The project entitled - Building Academic Leadership and Campus Capacity to Transform STEM Education at Selected HBCUs - is developing a program of campus specific activities that will advance the undergraduate science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education transformation for a group of nine Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) selected from among twenty-six involved in the Preparing Critical Faculty for the Future (PCFF) project. The current work of the PCFF project provides professional and leadership for a critical group - current and future women of color STEM faculty at HBCUs. PCFF is working with these STEM faculty to address pedagogical and academic leadership issues. The PCFF 2 project will advance the current work by continuing to build on the successful networks of support and mentoring that PCFF has created. PCFF 2 will draw on the unique strengths of HBCUs to graduate STEM majors, while effectively addressing the challenges that are unique to HBCUs that may inhibit them from being even more successful.
The activities include supporting continued professional development activities for women of color STEM faculty who participate in the PCFF project; broadening the reach of support to include additional faculty from STEM and other disciplines, as well as staff and administrators who can support STEM education transformation; providing professional development to campus teams to plan and implement improvements in campus structures of support; and providing on-campus consultation expertise to help guide and advance their work.
The activities that PCFF 2 undertakes will have a national impact by identifying and documenting the elements of success and by developing models of change that establish institutional processes and educational practices that enhance the ability of HBCUs to manage the changing STEM education landscape effectively. The project will document and disseminate the models of success that can help HBCUs and other institutions to address the challenge of increasing the number of STEM graduates.
