academe are potentially not currently or widely available in Puerto Rico. The respondents in this study highly rated such policies and programs, which suggest that they value such initiatives. 2014 Results: There was a general aspiration-expectation gap amongst the participants, such they aspired to conduct more research in their institutions in Puerto Rico but expected and experienced little support to realize their aspirations. The results of this project to date underscore the need for examination of organizational constraints of academic institutions in Puerto Rico that hinder the research enterprise. Assistant Professors may need more support for navigational strategies within their department and institutions, including identifying advocates for their career and research needs and gaining the skills to secure research funding (e.g., grant writing). Participants’ survey responses indicated that they generally did feel their career progression had been slowed due to personal responsibilities and commitments. Dissemination: The following article includes discussion from sessions in Workshop I: The Superwoman Syndrome, and The Jessica Alert: Tull, R.G., Ordóñez, P. Carter-Johnson, F., Zayas, B., Byars-Winston, A., Cortes-Rodriguez, M., "The Jessica Effect: Valuing Cultural and Familial Connections to Broaden Success in Academe," AAC&U Peer Review, 2014. Select Presentations: Bringing Women in STEM to the Table, 3rd International Forum of the American Association of Engineering Education, Indianapolis, Indiana, June 14, 2014. Sharing ADVANCE with Women in STEM in the Caribbean and Latin America, 2014 NSF ADVANCE Program Workshop in Alexandria, VA, March, 2014 Partnership to Advance Hispanic Women STEM Faculty: UMET & UMBC. 27th Annual Conference of the Hispanic Association of Colleges and Universities (HACU), Chicago, Illinois, October 27, 2013. Bilingual Video: www.youtube.com/watch?v=0Al2vQQhR_w
