NSF Awards: 1649384
2018 (see original presentation & discussion)
Graduate, Adult learners
LEVERAGE, led by an alliance of the seven largest national diversity-serving engineering professional organizations, is designing, developing and testing strategies to inform how best to strengthen engineering education by increasing the number of historically underrepresented faculty in engineering. The INCLUDES pilot will support the alliance's longer-term objective to construct a fully integrated system for faculty transition stages to double the number of historically underrepresented engineering faculty by 2025. Partner organizations include:
The LEVERAGE partner organizations are professional affinity groups that support the professional development, persistence and success of diverse engineers traveling along academic career pathways, allowing their careers to be set within their cultural context. Collectively, these organizations have 300 years of experience supporting and celebrating women and the historically underrepresented in pursuing engineering careers.
LEVERAGE programs provide mechanisms for strengthening informal professional networks, for professional development, and for creating discipline and/or research specific affinity group affiliations. LEVERAGE programs are created to have a direct impact on participant productivity and well-being.
George Hein
Professor Emeritus
Thanks for posting this video of an important effort. I understand how mentoring will assist early career faculty to improve their opportunities to succeed. You also mention professional development activities. Can you tell me more aobut these?
Kimberly Douglas-Mankin
Consultant
Thanks for your question, George. The LEVERAGE content being developed will be available virtually in both synchronous and asynchronous formats. The content is designed to contribute to the success of early-career engineering faculty in earning promotion and tenure, and the organizations provide the opportunity to do this in cultural context -- adding a richness to discussions and interactions. More specifically, content focuses on the following learning objectives for the early-career faculty:
George Hein
Professor Emeritus
Kimberly,
Thanks for your response.
It seems that the content of the LEVERAGE activities you're developing would be applicable to a wide range of academic careers, not just engineering. You are covering a wide range of skills needed for academic success. (The one "big" issue that I've encountered in academia that you don't deal with is the constant concerns about parking! But, I guess that's part of "understanding University culture.")
Kimberly Douglas-Mankin
Consultant
lol... Agreed. I definitely don't miss the parking issues faculty face!
Rachel Shefner
Associate Director
Following up on George's question, those are certainly important topics to cover for anyone at this career stage. I am wondering then how this is specifically tailored to the group you are serving? Do you know whether any of the issues you address in the PD is more or less of a barrier for this specific group? Are there other mentoring programs that you used as model that perhaps do not target the specific group you are targeting? Is the difference the content of the mentoring/PD or the group that is receiving it? The large and connected group of resources (organizations) that you have brought together for this project is amazing.
Kimberly Douglas-Mankin
Consultant
Hi Rachel, Thanks for much for the follow-up questions. Yes, they are important topics for anyone at this career stage, but often the diverse faculty served by LEVERAGE do not have ready access to these resources on their campuses. The diversity serving professional organizations are able to provide cultural context for the PD/mentoring, particularly for the face-to-face events offered at their conferences. The cultural context also comes out in the rich nature of the questions asked of speakers at webinars and workshops, and in the the candid nature of the discussions. For many participants, they are "the only..." on their campus, in their college, and/or in their department. They continually express how powerful it is to receive this PD and mentoring in a context where they are the majority. They also often express appreciate having a safe place to ask questions that they would worry about asking on their campus or of their department heads or colleagues.
Rachel Shefner
Associate Director
Makes sense, thank you. Your project is a good reminder that STEM for All is a lifelong process.
Kimberly Douglas-Mankin
Consultant
The intention with LEVERAGE is to build and test the infrastructure to focus on early-career faculty and then to expand up and down the pathway to other career stages.
Sarah Hampton
MS Math and Science Teacher, Volunteer STEAM Coordinator
I like how your project immediately benefits underrepresented faculty with the intention to ultimately benefit all engineering students. We all profit from more voices in the conversation!
Kimberly Douglas-Mankin
Consultant
Sarah, thanks for your comment and for watching the video. Agreed! ... and we are looking forward to realizing those voices in those conversations.
Sarah Hampton
Ellen Meier
This is such an important issue! Thank you for developing a thoughtful process for supporting historically underrepresented faculty in the field of engineering; it is key to the next generation of engineers.
In our STEM work with K-12 teachers (http://videohall.com/p/1182) we find that the teachers often feel unprepared to address engineering issues. Our professional development team includes a recent engineering doctoral graduate who works with us in the schools and inspires the teachers. It seems, however, that we need to engage all types of engineers from diverse backgrounds -- including engineering faculty -- with our K-12 schools. Our K-12 students, teachers and administrators need models.
Kimberly Douglas-Mankin
Consultant
Thanks for your comment and for the work you are doing in the K-12 space to address engineering issues. I agree with you that we need to engage a diverse group of engineers to make a difference, and that LEVERAGE likely has a unique community to help do so. The challenge is developing ways to make it efficient for the diverse faculty to do so. Engineering desperately needs them to successfully earn tenure and outreach work often doesn't "count" in the tenure process. It would be interesting to think about what types of processes we could create to "automate" the process so that they could contribute in ways that are impactful without impacting their performance in other more tenure relevant areas.
Ellen Meier
I agree, Kimberly, with everything you have said. This is certainly a creative challenge for those of us committed to engagement at all levels. You seem to be suggesting that we think about some imaginative ways of capturing the voices and perspectives of LEVERAGE fellows without taking them away from their primary academic pursuit of tenure. Perhaps technology could play a role in documenting the story of some of the your early career faculty in a way that can be shared with younger audiences, without distracting faculty themselves from their principal mission.
All good wishes for your ongoing work!
Further posting is closed as the event has ended.