Purpose
The advancement of equity, diversity and inclusion in higher education is dependent on institutional culture changes in academia. Faculty equity, diversity and inclusion efforts must engage departmental leadership. The purpose of this paper is to describe the growth and expansion of the ADVANCE leadership program at the University of Washington (UW) for department chairs that was designed to provide department chairs the skills, community and information needed to be agents of change within the academy.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper chronicles the program’s growth from a campus-based workshop program to national workshops (LEAD) to a web-based toolkit (LiY!) to support institutions in running their own UW ADVANCE-inspired leadership workshops.
Findings
The paper demonstrates the success of each growth stage and the expansion of program impact.
Practical implications
The paper offers recommendations for growing a model from a local to national scale and adapting the described leadership development model at other institutions.
Originality/value
The paper shares a successful model for equipping department chairs to be advocates of gender equity, diversity and inclusion in STEM and to be change agents in higher education.
BRAINS: Broadening the Representation of Academic Investigators in NeuroScience is a national program designed to diversify neuroscience by increasing retention of early-career neuroscientists from underrepresented groups. This paper highlights particular programmatic innovations and discusses recommendations to broaden participation in the life sciences.
Shared vision is an important process for change projects, serving to amplify success, increase participation, and erode the divide between project leaders and constituents. Yet there are few empirical examinations of the process of building shared vision within academic departments. Using focus groups and participant observation, this study examines shared vision development within 13 large-scale change projects in engineering and computer science higher education. We find that teams of faculty, staff, administrators, and students built shared vision with stakeholders through co-orientation, formational communication, and recognition of stakeholder autonomy. Our results delineate practices for developing shared vision for academic change projects and demonstrate the benefits of inclusive stakeholder empowerment.
In order to better prepare trainees and advance diversity in neuroscience, career development must move beyond scientific skills. The BRAINS Program's continuous professional development model positively impacts participants' careers by fostering a sense of community and creating a counterspace for critical conversations.
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