This award addresses the persistent under-representation of women of color (African-American, Hispanic, Native American) on engineering faculties in the U.S. Recent studies have documented that the number of women engineering faculty from groups under-represented in science and engineering is typically less than one percent. For example, in the field of chemical engineering at the top 50 departments, African American and Hispanic women together made up less than 0.75 % of the reported ChE faculties; Native American Women were non-existent on chemical engineering faculties. This proposal directly addresses the goal of NSFs ADVANCE Program, which is to increase the representation and advancement of women in academic science and engineering.
This proposal presents an initiative to bring together a group of women that are diverse in their race, ethnicity, discipline and institution type to conduct targeted peer mentoring and set in motion an infrastructure for discipline-specific career enhancement networks. The primary activity (over a three-year period) will be a series of professional development summits that are both discipline-specific and multidisciplinary. In the first year a 2-day summit will convene at NCSU for all engineering disciplines. In years 2-3, Discipline Cluster mini-summits will take place using a format designed at the first summit by women in their respective subject areas. In the final year there will be a summit to mark the culmination of the series under this grant and a strategic planning meeting to plan to move this endeavor out to the disciplines through either professional societies (if appropriate) or other channels.
Evaluation and project assessment will cover longer- term outcomes of the summit such as the development and utility of effective research and mentoring networks.
The broader impact of this effort will be seen in enhanced understanding of the factors contributing to the retention and advancement of women engineering faculty and in improved research and professional networks among a highly trained group of faculty who are often isolated in their professional settings in academic departments.
