United States

Despite efforts to improve diversity in STEM career pathways, many demographic groups are still underrepresented based on ability status, gender identity, race and ethnicity, or sexual orientation; and this disproportional recruitment and retention manifests at every stage of the academic pipeline from undergraduate through professional appointments (Bernard &amp; Cooperdock, 2018). Although many solutions to inequity have been proposed, research indicates that comprehensive mentoring and role modeling programs can improve women’s motivation and persistence in STEM (Haacker, 2015). However, comprehensive programs often consist of multiple components and require intensive resources (e.g., time, money, logistical support) that may limit their replicability and scalability (Komro, Flay, Biglan, &amp; Wagenaar, 2016). Therefore, we conducted a randomized field experiment to one-of-three one-day professional development workshops to identify the critical elements of a prototypical comprehensive mentoring program for women: (a) exposure to STEM careers via female career role models; (b) training on how to maintain and grow their network of mentoring relationships; or (c) introduction to a local female scientist mentor. Here we show that the combination of all three elements were necessary to improve mentoring, motivational, and persistence outcomes.

12th Conference on Understanding Interventions 2020

Building optimal support programs: Evidence from a randomized field experiment

role model

experiment

mentor

persistence

identity

intervention

gender

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Despite efforts to improve diversity in STEM career pathways, many demographic groups are still underrepresented based on ability status, gender identity, race and ethnicity, or sexual orientation; and this disproportional recruitment and retention manifests at every stage of the academic pipeline from undergraduate through professional appointments (Bernard & Cooperdock, 2018). Although many solutions to inequity have been proposed, research indicates that comprehensive mentoring and role modeling programs can improve women’s motivation and persistence in STEM (Haacker, 2015). However, comprehensive programs often consist of multiple components and require intensive resources (e.g., time, money, logistical support) that may limit their replicability and scalability (Komro, Flay, Biglan, & Wagenaar, 2016). Therefore, we conducted a randomized field experiment to one-of-three one-day professional development workshops to identify the critical elements of a prototypical comprehensive mentoring program for women: (a) exposure to STEM careers via female career role models; (b) training on how to maintain and grow their network of mentoring relationships; or (c) introduction to a local female scientist mentor. Here we show that the combination of all three elements were necessary to improve mentoring, motivational, and persistence outcomes.

poster

UI is excited to announce the rescheduled 12th Annual Conference on Understanding Interventions December 10 & 12, 2020! As you may recall, the original conference scheduled back in March 2020 had to be cancelled due the worsening global conditions, and further declaration of the COVID-19 pandemic. Stay tuned for details regarding the virtual conference.

On December 10, 2020 from 12:00-5:00pm (EST), and December 12, 2020 from 11:00am-5:00pm (EST), UI will host the Virtual 12th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference powered by Underline. Attendees will experience plenaries, workshops, symposia, and poster presentations on hypothesis-based research on interventions and initiatives that broaden participation in STEM careers. The conference will continue to facilitate the dialogue among education, behavioral, and social science researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM fields who participate in intervention programs. Graduate students in these fields are strongly encouraged to attend. Workshops, sessions, and posters will communicate effective strategies from successful STEM intervention programs, present results from empirical research studies, and synthesize the translation of research findings into practice on STEM learning, undergraduate research, graduate education, and student retention.

12th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference continues to facilitate the dialogue among education, behavioral, and social science researchers, evaluators, and faculty in STEM fields who participate in intervention programs. Workshops, sessions, and posters communicate effective strategies from successful STEM intervention programs, present results from empirical research studies, and synthesize the translation of research findings into practice on STEM learning, undergraduate research, graduate education, and student retention.

The NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub is eager to contribute a poster to introduce Understanding Interventions leaders and conference participants to the NSF INCLUDES National Network. One of the National Science Foundation’s “10 Big Ideas,” NSF INCLUDES (Inclusion across the Nation of Communities of Learners of Underrepresented Discoverers in Engineering and Science), aims to enhance U.S. leadership in science and engineering by developing talent from all sectors of our society, including underrepresented minorities, women, and people with disabilities (NSF, 2018).

