Alabama ADVANCE Partnership for Achieving Gender Equity in STEM

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The Alabama ADVANCE Partnership for Achieving Gender Equity in STEM will build on prior NSF ADVANCE work at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and other research and literature concerning gender, racial and ethnic equity. The partnership includes the University of Alabama at Birmingham, the University of Alabama in Huntsville, Alabama A&M University, Miles College and Oakwood University. The project will implement institutional changes at the partner institutions in practices and policies to enhance gender equity and inclusion for STEM faculty in STEM departments. Activities include unconscious bias seminars and workshops with STEM faculty and administrators, training for search and promotion committees, and annual state-wide conferences on gender equity bringing provosts and STEM deans together to discuss strategies that work to enhance equity and inclusion. The partnership will implement evidence-based activities that have been adapted to the context of the partnering institutions designed to lead to new policies or policy changes that promote gender equity for STEM faculty in the academic workplace. The ADVANCE Partnership builds on existing relationships between the Alabama institutions and will coordinate with two Louis Stokes Alliances for Minority Participation programs in Alabama and an NSF INCLUDES project lead by Auburn University. The Auburn INCLUDES project is focused on increasing the quantity and excellence of persons with disabilities in STEM via a regional alliance of twenty-one institutions in the southeast. These strategic partnerships will enhance the sharing of information and result in the establishment of a community of ADVANCE universities in the state and region. 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 to collaborations among STEM professional societies and academic and non-academic non-profit organizations designed to broaden the implementation of evidence-based equity strategies and have a national or regional reach.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.