2024 Collaborative Network for Engineering & Computing Diversity (CoNECD)

Adoption of an Advocates and Allies Program to a Predominantly STEM Campus

Presented at Track 5: Technical Session 2: Adoption of an Advocates and Allies Program to a Predominantly STEM Campus

Predominantly STEM campuses tend to have a much lower representation of individuals with non-majority identities and lower inclusion of these individuals within organizational processes. To address these issues, an Advocates and Allies (A&A) program developed by another university that engages majority (on the basis of race and gender identities) individuals in institutional change [1] was vetted for an NSF ADVANCE Adaptation Grant. We, as members of the ADVANCE PI team, share our challenges and strategies as we established the program on our campus. We intend our discussion to be useful for other STEM-intensive institutions as they engage majority individuals in institutional change.

The A&A program centers around workshops that discuss how discrimination manifests in universities and include the institution’s own data. We highlight adaptations we made specific to our institution in order to encourage other institutions to be responsive to the contexts that impact DEIS work on their campuses. For instance, our initial adaptation of the Advocates and Allies program sought to be more inclusive by including LGBTQIA+ and staff on the Advocates team and A&A Advisory Board (A3B). Our adaptations have also reflected an ongoing commitment to present race and ethnicity data in addition to gender data. Other adaptations we discuss concern developing the credibility of the team presenting the workshops and incorporating an ongoing Journal Club to discuss the relevant literature.

This paper also shares reflections on the best strategies to direct the Advocate’s growth in DEIS knowledge and confidence, as well as the development of collaborative relationships between the two groups and A3B’s comfort level guiding and directing the Advocates. We reflect upon sustaining the A&A teams through the COVID pandemic, including cultivating online engagement and rebuilding post-COVID team dynamics. This work describes one team’s journey in navigating an adaptation of a well-known Advocates and Allies program onto a STEM-intensive campus. We include some assessment results from the workshops and close with recommendations for establishing and maintaining an A&A program.

Authors

Dr. Adrienne Robyn Minerick http://orcid.org/0000-0002-2382-7831 Michigan Technological University [biography]

Adrienne Minerick is a Professor of Chemical Engineering and Director of ADVANCE at Michigan Technological University. She earned her B.S. from Michigan Tech and her M.S. and Ph.D. from the University of Notre Dame. Her administrative experience has included Associate Dean for Research and Innovation in the College of Engineering, Assistant to the Provost for Faculty Development, Dean of the School of Technology, founding Dean of the College of Computing, and Interim Dean of the Pavlis Honors College. Adrienne completed her Presidential terms with the American Society for Engineering (ASEE) in June 2023. She is a fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), ASEE, and, most recently, the American Institute of Chemical Engineers (AIChE). Adrienne has led and/or helped establish three formal faculty mentoring programs, the Safe Zone workshops at ASEE, the Year of Action on Diversity and served as President during the Year of Impact on Racial Equity. She earned the AES Electrophoresis Society’s Lifetime Achievement Award in 2022 and was a prior Michigan Professor of the Year Nominee, which illustrates her dual passion for leveraging research and education for student growth and societal advances. While directing the Micro Medical Device Engineering Research Laboratory (M.D. – ERL), she has managed, as PI or co-PI, ~$13 million, yielding 93 research graduates*, a patent, and >100 publications [*12 PhDs (64% women, 18%UR)]. Her favorite quote is by Ray McDermott, “Culture is not a past cause to a current self. Culture is the current challenge to possible future selves.”
Sonia Goltz Michigan Tech [biography]

Sonia Goltz earned her PhD in industrial/organizational psychology at Purdue University and is the Mickus Endowed Faculty Fellow of Business Impact in the College of Business at Michigan Tech, where she has served as Co-PI on two NSF ADVANCE grants.
andrew storer Michigan Technological University
Dr. Patricia Sotirin Michigan Technological University [biography]

Dr. Patricia Sotirin is Emerita and Research Professor in the Department of Humanities, Michigan Technological University. She earned a Ph.D. in Communication from Purdue University. Her research areas include interpretive qualitative methods, feminist theory, embodied gender in organizations, and kinship communication. She has co-authored or co-edited six books. Her published articles include analyses of dual career issues, embodiment in change management, DEI training, and organizational resistance. She has published in such journals as the Journal of Organizational Change Management; Qualitative Inquiry; Review of Higher Education; Organization Management Journal; Journal of Social and Personal Relationships; and Organization: The Critical Journal of Organization, Theory, and Society. She has been President of the Organization for the Study of Communication, Language, and Gender (OSCLG); Chair of the Ethnography Division, National Communication Association; and on the Editorial Board of five international journals. She has been on over fifty graduate committees and the Advisor for over twenty and received an Outstanding Mentor Award from OSCLG. She is a Co-PI on an NSF ADVANCE Adaptation grant at Michigan Technological University.

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