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Implementation of Advocates and Allies Programs to Support and Promote Gender Equity in Academia

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Conference

2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Location

Seattle, Washington

Publication Date

June 14, 2015

Start Date

June 14, 2015

End Date

June 17, 2015

ISBN

978-0-692-50180-1

ISSN

2153-5965

Conference Session

Women in Engineering Division: Faculty and Gender Issues

Tagged Division

Women in Engineering

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

21

Page Numbers

26.905.1 - 26.905.21

DOI

10.18260/p.24242

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/24242

Download Count

1424

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Paper Authors

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Canan Bilen-Green North Dakota State University

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Canan Bilen-Green is Vice Provost for Faculty Advancement at North Dakota State University. She is also Dale Hogoboom Professor of Industrial and Manufacturing Engineering and PI of the ADVANCE Program at North Dakota State University. She holds Ph.D. and M.S. degrees in Statistics from the University of Wyoming and a M.S. degree in Industrial Engineering from Bilkent University.

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Jenna P. Carpenter Louisiana Tech University

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Dr. Carpenter is Associate Dean for Undergraduate Studies and Wayne and Juanita Spinks Professor of Mathematics in the College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University. She is PI on Tech's NSF ADVANCE grant, 2014-2015 President of WEPAN, a member of the mathematical and statistical societies Joint Committee on Women, and advises a variety of women and girl-serving STEM projects and organizations. She is a past Vice President of ASEE and current Chair of the ASEE Long Range Planning Committee.

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Stacy Doore University of Maine

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Roger A. Green North Dakota State University

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Roger Green received the B.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering and the M.S. and Ph.D. degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Wyoming in 1992, 1994, and 1998, respectively. During his Ph.D. studies, he also obtained a graduate minor in statistics.

He is currently an Associate Professor and Undergraduate Coordinator with the Electrical and Computer Engineering department at North Dakota State University, where he teaches courses and conducts research in signal processing.

Since its inception in 2008, Dr. Green has been an active member of the NDSU Advance FORWARD Advocates, a group of male faculty dedicated to effecting departmental and institutional change in support of gender equality. As part of this group, he regularly trains men, at NDSU and other institutions, to better serve as gender equity allies. Dr. Green is the author of a series of advocacy tips, published by the Women in Engineering Division (WIED) of ASEE and available at wied.asee.org.

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Karen J. Horton P.E. University of Maine

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Karen J. Horton, P.E. is a Professor of Mechanical Engineering Technology at the University of Maine, and a licensed professional engineer in the state of Maine. She is a Co-Principal Investigator on a National Science Foundation ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Grant. Prior to her 1997 appointment to the University she was employed as a mechanical engineer at Bath Iron Works in Maine, as a high school mathematics and electronics teacher for the Department of Defense Dependent Schools in Germany, and as a mechanical engineer at the Naval Coastal Systems Center in Florida.

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Kristen L. Jellison Lehigh University

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Kristen Jellison is an associate professor of civil and environmental engineering at Lehigh University and serves as the director of Lehigh's NSF-ADVANCE grant.

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Sharon Melissa Latimer West Virginia University

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Melissa Latimer is a Professor of Sociology and Director of the WVU ADVANCE Center. Much of her published work involves understanding individual experiences with social insurance and social assistance programs. Her recent research examines gender inequality and academia and organizational change within institutions of higher education.

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Marci J. Levine Lehigh University

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Marci Levine, Ph.D., joined Lehigh University in 2010 as the Program Manger for Lehigh ADVANCE. She is also a member of the University Council for Equity and Committee. Prior to Lehigh ADVANCE, she had six years of scientific program management experience at an international non-profit organization to promote the use of sound science in food safety and nutrition public health policies across industry, academia and governments. Marci earned her Ph.D. in Nutritional Sciences from Purdue University.

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D. Patrick O'Neal Louisiana Tech University

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D. Patrick O’Neal is an associate professor in the Biomedical Engineering program which is part of the College of Engineering and Science at Louisiana Tech University. Prior to moving to academia in 2005, he served as PI on industrial nanomedicine-based development projects supported by NSF, NIH, and NIST funding. Given a research focus in biomedical optics, he has published peer-reviewed articles in basic and clinical cancer research, nanomedicine, and applied electro-optic instrumentation. Based on experiences instructing courses like Biomedical Engineering Senior Design and his ongoing involvement with the medical device industry, he has developed a strong interest in optimizing gender interactions and productivity in engineering projects and is currently serving as co-PI on a 5-year NSF ADVANCE project.

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Abstract

Implementation of Advocates and Allies Programs to Support and Promote Gender Equity in AcademiaDespite increasing attention and progress, the goal of achieving gender equality remains elusiveacross academic disciplines, particularly engineering. In , receivedan NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant to increase the participation of women infaculty and administrative positions and to address institutional deficiencies in recruitment,retention, advancement, and climate. One unique and effective initiative of ADVANCE project is the development, implementation, and sustainment of an Advocates andAllies program. Recognizing the vital role of majority groups (in this case men) to sustain orchange institutional culture, the Advocates and Allies program intentionally establishes anetwork of trained male faculty who work with other male faculty to promote gender equity.The success of the Advocates and Allies model has attracted national attention, includingpublished papers, invited presentations and webinars, broadly disseminated advocacy tips, andadoption and implementation of Advocates and Allies programs at multiple institutions.To encourage broader adoption of the Advocates and Allies model, we discuss in this paper theimplementation of Advocates and Allies programs at the original ADVANCE institution as wellas four additional institutions. These institutions represent a mixture of characteristics such aspublic/private, research/teaching, size, geographic, and other diversity elements. To begin, weoverview the essential elements of the Advocates and Allies model and summarize thetheoretical and empirical frameworks supporting the use of men as change agents to promotegender equity. Next, we describe the institutional context of the original ADVANCE institution,detail the format and implementation of its Advocates and Allies program while payingparticular attention to institution-specific factors, and then highlight the successes and challengesin establishing, operating, and sustaining the Advocates and Allies group. This follows withindividual descriptions, each using a consistent format, for the four additional institutions. Thepaper concludes by identifying common themes in the implementation of Advocates and Alliesprograms and providing recommendations for other institutions to begin their own Advocatesand Allies programs.

Bilen-Green, C., & Carpenter, J. P., & Doore, S., & Green, R. A., & Horton, K. J., & Jellison, K. L., & Latimer, S. M., & Levine, M. J., & O'Neal, D. P. (2015, June), Implementation of Advocates and Allies Programs to Support and Promote Gender Equity in Academia Paper presented at 2015 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition, Seattle, Washington. 10.18260/p.24242

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