To achieve this aim, NSF has invested in robust collaborative infrastructure – the NSF INCLUDES National Network – to support the development, sharing, and scaling of knowledge and best practices across STEM broadening participation networks and projects nationwide. The INCLUDES Network, which is open to all interested in broadening participation in STEM, offers members opportunities to meet new partners and connect with funders and industry representatives; build capacity in areas such as measurement, communication, and sustainability; and share their own expertise and project impacts at a national scale. 

As a poster session participant, a leader from the NSF INCLUDES Coordination Hub (which leads and supports the INCLUDES Network) will ask conference leaders and participants about the successes and challenges they experience in their broadening participation work, and describe for them resources, topical online affinity groups, and other Network activities the INCLUDES Network offers that align with their needs. The Hub leaders will also offer that people can sign into the Network website to join the Network’s online community and highlight its relevant features. 


Citations:
NSF (2018, January 31). NSF INCLUDES Report to the Nation. Retrieved from: https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/nsfincludes/pdfs/INCLUDES_report_to_the_Nation.pdf on 


An Introduction to the NSF INCLUDES National Network

Fair Play is a virtual simulation in which the player takes on the perspective of Jamal Davis, a Black graduate student on his way to becoming a renowned professor (Virtual Games for STEMM Faculty to Break the Bias Habit, DP4 GM096822; PI: Carnes, 2010-2014). While interacting with other characters and the environment in Fair Play, players experience situations that exemplify different types of racial biases and decide how to respond to each bias experience as it occurs. Research about the effects of game play suggests that the player is able to engage in perspective taking, which increases empathy, and it also increases their understanding of a number of racial bias concepts (Kaatz et al., 2017, Gutierrez et al., 2014). Do You Play Fair? A Workshop About Bias in Academia is a workshop that was developed to further extend the learning through Fair Play (NIH-NIGMS, R25GM114002, PI: Pribbenow, 2015-2020). It is based on the “habit breaking” model, which has been shown to decrease gender bias and has proven to be successful at improving bias literacy among players (Carnes et al., 2015). During the implementation of this project, the Fair Play workshop has been delivered to ~1170 faculty/instructors, administrators, academic staff, researchers, postdoctoral scientists and graduate students at sixteen universities and fourteen national STEMM-related conferences across the country. Evaluation results show consistently favorable responses on questions pertaining to participant satisfaction and learning; 96% of the participants indicated that the workshop was an effective way to teach about bias; 95% indicated they would recommend the workshop to a colleague. Workshop participants learned bias concepts and definitions, engaged in perspective taking, increased in their concern for the issues, and became more aware of the prevalence of bias-related issues in higher education and STEMM. Furthermore, participants articulated steps they intended to take to address bias in their professional environments.

Breaking the Bias Cycle for Future Scientists: A Workshop to Learn, Experience, and Change


At the center of efforts to diversify the biomedical science workforce is the need to empirically identify factors that predict individual persistence. Many in the biomedical sciences are employed in academic medicine and clinical research (here jointly referred to as academic medicine), fields in which persistence challenges have been documented (Pololi et al., 2012). Of these efforts, few have capitalized on the social science knowledge base to study persistence factors and guide relevant interventions (Byars-Winston, Gutierrez, Topp, & Carnes, 2011). Turnover theory, and its counterpart, embeddedness theory, were developed to emphasize the importance of motivations for people's choices to remain or leave in an organization or field (Hom et. al., 2017). Although prior research has documented the competing demands of professionals in academic medicine (Pololi et al., 2012), data on motivations to leave are lacking. In this study, we apply psychosocial theory to investigate predictors of persistence and leadership intentions for academic medical faculty.

