National Science Foundation Grant Awarded to BCC

Enhancing the Participation and Advancement of North Carolina Community College Women Faculty in STEM Disciplines

Official NSF Project Designation: NSF-ADVANCE Institutional Transformation Catalyst (IT-Catalyst) Project # HR1008660

The National Science Foundation (NSF) awarded Brunswick Community College a grant to determine the demographics of women faculty in STEM disciplines and to develop pilot initiatives to enhance the retention and promotion of women faculty in these discipline areas.  This has never been completed for a community college system.  Conversely, there is a wealth of data for university based systems. Therefore, the implementation of this project will create new knowledge in this field, facilitate the development of novel insights by community college leadership and foster the creation of expanded professional opportunities for community college women STEM faculty. It will, in a few words, “break ground” in this much needed area of investigation.

BCC-NSF-ADVANCE Project Goals and Objectives:

Goals:  This project is designed to collect historical and baseline data to: 

1. Support an initiative for addressing the advancement of women community college faculty in STEM disciplines
2. Raise awareness of issues related to community college women faculty
3. Develop targeted programs to increase the participation of community college faculty and their advancement to leadership positions.

Objectives: The goals of this project will be accomplished by focusing on the following objectives:

1. Organization of a consortium of community colleges in North Carolina that will develop a plan that addresses the advancement of community college women faculty in STEM
2. Collect and analyze data that will provide an overview of the status of women faculty participating in academic science in the North Carolina Community College System (NCCCS)
3. Identify and pilot initiatives that will address the advancement of community college women faculty in STEM disciplines, with emphasis on retention, STEM leadership and tenure modeling.
4. Disseminate knowledge gained to other institutions in North Carolina and throughout the professional higher education community.

Click here to learn more about the National Science Foundation-ADVANCE program.

BCC – NSF Grant Project Participants
Data Presentations for BCC – NSF Grant Program
Presentations and Selected Literature References
STEM Newsletter: Volume 1, Issue 1
STEM Newsletter: Volume 1, Issue 2