The National Alliance for Inclusive and Diverse STEM Faculty (NAIDSF) is an NSF INCLUDES Alliance which intends to increase the learning, persistence, and completion of students from underrepresented groups (URG) in STEM throughout postsecondary education, and thereby increase their contributions to the U.S. STEM enterprise. Broadening participation in the STEM workforce will bring diverse perspectives, improving our nation's ability to solve complex social challenges, and expanding the technological and innovation-based economy. The Alliance's overarching strategy is to improve professional development and hiring practices of STEM faculty across three interactive change strategies at institutional, regional, and national levels. To facilitate Institutional Change, NAIDSF will help institutions examine their practices for recruiting, hiring, and retaining URG faculty; enhance faculty inclusive practices; develop action plans to increase diversity among STEM faculty; provide resources to help implement needed reforms; and provide training for the next generation of diverse institutional leaders. Recognizing that career pathways for faculty at 2-year colleges often occur within regional ecosystems, NAIDSF's Regional Change initiative will build Regional Collaboratives of 2-year colleges, 4-year regional universities, local research universities, and the private sector--all collectively developing and onboarding more faculty who are skilled in teaching diverse student populations and increasing the number of diverse faculty in the 2-year colleges where many URG students begin higher education. NAIDSF will seek National Change by partnering with disciplinary, URG-focused, and professional development organizations to align faculty disciplinary experiences with their institutional experiences that are fostered through the Alliance's Institutional and Regional Change initiatives. Together, these efforts will create and advance national systemic change for STEM faculty, STEM departments, disciplinary societies, and institutional leadership.
Anchored by the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU) and the Center for the Integration of Research, Teaching, and Learning (CIRTL), over 50 universities, three regional collaboratives (Iowa, California, and Texas), and more than 35 cross-sector partners have already committed to collectively achieving the Alliance goals. Using collective impact to work across sectors (diverse institutional types and disciplinary societies) as well as across systems (institutional leaders, departments, faculty, and professional development systems), the Alliance aims to enhance the use of inclusive practices to increase the diversity of the national STEM faculty at the institutional, regional, and national levels. Goals will be evaluated through a comprehensive plan providing both formative and summative assessments within the change streams and across the Alliance. A set of common metrics will be used to align activities and foci across the Alliance. NAIDSF includes both research and evaluation teams assessing the Alliance's theories of change, immediate impacts, and feeding back on collaborative processes. Integrating CIRTL's success in shared leadership decision-making and APLU's engagement with multiple groups of institutional leaders, the leadership team will develop and share Alliance policies, coordinate activities across workstreams, and engage with leaders of partnering and related efforts. Connecting the entire project, the Alliance backbone will coordinate and integrate activities and provide a multifaceted communications structure. Alliance programming is designed to be modular, portable, and adaptable, making it both accessible and sustainable at both institutions and disciplinary groups that vary in size, resources, and mission.
This NSF INCLUDES Alliance is co-funded by the NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program, which targets increasing the number of historically underrepresented minority faculty in STEM disciplines.
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.
