2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Pursuing doctoral degrees and academic careers in STEM presents challenges for everyone; however, the nature and intensity of these challenges can vary based on individuals’ identities, values, and institutional contexts. Not all scholars receive mentoring or advice that acknowledges intersectional identities or systemic barriers. This paper synthesizes advice gleaned from counterstory interviews with 16 women in STEM fields in the United States, with particular attention to women of color and women whose scholarly work included community engagement. The interviews were conducted between August 2023 and July 2025. Two interviewees were finishing their PhDs, while the others had earned doctoral degrees and were working across a range of academic roles, including tenure‑track, non‑tenure‑track, and leadership positions. The participant group included women who identified as Latina, Black, Asian, Indigenous, and White, and spanned engineering disciplines and closely related STEM fields. The advice clustered into three broad categories: help and support, personal attitudes, and structural factors, with recurring themes related to mentoring and community, persistence and well‑being, and learning both formal and informal institutional rules. The paper foregrounds participants’ voices through rich quotations. Although these insights reflect experiences shaped by the U.S. higher education context and a particular moment in the policy landscape, they may still offer useful perspectives for others navigating academic pathways in STEM.