Inclusive Engineering Mentoring Initiative
ChE Professor and Chair Rebecca Willits was awarded, in collaboration with the University of Akron (PI), an $800,000 NSF award for “BPE Track 3: Engineering Academic Mentoring Collective.”
An NSF BPE Track 3 award is designed to help build supportive networks of underrepresented groups in engineering, particularly Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC) individuals and women.
This initiative will help demystify the transition into academic positions for all faculty and emphasize inclusive mentoring and culturally responsive training. The project aims to improve retention in academia, equipping institutions with diverse faculty who can drive innovation and enhance public engagement in science.
It provides training for PhD and postdoctoral students as well as resources for universities that may wish to replicate this successful approach. It builds on previous initiatives and highlights NSF’s commitment to broadening participation in engineering and the vital role of mentorship.
Abstract Source: NSF
The broader impact of this NSF Broadening Participation for Engineering Track 3 (BPE- Track-3) will demystify the transition of women, Black, Indigenous, and People of Color into faculty positions. By emphasizing inclusive mentoring and culturally responsive mentor training, the programs will impact the engineering educators and administrators (i.e., academia) to not only recruit diverse candidates but retain them in academia. Increased retention can have a long-term effect on engineering by equipping academia with new faculty to usher creative discoveries that not only improves education but increases public scientific engagement. Equipping participants with training in education and mentoring will result in better-prepared engineering educators, leading to better-equipped newly trained engineers entering the workforce. Through collaboration and development with institutional partners, this Hub will bolster the infrastructure and resources for engineering education.
The proposed project will build upon the findings of the investigators’ previous NSF supported project that focused on preparing PhD and postdoctoral students for academia. Our findings, as well as those found by other researchers, revealed that most new faculty members, whether they had postdoctoral training or not, were not adequately prepared to excel in academia. Additionally, new faculty need a safe space for mentoring and potential mentors would benefit from cross-gender and cross-race training. The proposed project will provide (i) one year-long professional training to better prepare PhD students and postdoctoral participants for a successful career as engineering professors, (ii) training and resources for other universities to duplicate the PhD and postdoctoral training from the previously funded NSF BPE project, (iii) inclusive mentoring, (iv) open source, effective, and culturally responsive mentor training for all interested university and community college engineering faculty, and (v) networking within the Hub. The proposed Hub will also establish links with recently funded Track 3 Inclusive Mentoring Hubs and other BPE projects. These networks will support capacity building for those working in broadening participation and mentoring, provide enhanced networking opportunities, and enable real- time sharing of knowledge and resources.