WEPAN Leads $1,314,999 NSF ADVANCE Partnership Grant:
Amplifying the Alliance to Catalyze Change for Equity in STEM Success (ACCESS+)

Washington, DC –The National Science Foundation (NSF) announced on August 21, 2020 the award of a three-year, $1,314,999 NSF ADVANCE Partnership grant led by the Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN). Partners on the grant include the ADVANCE Implementation Mentors (AIM) Network; the INCLUDES Aspire Alliance: National Change Initiative; the Association for Women in Science’s (AWIS’s) ADVANCE Resource and Coordination (ARC) Network; and the Alliance to Catalyze Change for Equity in STEM Success (ACCESS). Together leaders from these groups seek to amplify and extend the STEM professional societies engaged in the Alliance to Catalyze Change for Equity in STEM Success (ACCESS+). The ACCESS+ Initiative is one of four 2020 ADVANCE Partnership awards funded by the NSF.
“We are pleased to receive funding from the NSF to help advance a national priority of fostering diverse, equitable and inclusive STEM cultures, especially in light of the nation’s dual pandemics of COVID19 and anti-black racism,” said Dr. Leibnitz (ACCESS+ PI). “Given the influential role that STEM professional societies play in defining discipline-specific cultures, we believe these organizations are key to promoting and fostering change to support diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI). By creating opportunity for selected cohorts of STEM professional society DEI champions to become informed about, and supported in, the adoption of evidence-based DEI strategies, we expect to amplify awareness and adoption of inclusive practices so that more diverse talent will be involved in solving the complicated STEM issues we face now and in the near future.”
Leibnitz is WEPAN’s Research and Grants Consultant, is the Founding Director of the ADVANCE Implementation Mentors (AIM) Network, consults with the INCLUDES Aspire Alliance, serves as co-PI of the American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE’s) NSF ADVANCE-funded Engineering Deans Gender Equity (EDGE) Initiative, and has been PI/Co-PI and Project Director on six NSF DEI-related grants.
“As the nation’s first network dedicated to advancing cultures of inclusion and diversity in engineering higher education and workplaces, and having been engaged in multiple NSF funded endeavors over the past 30 years, WEPAN is especially well positioned to lead this project,” adds LeeAnn Cochran, WEPAN Executive Director.
ACCESS+ Co-PI’s include Linda Katehi, Ph.D. (Engineering), WEPAN’s past president, prior UC Davis Chancellor, and current distinguished TEES Chair at Texas A & M University; Heather Metcalf, Ph.D. (Higher Education, Computer Science and Math) Association for Women in Science (AWIS’s) Chief Research Officer, and PI on numerous grants including a NSF-funded ADVANCE Resource & Coordination (ARC) Network; Don Gillian-Daniel, Ph.D. (Cell and Molecular Biology), INCLUDES Aspire Alliance Co-PI and National Change Team co-lead, and Director of Diversity Programming at UW Madison; and Veronica Segarra, Ph.D. (Biology), Co-PI of the ACCESS project, and Interim Biology Dept. Chair at High Point University.
Dr. Veronica Segarra commented, “It is exciting that our original ACCESS project has the opportunity to amplify its reach under the auspices of this new ADVANCE grant. We look forward to collaborating with our new partners to find ways to benefit the national STEM diversity, equity, and inclusion landscape.”
Specific objectives of the ACCESS+ Initiative include:

1. Conducting the first known comprehensive STEM professional society Gender DEI Environmental Scan to identify society strengths and identify needs
2. Convening STEM professional society DEI change leaders to:
   
   • • share evidence-based policies and practices
   • • provide professional development to support efficient and effective DEI change
   • • facilitate development of a tailored STEM professional society Gender DEI Action Plan
   • • support Action Plan completion through launching and sustaining a DEI Change Leaders Community of Practice
   • Increasing the number, and extending representation of STEM professional society engagement beyond the original five ACCESS societies to include upwards of 60 representatives from over 30 STEM professional societies.

By leveraging the diverse expertise and networks of the ACCESS+ collective, the leaders of the ACCESS+ Initiative aim to bring about a systemic, nation-wide transformation in support of more inclusive STEM academic professional cultures.

ACCESS Conference Presentations

Verónica A. Segarra, Leticia Vega, Clara Primus, Ashley Guillory, Candice Etson, Ashanti Edwards, Sonia C. Flores, Catherine Fry, Susan L. Ingram, Mark Lawson, Richard McGee, Stephanie Paxton, Laura Phelan, Kirsta Suggs, Elizabeth Vuong, Marina Ramirez-Alvarado. (2019). Scientific Societies Join Forces to Amplify Effectiveness of STEM Workforce Diversification Programs. American Society for Cell Biology Annual Meeting. July 7-11, 2019. Washington DC.

Candice Etson, Verónica A. Segarra, Leticia Vega, Clara Primus, Ashley Guillory, Ashanti Edwards, Sonia C. Flores, Catherine Fry, Susan L. Ingram, Mark Lawson, Richard McGee, Stephanie Paxton, Laura Phelan, Kirsta Suggs, Elizabeth Vuong, Marina Ramirez-Alvarado. (2020). Scientific Societies Join Forces to Amplify Effectiveness of STEM Workforce Diversification Programs. Biophysical Society Annual Meeting. March 2-6, 2020. Baltimore, MD.

Verónica A. Segarra, Leticia Vega, Clara Primus, Ashley Guillory, Candice Etson, Ashanti Edwards, Sonia C. Flores, Catherine Fry, Susan L. Ingram, Mark Lawson, Richard McGee, Stephanie Paxton, Laura Phelan, Kirsta Suggs, Elizabeth Vuong, Marina Ramirez-Alvarado. (2020). Scientific Societies Join Forces to Amplify Effectiveness of STEM Workforce Diversification Programs. Understanding Interventions Annual Meeting. March 13-15 ,2020. San Antonio, Texas. Conference cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Verónica A. Segarra, Clara Primus, Leticia Vega, Ashley Guillory, Candice Etson, Ashanti Edwards, Sonia C. Flores, Catherine Fry, Susan L. Ingram, Mark Lawson, Richard McGee, Stephanie Paxton, Laura Phelan, Kirsta Suggs, Elizabeth Vuong, Marina Ramirez-Alvarado. (2020). Scientific Societies Join Forces to Amplify Effectiveness of STEM Workforce Diversification Programs. Experimental Biology Annual Meeting. April 4-7. Conference cancelled because of the COVID-19 pandemic, e-poster and Twitter poster were presented remotely.

Verónica A. Segarra, Leticia Vega, Clara Primus, Ashley Guillory, Candice Etson, Ashanti Edwards, Sonia C. Flores, Catherine Fry, Susan L. Ingram, Mark Lawson, Richard McGee, Stephanie Paxton, Laura Phelan, Kirsta Suggs, Elizabeth Vuong, Marina Ramirez-Alvarado. (2020). Scientific Societies Join Forces to Amplify Effectiveness of STEM Workforce Diversification Programs. American Society Microbiology, Conference for Undergraduate Educators. July 9-12, 2020. Meeting held remotely due to the COVID-19 pandemic.