In March 2014, members of UC Davis ADVANCE leadership and management teams, including Chancellor Katehi, Vice Provost Academic Affairs Maureen Stanton, Vice Chancellor Student Affairs Adela de la Torre, UC Davis ADVANCE Faculty Director Karen McDonald, CAMPOS Director Mary Lou de Leon Siantz and Program Coordinator Denneal Jamison-McClung, attended the NSF ADVANCE Program Workshop hosted by the Association for Women in Science (AWIS).  UC Davis Provost Ralph Hexter joined the leadership team in attendance. 

Topics highlighted over the course of the 2.5-day workshop focused on best practices for implementing NSF ADVANCE projects and increasing diversity in STEM faculty.  Challenges in faculty recruitment, dual career hiring, service inequality, mentoring, promotion and retention were discussed, as well as strategies for implementing effective institutional policies and practices to overcome current challenges.

Keynote talks were shared by leaders in the field of gender and science, including “Scientific and Technical Leadership as a Woman: Hurdles and Opportunities by Dr. Wendy Cieslak (Sandia National Labs, Emeritus and Hertz Foundation) and ADVANCE program veteran, Dr. Abigail Stewart (University of Michigan) speaking about “ADVANCE Institutional Transformation”.

A terrific resource launched during one of the workshop breakout sessions was the StratEGIC Toolkit, a compilation of best practices derived from the collaborative research efforts of Dr. Ann Austin (Michigan State University) and Dr. Sandra Laursen (Colorado University, Boulder) funded by a NSF ADVANCE PAID award (#HRD-0930097).  The team put together thirteen briefs describing common strategic interventions used by ADVANCE programs to effect institutional changes that support diversity in STEM faculty.

The energy and enthusiasm brought to the workshop by all of the participating ADVANCE teams was palpable, as was the spirit of community and shared purpose.  In our second award year, the UC Davis ADVANCE team was on the lookout for best practices being shared by more senior ADVANCE programs.  In turn, we presented a poster, “Communication to Recruit and Promote a Diverse STEM Faculty- Where Do We Stand?”, examining the use of diversity language in UC Davis faculty job recruitments and providing an overview of UC Davis ADVANCE Initiatives.