The 2019 Big 10 Women's Workshop (BTWW): Closing the Mentoring Loop

Prior research demonstrates that building professional skills and support networks of female engineering faculty, who are underrepresented in engineering colleges, can improve their retention in academia. The 2019 Big 10 Women's Workshop provides opportunities for assistant professors in their first three years of their academic appointment to learn professional skills critical to early success in their tenure track positions and long-term careers. Additionally, the workshop generates opportunities for mentorship by senior women faculty role models, along with a vehicle to foster research collaborations across institutions. Participants will be provided effective strategies and multiple pathways for pursuing rewarding and impactful careers in the academy. The workshop and follow-on activities will contribute to the hiring, retention, and success of women faculty, while also helping to increase the number of women engineering students.

One goal of this project is to establish a continuous cycle of community building and networking across the Big 10 engineering colleges. In order to do this, the workshop includes participants from the prior 2010 conference and activities that foster community building. The workshop attendees will return to their home institutions with a broader professional network that will support their successful pursuit of tenure-track positions. Increased retention of female engineering faculty will additionally improve the nation's capacity for research, education, and preparation of the future engineering workforce.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.