Sincerely,
ADVANCE Program
2023 Year in Review
Dear colleagues,
I am excited to share with you some of the S&T ADVANCE Program’s accomplishments and ongoing activities from 2023, and to invite you to join our efforts to make S&T a more equitable and inclusive workplace where all faculty can thrive.
The ADVANCE program, funded by a $1M grant from the NSF, has three primary goals: to cultivate an inclusive climate; to mitigate bias in faculty hiring and evaluations; and to foster equitable resource distribution and access to opportunities among faculty.
Department chairs are very involved with ADVANCE initiatives, and I deeply appreciate their enthusiasm and support. Each department has also designated an ADVANCE Advocate, who participates in ADVANCE programming and assists the chair in promoting equity-based faculty initiatives.
In addition, anyone can become an ADVANCE Affiliate by simply sending an email to advance@mst.edu. Affiliates receive regular updates and invitations to ADVANCE programs. I hope you will consider becoming an affiliate, if you are not already, and thanks to all of you for everything you do to promote equity and inclusivity on campus.
Jessica Cundiff
Principal Investigator and Director, S&T ADVANCE
Associate Professor, Psychological Science
Distinguished Speaker Series
The ADVANCE 2023 Distinguished Speakers Series opened on April 4. Dr. Erin Cech, associate professor of sociology at the University of Michigan, gave a presentation titled “Professional Cultures and Inequality in STEM.”
Dr. Cech’s research examines cultural mechanisms of inequality reproduction. Her work on inequality in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) professions focuses on the recruitment and retention of people who identify as women, LGBTQ, and/or members of racial-ethnic groups underrepresented in STEM degree programs and STEM jobs.
On Sept. 20, the Missouri S&T Board of Trustees’ Inclusion, Diversity, Excellence, and Attainment (IDEA) Committee provided an insightful panel discussion covering their “Stories of success: How diversity and inclusion improve organizations” to administrators and other faculty leaders. Members of the panel also led small group discussions on how their experiences could be translated to the Missouri S&T campus. Ideas generated from these discussions are helping to inform future ADVANCE initiatives.
Workshop Series for Campus Leaders
ADVANCE hosted a series of workshops intended primarily for department chairs and ADVANCE Advocates. Three workshops in spring 2023 focused on the theme of enhancing department climate.
The first workshop invited chairs and advocates to play “WAGES: The Academic Career Game,” a board game designed to illustrate the compounding effects of inequitable treatment across an academic career.
The second workshop presented all departments with a Department Equity Profile that:
- provided baseline data on how their faculty demographics compared to national norms
- indicated to what extent the department currently employs equitable practices (based on a survey completed by the chairs);
- showed how their faculty responded to a survey about department climate.
The third workshop featured Dr. Joya Misra, Provost Professor and the Roy J. Zuckerberg Endowed Leadership Chair at the University of Massachusetts, who led a virtual seminar in April on best practices of inclusive and welcoming departments.
Fall 2023 workshops began with a session led by ADVANCE colleagues from Colorado State University and Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis about how to take advantage of the ADVANCE Program’s Department Enhancement Grants (see below for more details about these grants). The final workshop of the semester, “Closing the deal: The art of negotiations in faculty hiring,” was a panel discussion about best practices for equitable negotiation practices when hiring new faculty; this workshop was well attended by department chairs, deans, and other hiring authorities.
Professional Development Opportunities for Mid-Career Faculty
We offered two workshops targeted toward faculty at the associate professor rank:
- “Preparing for promotion” offered in April
- “Post-tenure pathfinders” with special guest Dr. Ndidiamaka Amutah-Onukagha, assistant dean for diversity and inclusion at Tufts University School of Medicine, offered in September
In addition, we launched a Mid-Career Faculty Mentoring Circle in Fall 2023. This mentoring circle, especially designed for faculty who were recently promoted to associate professors, provides guidance and a support network so faculty can better strategize about how they will focus their efforts as they move toward promotion to full professor. The mentoring circle met three times during the fall and will meet three more times during the spring semester. Invitations to participate in next year’s mid-career mentoring circle will come out later this spring, so please be sure to sign up if you are interested.
Search Committee Workshops
One of the S&T ADVANCE program’s goals is to promote a diverse faculty by equipping search committee members with best practices for inclusive and equitable searches. In May, a team from the University of Wisconsin visited S&T and conducted a half-day, evidence-informed workshop, titled “Searching for Excellence and Diversity,” for about 60 S&T faculty. Over the summer, a team of nine faculty and six staff members completed a "Prepare to Present" course based on the workshop, and in early September conducted two three-hour workshops, titled “Best Practices in Faculty Recruitment,” that trained approximately 40 additional members of faculty search committees. The S&T ADVANCE program followed up with a rubric development workshop for search committee members in late September.
Going forward, the team is working to develop a hybrid model of search committee training for S&T, so some information can be delivered asynchronously online, while other information about bias mitigation may be delivered in person. The team is also working on building tools, resources, and procedures to aid search committees in best practices in faculty recruitment, in partnership with human resources and diversity, equity and inclusion.
Department Enhancement Grants
The ADVANCE program launched its first round of Department Enhancement Grants in the fall. Four proposals were selected for funding, ranging from $8,500 to $20,000. The start date for these grants is January 2024, and projects last one or two years. This year’s funded projects focus on the following topics for the departments noted below:
- Tracking and assessing service work (materials science and engineering)
- Developing tools to increase the diversity of applicant pools (mechanical and aerospace engineering)
- Implementing a professional development workshop (chemistry)
- Improving the faculty performance evaluation process (civil, architectural and environmental engineering)
Departments that would like to submit a proposal for a Department Enhancement Grant will have another chance to do so; a second round of grants will be available in Fall 2024.
ADVANCE Faculty Fellows
The ADVANCE Program launched its first cohort of Faculty Fellows, whose terms began last summer. Fellows identified a project aligned with ADVANCE goals of fostering gender equity and promoting inclusive practices, and will work for one year to develop resources and make improvements in their chosen area. Faculty Fellows receive one course release (or equivalent in faculty support funds), a $5,000 stipend, and up to $2,000 for project materials.
S&T’s 2023-24 Faculty Fellows, shown from left, are:
- Dr. Clair Kueny, chair and associate professor of psychological science, “Creating a Destination of Choice by Interrupting Bias in Annual Faculty Reviews and Evaluations”
- Dr. William Schonberg, professor of civil, architectural and environmental engineering, “Advancing Faculty Diversity and Broadening Paths to Career Advancement at Missouri S&T”
- Dr. Catherine Johnson, S&T's Robert H. Quenon Associate Professor of Mining Engineering, and Dr. Kelley Wilkerson, associate teaching professor of materials science and engineering, “Faculty Recruitment Strategies for Missouri S&T.”
Proposals for 2024-25 Faculty Fellows are being accepted until Thursday, Feb. 1. More details are available on the S&T ADVANCE website.
Appointment of S&T’s First Faculty Ombuds
The S&T ADVANCE Program catalyzed the appointment of a part-time faculty
ombuds — a person trained to help faculty answer questions, find information, and assist in the resolution of conflicts. The ombuds provides independent and confidential assistance to faculty who are facing challenges in any area of their professional life.
In March 2023, after an internal application process, Provost Colin Potts named Dr. Sahra Sedigh Sarvestani, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, as S&T’s first faculty ombuds. Dr. Sedigh Sarvestani has completed training through the International Ombuds Association and is currently available to serve S&T faculty. She may be reached at: sedighs@mst.edu or (573) 341-7505.
Advance Program
Missouri University of Science and Technology
