| NSF Org: |
EES Div. of Equity for Excellence in STEM |
| Recipient: |
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| Initial Amendment Date: | August 21, 2018 |
| Latest Amendment Date: | September 3, 2024 |
| Award Number: | 1824267 |
| Award Instrument: | Cooperative Agreement |
| Program Manager: |
Jessie Dearo
jdearo@nsf.gov (703)292-5350 EES Div. of Equity for Excellence in STEM EDU Directorate for STEM Education |
| Start Date: | September 1, 2018 |
| End Date: | November 30, 2024 (Estimated) |
| Total Intended Award Amount: | $2,977,319.00 |
| Total Awarded Amount to Date: | $3,018,445.00 |
| Funds Obligated to Date: |
FY 2020 = $879,459.00 FY 2022 = $382,896.00 FY 2023 = $41,126.00 |
| History of Investigator: |
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| Recipient Sponsored Research Office: |
1700 LEE HALL DR #201 TALLAHASSEE FL US 32307-0001 (850)599-3531 |
| Sponsor Congressional District: |
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| Primary Place of Performance: |
1600 Lee Hall Drive Tallahassee FL US 32307-0001 |
| Primary Place of
Performance Congressional District: |
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| Unique Entity Identifier (UEI): |
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| Parent UEI: |
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| NSF Program(s): |
ADVANCE, Hist Black Colleges and Univ |
| Primary Program Source: |
04AC2324DB EDU DRSA DEFC AAB 01001819DB NSF RESEARCH & RELATED ACTIVIT 04001819DB NSF Education & Human Resource 04002021DB NSF Education & Human Resource 04002122DB NSF Education & Human Resource |
| Program Reference Code(s): |
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| Program Element Code(s): |
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| Award Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Fund Agency Code: | 4900 |
| Assistance Listing Number(s): | 47.076 |
ABSTRACT
The 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 areas such as policy, practice, culture, and organizational climate. The ADVANCE Institutional Transformation (ADVANCE-IT) track supports the development of innovative organizational change strategies within an institution of higher education to enhance gender equity in the science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) academic workforce.
Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University (FAMU) is one of the nation's Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and is committed to transforming its institutional climate and culture in support of gender equity and advancement of women faculty in STEM. The FAMU ADVANCE-IT project will promote gender equity by working to increase awareness of the role of cultural humility in decision-making and by implementing various ADVANCE initiatives including policy review and changes and support programs focused on the persistence and retention of women faculty in STEM such as professional development, career coaching, and mentoring. This project is important to understand how to increase the diversity of STEM faculty at HBCUs, the faculty at HBCUS does not always reflect the student population diversity at HBCUs.
This project will expand the limited research on barriers to and strategies for advancement of women STEM faculty at HBCUs by infusing the concept of cultural humility in the ADVANCE interventions and in the proposed research. In the context of this proposal, cultural humility is the awareness that no gender/discipline/race/religion is the norm and that everyone belongs in FAMU's academic setting. The examination of Black women and other women of color in STEM at a large HBCU will extend the research of intersectionality by examining this phenomenon in a context where Black women students are the majority, but where Black women STEM faculty are the minority. Additionally, studying within-group differences of women of color will offer a deeper intersectional understanding of the complexities of gender issues at HBCUs, while also advancing more nuanced framing of challenges and factors for success.
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.
PUBLICATIONS PRODUCED AS A RESULT OF THIS RESEARCH
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PROJECT OUTCOMES REPORT
Disclaimer
This Project Outcomes Report for the General Public is displayed verbatim as submitted by the Principal Investigator (PI) for this award. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this Report are those of the PI and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation; NSF has not approved or endorsed its content.
In Fall 2018, female faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) and social and behavioral sciences (SBS) were disproportionately outnumbered by males at Florida A&M University (FAMU). Of 18 STEM/SBS disciplines, five had no female full professors, and three had a single female professor across all ranks. Florida A&M University ADVANCE Institutional Transformation (FAMU ADVANCE IT) catalyzed institutional change even through navigating global challenges.
Informed by a baseline survey of all faculty, FAMU ADVANCE IT was designed to address faculty’s two most important needs: writing assistance and formal mentoring with the goal of faculty retention and promotion.
