2025 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

This lessons-learned paper provides insights and practical guidance for developing and maintaining postdoctoral scholar programs that support historically marginalized scholars in engineering. This paper is informed by the authors of the 2023 ASEE and 2024 CoNECD conference proceedings that discussed the development and implications of the (Program Name) on our postdoctoral scholars. These bodies of work provided insights into how (Program Name) was designed, including its intersectional mentorship model, intentional community building, and professional development initiatives, that could serve as a model for other engineering postdoctoral scholars programs.

Since its establishment in 2021, (Program Name) has faced unexpected challenges due to the rise of anti-DEI legislation and policies. These legislative developments have prompted a reassessment of the program’s structure and goals, leading to significant rebranding of the program within the (University Name) College of Engineering. This resulted in a shift of university procedures and support of scholars that remained in (Program Name). In alignment with new university policies, (Program Name) was restructured to (new Program Name).

Although (Program Name) has undergone new transformations, there are several programmatic lessons the authors have learned about developing and being a part of a program that centers on the professional development of historically marginalized scholars in engineering. From these experiences, authors have gained several key insights that can be applied to other institutions, especially in their establishment of postdoctoral programs in the wake of anti-DEI work. In this paper, we will discuss what we have learned about 1) navigating postdoctoral to-faculty culture and potential barriers, 2) ensuring the alignment between engineering department priorities and programmatic outcomes, 3) acknowledging and addressing institutional wrongdoings, and 4) responding to systematic failure that arises from abrupt policy changes.

These lessons will be presented as a poster with the aim of providing other academic institutions with a roadmap for developing and adapting programs supporting historically marginalized postdoctoral scholars, ensuring these initiatives remain effective and sustainable despite evolving external pressures.