A group of researchers used turnover theory in a previous study of researchers and clinicians at the Medical College of Wisconsin, concluding that female faculty "may not be leaning into promotion and leadership roles because of increased role conflict, work-life concerns, and organizational factors," and that this issue was more prominent for clinical rather than research faculty (Ellinas, Fouad, and Byars-Winston, 2018). Unlike the Medical College of Wisconsin, the University of Wisconsin's School of Medicine and Public Health (SMPH) has time limits for tenure and promotion, creating organizational pressure for faculty advancement which could potentially affect leadership and promotion aspirations. In order to both explore and better develop interventions and cultural change at UW SMPH, it is important to identify factors that locally affect the decisions of female faculty to seek out leadership and promotion opportunities as well as leave the institution. Using turnover and embeddedness theory, we replicated the original study, performing hierarchical multiple regressions to examine the motivating factors for SMPH faculty to seek promotion and leadership. We investigated group differences by gender in the relationships of role strain, work-life conflict, and organizational and departmental climate to leadership and advancement decisions.

We found that organizational commitment and support were significantly associated with faculty's promotion aspirations, leadership aspirations, and intentions to leave the organization. Given that our sample consists of both research and clinical faculty at a large midwestern university, the conclusions of our study are limited to these populations. However, in the context of previously published literature (Ellinas, Fouad, and Byars-Winston, 2018), these results confirm that organizational context can affect the aspirations of faculty in biomedical training environments, regardless of other external factors such as a tenure clock. Investing in policy, infrastructure, and evidence-based interventions and programming for the intentional career development of faculty is therefore an important aspect of a proactive talent development and retention model in academic medical centers.

Predictors of Career Advancement and Intentions to Leave in Biomedical Faculty

The percentage of students of color and women in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) is low relative to European American students and men and is often a result of both racial and gender discrimination (Castro, 2014). Specifically, a large portion of African American women are less likely to earn a degree in engineering (Gregory, 2015), yet research on the relationship between their representation and retention is still limited. Indeed, prior studies suggest that a strong sense of community and science identity can potentially mitigate the effects of racial discrimination on retention outcomes among students of color in STEM (Maton et al., 2016). Thus, the current study seeks to examine whether the relationship between racial climate and science self-efficacy is mediated by sense of community among African American female students in STEM in general, and engineering in particular. Specifically, we hypothesize that the effect of negative racial climate on science self-efficacy will be weaker for students with high sense of community but stronger for students with low sense of community. 
Data for this study will come from the Meyerhoff Scholars Program at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County. Two sets of data analyses will be conducted: the first will consist of female Meyerhoff undergraduate students in STEM from six cohorts, and the second will consist of African American female Meyerhoff undergraduate students in engineering from the same six cohorts. Racial/ethnic climate was measured using Discrimination and Bias Scale (Hurtado & Alvarado, 2015), which assesses students’ experience of different forms of bias, harassment, and discrimination on campus at the end of first year. Sense of community was measured also at the end of first year using the Sense of Community Index-2 (Chavis et al., 2008), which assesses the degree to which the students feel like a part of the Meyerhoff Scholars community. Scores on Science Self-Efficacy Scale (Chemers et al., 2010) by the end of second year were used to assess the degree to which the students feel like they are scientists. Lastly, being STEM majors at the beginning of third year was used as measure of retention. The hypothesis will be tested using logistical regression analyses (analyses currently underway). If the hypothesis is supported, the study could inform scholars’ programs about potential areas of intervention (i.e., building strong sense of program community, and science self-efficacy) to increase retention of women, and specifically African American women in STEM despite of their experiences with negative racial climate.


The relationship of racial climate, sense of community, and science self-efficacy among African American female undergraduate students in STEM 


The number of under-represented (UR) scientists in biomedical research remains alarmingly low. New mechanisms are needed to facilitate the success of members of UR groups to ensure a diverse and vibrant workforce. We partnered with 9 Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) to identify and address training needs related to the formal and informal curriculum, networking opportunities, and mentoring for scholars from under-represented backgrounds. We developed a year-long, online, instructor-led training program with 9 modules for postdoctoral fellows and faculty from the 9 MSIs to help launch their research careers. Scholars who complete the modules participate in an annual 3-day Summit for further training, networking, mentoring, and peer feedback on works in progress. LEADS has enrolled a total of 60 scholars since 2017. We found significant improvements in the Scholars' research skill confidence. Collectively, they published 132 articles, submitted 73 grants and secured 46 grants for a 63% success rate. Feedback from LEADS Scholars has suggested the need for enhanced training in additional areas, as well as increased opportunities for networking and mentoring. 



