Asee peer logo

Work in Progress: The Challenges of Evaluating ADVANCE Initiative's Effectiveness in the Progress of Women Faculty in Engineering

Download Paper |

Conference

2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access

Location

Virtual Conference

Publication Date

July 26, 2021

Start Date

July 26, 2021

End Date

July 19, 2022

Conference Session

Faculty Development Lightning Talk Session 2

Tagged Division

Faculty Development Division

Tagged Topic

Diversity

Page Count

17

DOI

10.18260/1-2--38202

Permanent URL

https://peer.asee.org/38202

Download Count

221

Request a correction

Paper Authors

biography

Matilde Luz Sanchez-Pena University at Buffalo

visit author page

Matilde Sanchez-Pena is an Assistant Professor in engineering education at University at Buffalo - SUNY. Her current research areas include (a) advancing institutional diversity, (b) cultures of health in engineering education, and (c) data analysis skills of engineers. She aims to promote a more equitable engineering field in which students of all backgrounds can acquire the knowledge and skills to achieve their goals. She obtained her Ph.D. in Engineering Education from Purdue University. Before engaging in Engineering Education research, she completed graduate degrees in Industrial Engineering and Statistics and contributed to a wide range of research areas including genetic disorders, manufacturing optimization, cancer biomarker detection, and the evaluation of social programs. Dr. Sanchez-Pena is passionate about teaching engineering students and First-Year Engineering students in particular, from whom she draws inspiration because of their energy and creativity. She takes as her mission to foster such traits and support their holistic development, so they can find their unique engineering path and enact positive change.

visit author page

author page

Syed Ali Kamal Independent Researcher

Download Paper |

Abstract

The retention and promotion of a diverse engineering faculty body play a primary role in the advancement of the field. Failure to retain engineering faculty has significant economic implications for institutions. Additionally, the availability of role models and potential mentors for women and other minorities is paramount for the continuing diversification of the field. Prior research has documented additional challenges faced by women faculty in engineering when compared to men; such evidence has resulted in significant attempts to attenuate such disparities among faculty at all ranks. Initiatives such as those requested by the NSF - Organizational Change for Gender Equity in STEM Academic Professions (ADVANCE) have the substantive goal to increase the number of women in engineering and other STEM areas and improve the quality of their experiences through the support of systemic change. However, little is known about how the cumulative positive change enacted by such initiatives manifest in the diversification of the field. Focused on the larger goal of creating models to capture the effectiveness of ADVANCE initiatives, this work in progress presents a literature review of the different factors that have been documented to negatively affect the progress of women faculty in engineering and other STEM areas. This is presented with an iterative identification of elements through different stages of the academic career, layered with variables that are measurable, and potential approaches for future modeling given existing research and the characteristics of the ADVANCE program. The challenges of modeling such a complex system are discussed, together with potential alternatives as a first modeling approach using existing data from different sources.

Sanchez-Pena, M. L., & Kamal, S. A. (2021, July), Work in Progress: The Challenges of Evaluating ADVANCE Initiative's Effectiveness in the Progress of Women Faculty in Engineering Paper presented at 2021 ASEE Virtual Annual Conference Content Access, Virtual Conference. 10.18260/1-2--38202

ASEE holds the copyright on this document. It may be read by the public free of charge. Authors may archive their work on personal websites or in institutional repositories with the following citation: © 2021 American Society for Engineering Education. Other scholars may excerpt or quote from these materials with the same citation. When excerpting or quoting from Conference Proceedings, authors should, in addition to noting the ASEE copyright, list all the original authors and their institutions and name the host city of the conference. - Last updated April 1, 2015