The aim of the NSF project, Alliance for Building Faculty Diversity in the Mathematical Sciences, is to establish and implement a mentorship model that will increase the access of underrepresented US groups to academic tenure-­track positions. The cornerstone of this effort is three­-year post­doctoral fellowships in which recent PhDs are engaged in a productive and successful apprenticeship that increases the likelihood not only that they will land a tenure­-track appointment at a research university but, that they will actually get tenure, thereby increase the presence of minority faculty at these institutions, where they can serve as role models and mentors for future generations of underrepresented students. 

The project achieved the above aim through a multi-faceted approach which includes distinguished mentors with a record of success at mentoring diverse students, participation in a multi-university and multi-institute environment that facilitates networking, support and mentoring for the postdoctoral fellows, and opportunities for the postdoctoral fellows to participate in a variety of alliance activities, such as Alliance Conferences, graduate student and postdoc mentoring workshop, research training workshops, undergraduate research, national and international conferences. These activities build a close supportive community for these postdoctoral fellows. One of the cornerstones of the alliance activities were the mini-workshops. In these workshops, the postdoctoral fellows met a small group of mathematicians for a week to work on a specific problem. The postdoc needs to write a small proposal which is evaluated by the selection committee. Finally, the postdoctoral fellows also had the opportunity to mentor others to get good academic positions.

In summary, the project successfully accomplished the scope and objective of the project. Among the total 14 alliance postdoctoral fellows who were supported by this project are 11 fellows who now have tenure-­track positions at the following universities: University of Hawaii ­ West O'ahu, North Carolina State University (hired as one of the clustered hires supported by the Chancellor's Faculty Excellence Program), University of Texas at Dallas, University of Dayton, Mount Holyoke College, Bryn Mawr College, Drake University, Lamar University, United States Military Academy, Cal Poly Pomona, and Iowa State University. Of the other three alliance fellows, two currently have non-tenure track positions as a postdoctoral scholar at the University of Chicago and the Phillip Griffiths assistant research professor at Duke University, and the third fellow is with JP Morgan Chase & Co. 

This project is not only providing a model on how to diversifying the faculty in higher education for the nation’s changing demographics but it should also provide a model that can be implemented in other disciplines to increase the success and visibility of those from underrepresented groups in the field.

Last Modified: 05/15/2018
Modified by: Hien T Tran