Leading Emerging and Diverse Scientists to Success (LEADS)

Student involvement in the classroom and laboratory, also known as academic integration, is an essential condition for student persistence and success (Tinto, 1997). Furthermore, transforming instructional methods to specifically incorporate diversity and inclusion is vital for promoting an inclusive classroom environment (Handelsman, Miller, & Pfund, 2007). Complicating this, STEM faculty rarely receive training on diversity, equity, and inclusion, including effective and evidence-based inclusive teaching practices. Therefore, providing opportunities for professional development for STEM faculty centered on diversity, equity, and inclusion is imperative not only for improving student learning and academic integration but also for increasing student persistence and broadening participation in STEM education and careers (Killpack & Melón, 2013).

Responding to this need, in May 2016 we launched a year-long professional development program focused on inclusive excellence for faculty in the biological sciences. This initiative was supported by an HHMI grant, the goal of which was to increase retention and graduation rates in the biological sciences (specifically for underrepresented students). The “Faculty Fellows for Inclusive Excellence” program aimed to help faculty develop a greater understanding of the impact of diversity in the classroom and lab and become more inclusive teachers and research mentors, which will broaden participation in STEM education and careers. We engaged 29 Assistant and Associate Professors in the biological sciences during three iterations of this professional development program.

The final iteration of this program required faculty to participate in workshops on topics such as being a leader in equity and diversity, designing courses for inclusion, and implicit bias in hiring and decision-making along with completing a year-long “Inclusive Excellence in Action” project of their own design, which had to positively impact student success and broaden participation in the biological sciences. Projects included analyzing course outcome data across student demographic categories to determine potential performance gaps, adapting assignments and exams to eliminate performance gaps, studying how the diversity of small groups impacts creativity in research, incorporating diverse scientist profiles and videos into an introductory biology course to increase science identity, adapting syllabi and class activities to support the inclusion of first generation and low income students, assessing the engagement of transfer students in undergraduate research experiences, and more. These projects moved faculty away from simply being participants in a diversity, equity, and inclusion program and toward being active creators of change in their classrooms, research labs, and departments (Williams, 2007).

In this session, I will present what I learned and the program outcomes from the past three years of this professional development program on diversity, equity, and inclusion for biological sciences faculty.


Professional Development for STEM Faculty on Diversity, Equity, andInclusion

Promoting Inclusive Strategies to Improve Outcomes in the Natural Sciences
Nike Olabisi, Associate Professor Biological Sciences, University of Delaware
Our objective is to identify the issues and propose interventions aimed at improving the academic and professional outcomes of our underrepresented students at the University of Delaware through multiple approaches. Comprehensive analysis of existing institutional data indicate that the 4 year graduation rates and science GPA’s tend to be lower in under-represented students than other student groups. This directly impacts the students’ ability to be competitive in securing opportunities to enter graduate, medical and professional schools. The low representation in the science classrooms could also lead to more stereotype threat. Students also wrestle with feelings of inadequacy due to varied levels of preparedness from high schools, especially when unskilled in effective study strategies. Navigating the academy can also be a challenge especially for first generation students or Pell eligible students who are often also juggling employment with their academic demands. The interventions proposed are intended to promote measurable successful outcomes and guide focused post college career aspirations in research and professional degrees. These include faculty training in inclusive strategies with universal design (1) especially in large introductory and gateway courses, use of underrepresented peer mentors, assignment of undergraduate teaching assistants to interact with students, study skills training, time management, strategic coursework scheduling, research opportunities, dedicated career counselling and one on one focused advisement. We also propose group support sessions to build and strengthen community with each other and multicultural interest groups on campus. Fostering a deep sense of belonging and connecting with faculty who instill scientific identity is key to their persistence and thriving in the academy. This multipronged approach is designed to promote positive outcomes for these students, demonstrate their potential and close the current achievement gap existing at ours and other universities (2). 
References:
Lombardi, A.R., Murray C. and Gerdes, H. (2011). College faculty and inclusive instruction: Self-reported attitudes and actions pertaining to Universal Design. Journal of Diversity in Higher Education, Vol 4(4), 250-261
Ansell, S. (2011, July 7). Achievement Gap. Education Week. Retrieved Month Day, Year from http://www.edweek.org/ew/issues/achievement-gap/


