Collaborative Proposal: Gulf Coast ADVANCE: Cross Institutional Synergy for Women Scientists

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The newly founded CISSTEM: Center for Integrative Studies in STEM at the University of South Alabama is ideally situated to serve as home for the Gulf Coast ADVANCE partnership. Scientists from the University of South Alabama (USA), the University of Southern Mississippi Gulf Coast campuses (USM), Bishop State Community College (BSCC), and the Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL) coalesce under the CISSTEM umbrella to highlight, support, and develop women scientists on the Gulf Coast of Alabama and Mississippi. These institutions serve a student population that is at least 60% women and as high as 44% African American. The five Project Directors span the fields of Psychology, Computer Science, Mathematics, Marine Science, and Meteorology. The aim of this project is to help shape a Psychologically Healthy Workplace (APA, 2012) that is both rigorous and considerate of work-life balance.The Gulf Coast ADVANCE program has three major goals:(1) Highlight, promote, and encourage the scientific research and accomplishments of our 77 STEM women faculty members;(2) Curb the isolation women scientists experience in their work by gathering a critical mass of STEM women in the region to serve as a professional support and collaborative network; and (3) Transform the cultural and institutional landscapes so that work-life balance issues are explicitly addressed in policy and practice, shaping a healthier more productive environment for all scientists. The project uses the rich body of literature on gender issues for women in the sciences generated by previous ADVANCE grant recipients to guide the mentoring and collaborative events for women as well as shape administrator training and policy discussions. The project is designed to improve the workplace for individual women scientists and create workplaces at all four institutions that will promote healthy work-life balance and partnerships for all STEM faculty.