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Academics

Supporting and advancing women faculty

Funded by a nearly $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, TEAM ADVANCE provides programs to improve mentor and mentee experiences, from seminars to peer mentoring circles.

Targeting Equity in Access to Mentoring, or TEAM, ADVANCE promotes accessible, equitable and effective mentoring across the University, with emphasis on supporting women of color and women in STEM fields.

“Oftentimes women and underrepresented groups faculty of color do not receive the same type of mentoring that white men do in academia and we can see major disparities when it comes to who progresses to tenure who progresses to full professor who gets grants,” said Kia Caldwell, co-principal investigator of the project as special assistant to the provost.

That’s something TEAM ADVANCE hopes to change.

Funded by a nearly $1 million grant from the National Science Foundation, the project provides programs to improve mentor and mentee experiences, from seminars to peer mentoring circles. The goal is to foster institutional change, support faculty retention and promote faculty career development and professional achievements.

“Intersectionality is a lens that is very central to our work,” said Caldwell, who is also a professor of African, African American and diaspora studies in the College. “We’re really thinking about how different identities and social structures come together and impact women, but especially women of color, when trying to navigate professional careers in academia.”

Now in its second year, the TEAM ADVANCE launched programs in fall 2019.

“I think we’ll be able to identify some gaps in terms of what isn’t happening now and encourage administrators, deans and chairs to make positive changes.”

Learn more about TEAM ADVANCE at the Center for Faculty Excellence’s website.