Our grant was funded by the NSF AGEP program as a collaborative research grant from 2016-2021.

Our work has supported the interest and preparation of graduate students from historically marginalized backgrounds in becoming faculty members, primarily by improving campus climate. We adopted a systems change approach known as a networked improvement community (NIC). NICs can accelerate progress because they focus on systems and the partnerships needed to create change. Ten universities formed a NIC and we modified its traditional structure to be more relevant for higher education partnerships.

Project Collaborators

Boston University, Cornell University, Howard University, Iowa State University, Michigan State University, Northwestern University, University at Buffalo, University of Georgia, University of Maryland, College Park, and University of Texas at Arlington

Project Objectives

• Objective 1: Accelerate change on each campus by sharing strategies on building local partnerships and learning together.
• Objective 2: Understand the key factors that support and strengthen underrepresented minority (URM) student and postdoc interest and preparedness for faculty careers
• Objective 3: To add to the theoretical and research knowledge base on how a negative campus climate can adversely impact the choice of an academic career for URM dissertators.
• Objective 4: Retain URM PhD students and postdocs within the academic pipeline and help them become more prepared and confident as they seek faculty careers.
• Objective 5: To conduct an external evaluation and self-study to determine the effectiveness of the proposed Model in meeting its stated goals and objectives.

We acknowledge the support of NSF grants numbers 1647104, 1646810, 1646977, 1647094, 1647119, 1646869, 1647146, 1647121, 1647021, and 1647181. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this work are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF.