ADVANCE Partnership. A Proactive Approach to the Recruitment, Retention and Advancement of Women in the Academy Grounded in Intersectionality

The University of Cincinnati (UC) ADVANCE Partnership Project brings the Women in Engineering and Proactive Network (WEPAN) and the ten institutions comprising the Ohio Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation (LSAMP) Alliance into a partnership to identify challenges and successes of recruitment, retention, and advancement of faculty in engineering, then to develop, pilot, and evaluate corresponding systemic interventions in academic departments. The research literature on collective self-esteem indicates that group members maintain or enhance how they view the social groups to which they belong by positively differentiating the dominant in-group from a relevant comparison out-group on both evaluative dimensions and reward allocations. Phase 1 of the project will explore the lived experiences of four different participant groups using a qualitative community based participatory action research methodology and semi structured interviews based on the pillars of collective self-esteem and intersectionality. Phase 2 of the project will develop, pilot, and evaluate interventions based on the data collected in Phase 1. In Phase 1, the UC ADVANCE Partnership Project will employ Group-Level Assessment to foster collaboration in each participant group in to understand challenges and strengths in their communities and organizations with the intent of developing action plans, in a 7-step process involving trust-building, anonymous prompt responses, up-voting, reflection, understanding, identifying themes, and developing action plans. Semi-structured interviews will also inform this phase of the project. Findings from Phase 1 will inform the development or adaptation in Phase 2 of Action Steps/Plans to help increase equity in the recruitment, retention, and promotion of faculty, to be deployed at UC and partner institutions. In addition to traditional dissemination of results, Phase 2 will include the development, filming, and dissemination of Impact Stories to bring awareness of everyday lived experiences engineering faculty members. This partnership will be evaluated formatively and summatively by an external evaluator and Project Oversight Advisory Committee. 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.