Funds from this grant support a multidimensional national effort by the Association of American Universities (AAU) to help make U.S. graduate education more student-centered. The need for such an effort stems from a recognition that the organization of much of graduate education has been too focused on the singular goal of research productivity at the expense of preparing doctoral students for a broader array of professional careers inside and outside the academy. AAU will run a pilot program at 8 universities drawn from its 62 highly respected member institutions. Over the course of three years, two departments from each university will conduct analyses to support the development and implementation of action plans to provide greater support for students’ pursuits of diverse Ph.D. career pathways The project will also increase transparency by making Ph.D. and career outcomes data readily available, and foster cross-institutional learning and broad dissemination of effective strategies and practices through workshops, virtual webinars, and activities aimed at fostering more student-centered educational environments for all doctoral students.

A recent study of undergraduates across five Big Ten research universities found that women in large classes in biology, chemistry, physics, accounting, and economics performed about a third of a grade point lower (e.g. A- to B+) than similarly situated men. Understanding the basis for this gendered performance difference has the potential to contribute to a better understanding of the poorer persistence patterns of women and other demographic groups in STEM, and to the development of means by which those differences can be eliminated. This grant funds an effort by University of Michigan physicist Timothy A. McKay to assemble a broad coalition of university collaborators to jointly undertake further research and interventions. The acronym for the project is SEISMIC, for the Sloan Equity and Inclusion in STEM Introductory Courses project, appropriately reflecting the opportunity for powerful disruption of an entrenched system. SEISMIC will bring together 11 institutions, each contributing a team of approximately 10 faculty members, students, and staff. The teams will examine all introductory STEM courses on all campuses through current analytics and engage in parallel data analysis, data sharing, coordinated experiments, a continuous exchange of speakers (about 60 per year), and extended annual summer meetings. Attention will be paid to the diversity of institutions chosen. Gender will continue to be an object of study, and the project will also examine other student demographics including race/ethnicity, first-generation (first-gen) college students, and various forms of intersectionality, e.g., Latina women or first-gen men. A planning meeting and three annual collaboration summer meetings will be held to accelerate research, build community, and enhance the spread of ideas. Results will be disseminated broadly through presentations at national professional meetings and publication in several peer-reviewed articles that will reach broad STEM and STEM-education audiences.

This grant provides two years of support for a new multi-institutional leadership development program for mid-career STEM faculty of color in the Boston area. Participating universities include Northeastern University, Boston University, the T.H. Chan School of Public Health at Harvard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Suffolk University, Tufts University, and the University of Massachusetts, Boston. Successful applicants to the program will attend an initial, four-day workshop that focuses on self-assessment, skills building, and creation of a networked cohort. The workshop will be followed with individualized mentoring by seven institutional leaders about governance and successfully navigating the institutional structure of a university. Finally, participants will develop team projects that they will execute, evaluate, and then present to a group of provosts and deans. All program participants will be tracked for two-years after completion of the program to gauge its effects.

The OXIDE project, based at the Johns Hopkins University, aims to advance diversity and inclusion throughout the academic career ladder in chemistry. OXIDE collects data, disseminates it to the broad chemistry community, and holds department chairs accountable for their success or failure to promote diversity in their departments. This “top-down” strategy to promote change has been shown to be successful for industry. OXIDE’s accountability strategy is largely executed at NDEW, the National Diversity Equity Workshop, an intensive two-day meeting that has been held biennially by OXIDE since 2011. Funds from this grant will support two more NDEWs, in 2019 and 2021, and the annual publication and dissemination of data on diversity equity statistics in chemistry for four years. OXIDE’s target objectives for the project period include the participation of approximately 60 chemistry department chairs in the biennial NDEW, an increase in chairs’ proficiency in the value proposition for advancing diversity and addressing known barriers to diversity equity; an increase in departmental efforts that are managed by the chair that advance local diversity equity outcomes; and a transition in organizational funding from heavy reliance on grant support to substantial reliance on funds provided by the institutions of the participants.

Funds from this grant provide support for three years of continued operation of the New York Academy of Science’s Science Alliance Leadership Training (SALT) program. The program aims to provide leadership training to a yearly cohort of 30 early-career scientists drawn from members of the NYAS Science Alliance. Cohorts are intentionally selected to promote diversity and prior cohorts have included significant numbers of women and underrepresented minorities. Supported activities for each cohort include a five-day intensive workshop followed by monthly webinars for nine months to expand and reinforce leadership skills. Additional funds will support a longitudinal analysis of program participants to enable rigorous evaluation of program impacts.

In 2017, Hurricanes Irma and Maria hit Puerto Rico, devastating the island and disrupting most scientific research and education. Sloan responded by granting $4,000 to each of 35 chemical and chemical engineering graduate students at the University of Puerto Rico Mayagьez (UPRM) and Rio Piedras, allowing them to use the funds in whatever way they saw fit to best continue their educations. Disruptions continue, however, and this grant to the University of Puerto Rico provides enhanced funding to help doctoral STEM students continue their educations in the wake of Maria and Irma. Grant funds will allow 24 doctoral students to conduct research for four to six months at a collaborating mainland laboratory; support a lecture series at UPRM; and provide travel funds for faculty to attend scientific conferences and meetings and for graduate students to visit mainland campuses for supplementary mentoring, including practice job talks. Additional funds will support data collection and analysis that will allow evaluation of program impacts.