2026 ASEE Annual Conference & Exposition

Faculty are key components of the educational ecosystem, but research on mental health and well-being (MHWB) in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) has primarily focused only on student MHWB. We must better understand STEM faculty MHWB and the surrounding systemic factors to best support STEM faculty and thus the STEM educational system. This study explores the question: How do STEM faculty’s identified supports and hindrances impact their MHWB, and how are these supports and hindrances influenced by academic systems? The first phase of our study consists of a series of interviews followed by the development of survey measures to identify the broad-scale impacts of these stressors and supports. In the spring of 2025, our team conducted interviews with 42 STEM faculty and 19 STEM administrators from 55 institutions across the United States. The faculty interviews focused on understanding the aspects of their job that influence STEM faculty's MHWB, with a particular focus on stressors. The stressors identified by STEM faculty are currently being analyzed using Maslach and Leiter’s (2022) six characteristic features of burnout: work overload, lack of control, insufficient rewards, breakdown of community, absence of fairness, and values conflict. The administrator interviews focused on their perspectives on their role in supporting faculty mental health and well-being. The Street-Level Bureaucracy framework (Lipsky, 2010) is used as a lens to analyze the administrators’ interview data. Our preliminary findings indicate that administrators often employ discretionary practices to support faculty MHWB, recognizing the potential negative impact of rigid policies and norms. However, despite their best intentions, administrators encounter significant challenges when institutional policies conflict with faculty needs. Our next steps involve using this data to inform the development of a survey that captures the supports and hindrances to the MHWB of STEM faculty. We intend to form reciprocal partnerships with institutions, enabling our research to inform systems-level policies that impact faculty and administrators at these institutions. Overall, these findings will inform our understanding of STEM faculty MHWB experiences in relation to their job roles. These findings will inform practices that promote STEM faculty MHWB, thereby promoting student well-being.