Conference: Future Faculty Workshop: Preparing Diverse Leaders for the Future, Summers of 2022-2025

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This interdisciplinary future faculty workshop (FFW) aims to support full engagement of the American population in the science and engineering enterprise through an event centered on supporting graduate students and postdocs in their transition into faculty positions across the nation. Increasing the fraction of faculty who belong to groups historically underrepresented in the academic enterprise is a prominent route to improving overall diversity in the up-and-coming science and engineering workforce. This can be transformational with respect to talent development and research creativity, enabling more rapid development of transformative solutions to pressing societal needs. The mission of the FFW is to provide aspiring academic leaders access to the key information critical to apply for, secure, and succeed in faculty positions across academic institutions in the United States. The vision of the FFW is to foster an inclusive academic climate that supports the diverse talent and human resources of the American population in lifelong careers in the scientific and engineering enterprise. Materials research inherently supports interdisciplinary, collaborative, and collective research endeavors across traditionally siloed disciplines (i.e., chemistry, physics, biology, geology, mathematics, engineering, etc.). Thus, this field is an ideal venue to enhance economic, social, racial, gender, and disability diversity in academia, as well as support non-traditional career paths (e.g., pursuit of a STEM academic career after military service). The FFW is a hands-on multi-day interactive workshop. Through this project, four two-day workshops will be held annually from 2022-2025, and will bring together mentees who will have current positions as senior graduate students and postdocs, and mentors who will be established faculty from across US universities, many of whom are from groups underrepresented in academic STEM fields and who participated in past FFWs as mentees and/or mentors. The agenda for the workshop is built upon best practices and knowledge gained from prior workshops, with targeted improvements based on previous assessments. Panel discussions will cover how to prepare for an independent academic career during time as a graduate student or postdoc; how to identify, apply to, interview at, and negotiate for positions; and best practices as an assistant professor. Mentees will also have the opportunity to give a short proposed research talk and get feedback on content and presentation style. A dynamic logic model framework that permits ready adaptation and assessment will be used to facilitate success and inform best practices. The assessment will include both formative and summative evaluation components, which will be relayed to the PI and key collaborators and used to inform changes to subsequent FFWs. A post-workshop community will be developed to support the participates in their continued professional development and virtual pre-application webinars will be held so that potential applicants can learn more about the process and the barrier for application is lowered. Shorter-term outcomes of this project will include enhanced preparation of women and underrepresented candidates for the academic pathway, increased confidence in similar populations in the pursuit of academic careers, and increased number of similar populations who effectively pursue and succeed in academic careers. Longer-term outcomes are increased numbers of faculty who are women and/or from groups historically underrepresented in science and engineering, as well as increased participation of similar populations in national societies/groups/networks. Ultimately, this enhancement of the professoriate will lead to increased innovation and inclusive excellence, and it will provide a sustainable catalyst for improving diversity and inclusion across the American science and engineering enterprise.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.