Viewing its efforts through the lens of cultural humility, a lifelong process where one learns about others through self-reflection and assessment, FAMU ADVANCE IT operationalized cultural humility through the phrase “Everybody belongs at FAMU.”
Through the 2018 to 2024 implementation by the newly chartered Center for Faculty ADVANCEment, the COVID-19 pandemic and changes in state laws necessitated the project’s agility via a constant readiness to pivot. During the pandemic, with our first two cohorts of faculty fellows, we shifted to an emphasis on faculty well-being as we navigated the tenure and promotion track amid COVID-19, stress/mental health, caregiving, homeschooling, online teaching, and the ultimate decision to delay going up for tenure and promotion.
Even with the retirement of three female full professors during the pandemic, the success of FAMU ADVANCE IT can be measured through the net increase in the number of female full professors across the STEM/SBS disciplines from 23.1% to 27.7%. Achieving a university first, four female STEM faculty, including the PI, were promoted to Full Professor in 2022 (Year 4). This group included the first female full professors in Environmental Science and Mathematics Education.
Another pivot involved extending the cohort model to male and female faculty regardless of academic discipline. In collaboration with the Provost’s office, FAMU ADVANCE IT was invited to participate in New Faculty Orientation, providing professional development to faculty in Year 1 of the tenure track.
From 2018-2024, FAMU ADVANCE IT generated the following outcomes:
- FAMU ADVANCE IT demonstrated the efficacy of the cohort model at FAMU via three cohorts of female faculty and seven cohorts of university faculty across all disciplines. The cohort model is a blueprint for effective faculty mentoring and coaching at FAMU.
- Increased the number of FAMU ADVANCE IT participants being tenured and promoted to associate and full professor.
- FAMU ADVANCE IT’s policy review efforts, specifically tenure and promotion and hiring committee policies, influenced the creation of an Office of University Policy (OUP). In institutionalizing a FAMU ADVANCE goal, the OUP is indispensable in guiding and assisting University policy owners in developing and revising policies, ensuring a consistent and transparent procedure.
- Faculty cohort members cited individual executive coaching as the most valuable professional development tool. Regarding sustainability, FAMU ADVANCE developed a faculty mentoring and coaching program via a train-the-trainer model.
- Invested in an institutional membership to the National Center for Faculty Development and Diversity (NCFDD) and sponsored more than 30 faculty in the 12-week Faculty Success Program (FSP) and Post-Tenure Pathfinders Program.
- Including a developmental editor, eight writing retreats (residential, on-campus, and online), and participation in NCFDD’s 14-Day Writing Challenges positively impacted the writing productivity of faculty cohort members, resulting in more than 30 peer-reviewed publications supported by FAMU ADVANCE IT.
- Supported faculty in external leadership training across Fielding Leadership, AAC&U Reframing Institutional Transformation Institute to Include Non-Tenure Track STEM Faculty, STEM Women of Color Conclave, and American Educational Research Association (AERA).
- FAMU ADVANCE IT supported more than 20 presentations at national and regional conferences, including ARC Network, Disclosing Failure, Benefit or Hazard to STEM Women Conference, American Public Health Association (APHA), Faculty Women of Color in the Academy Conference, and Rural Sociological Society.
- FAMU ADVANCE IT’s cross-tabular demographic data requests and reporting influenced the online availability of interactive data collection in the Division of Strategic Planning, Analysis, and Institutional Effectiveness.
- FAMU ADVANCE IT’s focus on faculty development catalyzed changes in the FAMU Teaching and Learning Center to include faculty professional development, standardizing best practices initiated by FAMU ADVANCE IT
- The mandatory social science project, involving collecting oral histories of women faculty in STEM/SBS, resulted in the collection of nearly 25 interviews and was the subject of a Princeton University Press Supporting Diverse Voices Book Development Grant award in 2023. The qualitative research focus will expand the knowledge base of methods and interventions to attract and retain women in STEM/SBS at HBCUS and other institutions.
Beginning with a focus on female faculty in STEM/SBS, the presence of FAMU ADVANCE positively impacted faculty across all disciplines. Expanding the cohort model to all university faculty across disciplines underscored the need for additional faculty professional development opportunities and approaches.
Last Modified: 04/18/2025
Modified by: Marcia Allen Owens
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