VCU National Coordinating Center for Advancing Gender Inclusive Excellence - PROJECT ABSTRACT/SUMMARY Background: Institutional change in higher education regarding diversity, equity and inclusion, tends to be complex, contested, and slow moving. However, many institutions continue to design and implement change programs. Among those are gender equity initiatives that aim to increase the participation and advancement of diverse women faculty in the science, technology, engineering, mathematics, and medicine (STEMM) academic and research workforce. Despite these efforts and initiatives, many institutions continue to face structural barriers to the change programs they attempt to implement. What is missing is a central hub to support and advance gender equity programs through collecting, validating, evaluating and disseminating strategies and outcomes. Such a resource would provide the necessary tools, strategies, and techniques to optimize gender equity programs collaboratively across STEMM disciplines. Aims: The proposed National Coordinating Center for Advancing Gender Inclusive Excellence (AGIE) at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) intends to fill this gap. In collaboration with the National Institutes of Health (NIH), the VCU AGIE will create an online central repository for sharing resources, tools, technologies, expertise, and strategies designed to overcome systemic gender-based inequities impacting the STEMM academic and research workforce. Stakeholders will be able to search for strategies to identify and address systemic gender-based inequities and enable women to attain leadership positions in STEMM research. The aims of the VCU AGIE are to: 1) Evaluate the types and components of programs that substantially increase the participation and advancement of diverse women faculty in the STEMM academic and research workforce; 2) Develop a central repository for data, tools, programs, and strategies that promote gender equity at the faculty and leadership levels in the STEMM academic and research workforce; and, 3) Promote and disseminate research on barriers and strategies to enhance the recruitment, retention and advancement of STEMM women faculty and leaders in the academic and research workforce. Impact: The primary outcome of accomplishing these aims will allow the VCU AGIE, in collaboration with the NIH, to set a national standard of excellence for advancing diverse women in faculty and leadership positions across the STEMM fields. By accomplishing this goal, this program will create a functional, validated, and sustainable resource to overcome systemic gender-based inequities impacting the STEMM academic and research workforce.
