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Carnegie Mellon University, Johns Hopkins University, and New York University created the Project Equity-focused Launch to Empower and Value AGEP Faculty to Thrive in Engineering (ELEVATE) Alliance (National Science Foundation Awards #2149995, #2149798 #2149899 from the Division of Equity for Excellence in STEM in the Directorate for STEM Education) to develop a model to promote the equitable advancement of early career tenure-track engineering faculty from populations of interest to the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program. The goal of this AGEP Faculty Career Pathways Alliance Model (FCPAM) is to develop, implement, self-study, and institutionalize a career pathway model that can be adapted for use at other similar institutions for advancing early career engineering faculty who are: African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders. This NSF AGEP FCPAM will provide a framework for institutional change at private, highly selective research institutions that will enable all faculty to be members of a collaborative community. Improving the experience of these faculty can lead to increased diversity in the engineering faculty and ultimately result in graduating more engineering students from diverse populations and increasing diversity in the engineering workforce. The Alliance interventions will focus on three major areas, 1) equity-focused institutional change designed to make structural changes that support the advancement of AGEP faculty, 2) identity-affirming mentorship that acknowledges and provides professional support to AGEP faculty holistically, recognizing all parts of their identity and 3) inclusive professional development that equips all engineering faculty and institutional leaders with skills to implement inclusive practices and equips AGEP faculty for career advancement. In this paper, we will discuss the process of creating a leadership team to address these focus areas and assess the processes and procedures that currently exist at the three institutions as we begin to institutionalize these change efforts. We provide an overview of the project and efforts to date. We will also present our process for engaging in our initial self-study evaluation and next steps.
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Reflections on Challenge, Change and Transition: How Relationship Building Supported Change Management, Transitions and the Unexpected in a Multi Institutional AGEP Alliance for Faculty Diversity
The AGEP New York PUI Alliance project experienced considerable change and transition to its leadership team across all levels, and at all Alliance institutions, including the death of the Alliance Principal Investigator. The ongoing nature of these changes has placed the Alliance in a constant state of transition as the team, model, project, interventions and dissemination plans adapt to new team members and new, remote methods of engagement. During its first three years, the speed and frequency of unanticipated change experienced by the AGEP New York PUI Alliance presented an opportunity for the project team to look at the team itself as a model component to be studied. Understanding how the team, and specific team members have coped with and adapted to unexpected change is providing greater insight into what can best support team cohesiveness, sense of commitment to a project and enthusiasm for the work. This reflection piece aims to present the personal perspectives of five team members: two Principal Investigators, one Co-Principal Investigator, and two program managers. The narrative presents an opportunity to discuss the importance of building strong team relationships and cohesiveness to ensure project advancement during periods of change and transition.
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- Award ID(s):
- 1821083
- PAR ID:
- 10356749
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- The advance journal
- Volume:
- 3
- Issue:
- 1
- ISSN:
- 2643-7031
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.5399/osu/ADVJRNL.3.1.7
