STRIDE

The Strategies and Tactics for Recruiting to Improve Diversity and Excellence (STRIDE) Committee was a group of faculty that met regularly for years to critically read and discuss the research about gender equity issues in academia, form personal understanding and convictions about those issues, and then act as change agents educating fellow faculty. With the development of the Office of Inclusion and Diversity at GVSU, the STRIDE faculty training lives on as a part of the university's Inclusion Advocate training. Many of the articles and books we read are listed on the Literature page on this site.

NSF ADVANCE Professional Development Grants

NSF Advance Professional Development Grants were a means to address women's under-representation in the academic sciences and engineering.  The grants supported a range of activities necessary for scholarly work in science and engineering fields. Applications may be for up to $5,000 although in extraordinary circumstances funding up to $10,000 may be available.

Grants were awarded to:

• Debra Burg - Biomedical Health Sciences Department
  "Cooperative Regulation of Macrophage Function by Stat3 and AP-1"

• Heidi Jiao - Engineering Department
  "Instability Study of Amorphous Silicon Solar Cells and Investigation of High Efficiency Organic Solar Cells"

• Rachel Powers - Chemistry Department
  "Mapping the Binding Site of AMPC B-Lactamase for Inhibitor Design and Discovery"

• Pei-Lan Tsou - Cell and Molecular Biology
  "The Influence of eNOS Genotype on Health-Related Physical Fitness, Physical Activity and Cardiovascular Disease Risk Factors in Middle School Children"

• Laurie Witucki - Chemistry Department
  "Tyrosine Kinase Peptide Substrate Analysis and Verification"

Collaborative Pipeline

The idea of the pipeline was a two-way conduit that provides UM graduate students as they finish their Ph.D.s and recent Ph.D.s classroom experience at a university with a strong commitment to a liberal arts education and that exposes GVSU undergraduates to women scientists and engineers. This effort will resonate with the larger national initiative on preparing future faculty.  For GVSU, the Pipeline has three important components: highly trained ABDs and Ph.D.s to staff classrooms; motivated and intellectually stimulating role models for women students; and links with UM faculty for research for both faculty and students. For UM, the Pipeline was an extraordinary opportunity for graduate students to gain teaching experience at an institution where undergraduate teaching is the first priority. For women Ph.D.s at risk of giving up on an academic career, it offered an alternative model of a primarily undergraduate institution, which might be more attractive.

Interactive Theatre

In Summer 2006, Shaily Menon and Kathleen Underwood participated in an interactive theatre Summer Institute "Setting the Stage for Change" at the University of Michigan. We interacted with members of the Center for Research in Learning and Teaching (CRLT) players and got a behind-the-scenes understanding of the workings of interactive theatre. The CRLT players performed interactive theatre sketches before selected audiences at GVSU, and successfully engaged faculty and administrators in dialogue and examination of gender equity issues. Their work continues at the University of Michigan.