COACh: Building a Stronger and More Diverse STEM Workforce

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This award to the University of Oregon by the NSF Chemistry Division's Special Projects Office supports activities by the Committee on the Advancement of Women Chemists (COACh) to increase the number and success of women in academia in chemistry and allied fields. This award is co-funded by NSF's Divisions of Chemistry; Chemical, Bioengineering, Environmental, and Transport Systems; Materials Research; Mathematical Sciences; Physics; and Earth Sciences; and NIH's National Institute of General Medical Sciences. Under the direction of Prof. Geri Richmond, COACh (1) develops and offers professional skills workshops that assist women scientists and engineers in achieving their full career potential at the graduate, postdoctoral, and faculty and administrative levels; (2) targets minority women scientists and engineers through professional meetings with high minority attendance; (3) assesses the short and long term impacts of these workshops, and disseminates results of the assessment to the scientific community; (4) assists with transformational change in departments and institutions to insure the recruitment and retention of underrepresented groups in science and engineering; (5) works with science and engineering departments and their faculty to identify and break patterns that can create different potentials for men, women, and minority students to be innovative; (6) fosters and strengthens mentoring and networking among women academic scientists and engineers; and (7) partners with other organizations on gender equity issues in science. Technical merit stems from new insights into obstacles and opportunities for underrepresented groups. The activities have broad impact through their effects on the careers of participants and their colleagues.