Promoting Inclusive Strategies to Improve Outcomes in the Natural Sciences

African Americans carry the highest cancer burden of any racial or ethnic group in the United States. Eliminating disparities in cancer screening, diagnosis, and treatment is essential to improved health outcomes for all Americans, especially in racial and ethnic communities (Noone et al., 2018). Addressing this goal requires a trained cadre of researchers, physicians, and public health professionals who are representative of these populations (Kreuter et al., 2011). These individuals are attuned to financial, cultural, and educational issues within the affected community that affect risk and risk-reducing behaviors, health care seeking and health care access, patient compliance, and participation in prevention, screening, and clinical trials. They are also more likely to focus their efforts on diseases and conditions that affect members of their own ethnic, racial or socioeconomic group. Unfortunately, while underrepresented minorities made up 38% of the U.S. population in 2014 (NSF, 2017) and were awarded 20% of undergraduate baccalaureate degrees conferred in science and engineering (NSF, 2013). African Americans constituted only 2.8% of doctorate degrees earned in the biological sciences and 2.6% in the chemical sciences (3) Furthermore, from 2003-2012, the acceptance rate for African Americans into Schools of Public Health was substantially lower than for any other ethnic group (ASPH, 2013). Participation by the African American community in all aspects of cancer research is crucial to the success of eliminating cancer disparities in cancer prevalence, screening, diagnosis, and treatment. To assist in this endeavor, the PARTNERS Cancer Research Education Program was developed as a collaboration between North Carolina Central University (NCCU), the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill (UNC-CH) Lineberger Comprehensive Cancer Center, and the UNC-CH Gillings School of Global Public Health. PARTNERS is integrative in providing education, research training, and professional development in cancer biology, public health, and the role of both disciplines in ultimately alleviating cancer disparities. NCCU fellows participate in a unique, continuous, 2-year educational experience encompassing both biomedical and public health aspects of cancer research at two different venues -- NCCU and UNC-CH. PARTNERS also provides education in cancer research and health disparities for UNC-CH fellows who participate in summer research experiences at NCCU combined with professional development experiences with NCCU students carrying out summer internships at UNC-Chapel Hill. Our goals are to: educate students about cancer disparities among different racial, ethnic, and socioeconomic groups; engage Fellows in research into the causes of these disparities and strategies to reduce them; and help Fellows develop the social capital and professional skills necessary to become successful graduate or professional students, and eventually researchers or practitioners in a workforce focused on eliminating cancer disparities. To date, 55 fellows (46 NCCU and 9 UNC) have benefited from PARTNERS. Our session will focus on the overall 5 year process, continuous improvement using evaluation feedback, and share reflections, lessons learned and future training goals to build undergraduate research skills.

