Collaborative Research: ADVANCE Partnership: Golden Compass Onward: Geospatial sciences Alliance for International women faculty Advancement (GAIA)

The Geospatial sciences Alliance for International women faculty Advancement (GAIA) project brings the University of Northern Colorado and two STEM professional societies, the American Association of Geographers and the University Consortium of Geographic Information Science, into a partnership to identify and address systemic inequities in academic workplaces in Geography and Geospatial Sciences. The research literature indicates that professional societies are well positioned to effect positive change in academic departments in their disciplines. Informed by a mixed-methods assessment of departmental climates and barriers, the GAIA project will support department leaders to engender more welcoming environments and develop more equitable policies and practices that lead to success for all faculty. The GAIA project will gather and synthesize intersectional qualitative and quantitative data on barriers and lived experiences to inform equity systemic change toolkits for deployment in Geography and Geospatial Sciences departments. The project team will support a cohort of department leaders in their implementation and evaluation of the toolkits and will sustain the effort in long-term collaboration with the cohort. The team will disperse the toolkits and disseminate results throughout the profession, impacting approximately 10,000 individual faculty members. This partnership will be evaluated formatively and summatively by an external evaluator and will be supported by internal and external advisory boards. The NSF ADVANCE program is designed to foster gender equity through a focus on the identification and elimination of organizational barriers that impede the full participation and advancement of diverse faculty in academic institutions. Organizational barriers that inhibit equity may exist in policies, processes, practices, and the organizational culture and climate. ADVANCE "Partnership" awards provide support for the adaptation and adoption of evidence-based strategies to academic, non-profit institutions of higher education and non-academic, non-profit organizations. 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.