ADVANCE Partnership: Transforming HSI STEM Departmental Climate for Faculty Success

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Latinas represent one of the fastest-growing populations in the US, yet Latina faculty in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) careers remain underrepresented. Departmental and institutional environments must welcome and foster the engagement and career development of Latina faculty to be successful in academia. This project recognizes the importance of academic departmental climates in the recruitment, retention, and advancement of Latinas. The anticipated STEM department climate transformation focuses on equipping department chairs and their change teams with the resources needed to transform their departments' cultures into psychologically healthy workplaces for Latina and other underrepresented minority faculty. The project leverages the influence, expertise, and resources embedded within a multifaceted, multi-organizational partnership of academic and professional organizations and strategically draws on the knowledge and insights gained from, but not limited to, NSF-ADVANCE projects. The project is designed to facilitate broader adaptation of evidence-based gender equity and systemic change strategies, resulting in more diverse and inclusive STEM academic workplaces and professions. By diversifying STEM faculty, our project aspires to enhance the STEM pipeline, improve student outcomes, and ultimately strengthen the U.S. STEM workforce and global competitiveness.The goal of this project is to transform STEM departmental climates and cultures into psychologically healthy workplaces where Latina faculty can thrive in ways that maximize their scholarly productivity and advancement. The project scope encompasses four objectives, and related activities: 1) expose department change leaders to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) information and evidence-based practices via a newly created Advancing Latina Faculty in STEM Community of Practice (CoP); 2) engage STEM department change leaders in an annual spring Advancing Latina Faculty in STEM Summit for networking and resource sharing; 3) enable annual cohorts of STEM department chair-led change teams to transform their departments through intensive work guided by experienced facilitators/coaches; and 4) examine via social science research how empowerment-driven healthy workplace intervention programs for department chairs lead to improved diversity, climate, well-being, and productivity for Latinas in STEM. Implementing and applying strategies through the community of practice and department chair intervention will sharpen knowledge regarding the critical and influential factors that facilitate or hinder the success of Latina STEM faculty. Our broad partnership will disseminate information to various stakeholders on best practices to create and sustain inclusive and supportive climates for Latina STEM faculty. 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 for the adaptation and adoption of evidence-based strategies to academic, non-profit institutions of higher education, and non-academic non-profit organizations.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.