PARTNERS Cancer Research Education Program for Undergraduate Students

There has been a nationwide effort to increase the number, caliber and diversity of the STEM workforce. The Joint Dual (JD) Engineering Program between Hostos Community College (HCC) and The City College of New York’s Grove School of Engineering of The City University of New York provides an opportunity to advance this effort. Most of the JD Engineering Program students at HCC are first-generation college attendees and face significant financial challenges that may hinder their success. Specifically, ~36% of all JD Engineering students are low-income academically talented students with a remaining unmet need of more than $6,000. However, the literature shows that providing financial aid alone is not a sufficient factor for academic success of low-income academically talented college students. Thus, HCC has recently created the Hostos Engineering Academic Talent (HEAT) Scholarship Program designed to offer not only its scholars financial support, but also a wealth of high-impact extracurricular activities that have been shown to improve their likelihood of success while at school and beyond. The project was awarded an NSF S-STEM award. HEAT, as a model of intervention, aims to determine the impact of a combined faculty and peer mentoring on the outcomes of HEAT Scholars.4 Here, we will share the HEAT model, which will support a total of 30 students over the five-year funding period, with the Understanding Intervention community. As of today, HEAT robust recruitment strategy has been able to successfully meet its goal of selecting 10 scholars out of a large applicant pool for its first Cohort, 2019-2020. Additionally, seven applicants, who were not selected for direct funding, were invited to be part of the “associate cohort.” This cohort will have the opportunity to participate in all the extracurricular activities except for the combined faculty and peer mentorship program. A HEAT Club has also been formed to further facilitate the scholars and the associate cohort to interact, develop a sense of belonging and community, and bolster their STEM identity. All in all, the HEAT interventions and systematic investigation will extend our understanding of the impact of a combined faculty and peer mentorship approach with a population not yet studied – undergraduate STEM students at minority-serving community colleges. We expect the findings to be generalizable to other populations both inside and outside of HCC, and thus provide an opportunity to expand the HEAT Program to other STEM programs at a variety of institutions whose students could benefit from its implementation.

Combining Financial Support, Faculty and Peer Mentoring to Enhance Engineering Students' Academic and Professional Performance at a Minority-Serving Institution – The NSF S-STEM HEAT Program at Hostos Community College

Transfer students from 2-yr colleges are more likely to be women, underrepresented minorities (URM), lower income, older, and financially independent than their non-transfer peers. All of these characteristics are also hallmarks of nontraditional students. Nontraditional students now comprise the majority of students in higher education in the US (Cruse, Eckerson, and Gault, 2018). The challenges faced by nontraditional students translate to lower retention rates in STEM (Kenner and Weinerman, 2011) with a lack of flexibility and technology gap cited as main barriers to success.

The Microbiology and Cell Science (MCS) program implemented targeted interventions, including a hybrid online 2+2 degree track, face-to-face bootcamp labs, and need-based scholarships, with the hypothesis that increased opportunities and accessibility would enhance the retention and success of transfer students and reveal insights about their unique pathways and challenges. Evaluating the impact of these interventions on transfer student outcomes will lead to better design of strategies to enhance success. By considering Bean's model of nontraditional undergraduate student attrition (1985), we explore factors leading to retention within the context of our STEM major, which has transitioned from an entirely face-to-face to an online mode of delivery, and we consider the applicability to other STEM fields.

A mixed methods approach was used to research socioeconomic and academic traits and outcomes of on-campus FTIC (N=900), on-campus transfer (N=240), and online transfer (N=182) microbiology students. We conclude that while these interventions broadened participation and increased diversity, transfer students still face different challenges than FTIC peers. Notably, over 75% of students in the online transfer track enroll part-time; whereas, nearly 90% of their on-campus transfer peers enroll full-time. This result is important because many scholarship interventions and policies require full-time enrollment for eligibility. Thus, a vast majority of our STEM students in transfer tracks are ineligible for programs designed to increase success. Most of these students are nontraditional, women, working parents and from underrepresented minorities. Understanding their unique pathways and challenges can enhance strategies and reframe policies for student success and serve as a model in other STEM disciplines.

Speaker bio:Dr. Jennifer Drew is a Senior Lecturer in the Department of Microbiology and Cell Science in the College of Agricultural and Life Sciences (CALS) at the University of Florida. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses in human genomics. Her scholarship explores factors that affect student pathways and outcomes in STEM. With partner institution Miami Dade College, Jennifer Drew is the PI of an NSF S-STEM grant with an emphasis on researching the role of online education in increasing access and diversity in STEM, 2-year to 4-year transfer pathways in STEM, and meeting the challenges and needs of nontraditional undergraduate students. 


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