Supported by a $3 million national science foundation grant, experts at Johns Hopkins, New York, and Carnegie Mellon Universities are developing a model for institutional change that not only supports equitable advancement and support of faculty from groups underrepresented in engineering, but that other peer institutions also can customize and use.
Project ELEVATE (Equity-focused Launch to Empower and Value AGEP Faculty to Thrive in Engineering) is part of the NSF’s Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate program (https://new.nsf.gov/funding/opportunities/alliancesgraduate-education-professoriate-agep).
“We are creating a career-pathway model that will help all three institutions, as well as countless more, ensure we have inclusive cultures that enable all members to reach their full potential,” says
Darlene Saporu, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion atthe Whiting School, and co-principal investigator on the grant.
Andrew Douglas, professor emeritus in the Whiting School’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and former vice provost for faculty affairs, is the project’s principal investigator, with Saporu and
Ed Schlesinger, Benjamin T. Rome Dean of the Whiting School, servingas co-PIs.
First steps include a self-study and external evaluation to assess each institution’s policies and practices. “We are looking at the institutional systems that faculty from underrepresented groups must navigate, from hiring and onboarding to promotion and tenure, and we’re analyzing which policies are not equitable or transparent,” Saporu says.
Central to the project will be robust mentorship programs pairing tenure-stream faculty members with trained faculty members—all full professors—at partner institutions. “Mentors have an important role in helping a person understand unwritten rules and norms,” says Saporu. “We think it will be easier for early career faculty to talk openly about challenges and to ask questions if their mentors are not at their own institutions,” says Saporu.
Project ELEVATE faculty from all three universities will gather in the Baltimore area early this summer for are treat and social justice training offered by Baltimore nonprofit Thread, founded by Sarah Hemminger. “The goal of the retreatis to harnessthe power of relationships, learn active listening, reflect on the values of privilege, overcome barriers, and interrogate power,” Saporu says. “All of these are important discussions, but we are just getting started.”
—
LISA ERCOLANO
