2023 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This evidence-based practice paper describes and evaluates the first year of a postdoctoral professional development early career fellowship program. The aim of this program was to identify promising early career scholars from atypical backgrounds, such as research areas or identities underrepresented in their discipline, and further develop them into more competitive faculty candidates. We evaluated four main goals of the program: providing professional development activities; facilitating the transition to tenure track positions; creating a network of peers and mentors; and attracting faculty candidates that value diversity, equity, and inclusion to the University. To achieve these goals, the program assigned mentors to each fellow and supplied professional development activities centered on the needs of future faculty members. Thirty fellows from the first cohort were invited to complete a semi-structured interview sharing their experiences in the program. Nine main themes emerged through data analysis: program goals, how program goals were accomplished, program community building, what mentorship means to fellows, relationships with mentors, cohort camaraderie, emphasis on recognition, location matters, and critical consciousness. With the fellows’ positive reception of this program, the program evaluation will not only refine offerings for later cohorts, but it will also assist similar programs’ construction and evaluation in the future.