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Abstract

Keeping up with their historic missions, historically black colleges and universities (HBCUs) have selected and granted progressively more number of degrees to women over the past few decades. From 1993 to 2006, the number of black women undergrads receiving degrees at HBCUs increased by 24%. For example, in 2002, 75% of black women awarded doctorates in Biology had baccalaureate origins from HBCUs. In 2006, data revealed that there were 900 black women faculty in STEM disciplines at HBCUs and 2,810 black women faculty at non-HBCUs. They accounted for 22% and 2% of the faculty at HBCUs and non-HBCUs. The ADVANCE-PAID project, Advancing Women Faculty in Engineering and Technology at HBCUs, was a collaboration between Prairie View A&M University and Texas A&M University that received National Science Foundation funding from September 2009 through August 2014. The project implemented four key activities: (1) annual workshops; (2) seed grants to support research efforts; (3) professional career coaching; and (4) weekly writing groups. Forty-seven women faculty from 14 HBCUs attended at least one annual workshop, 13 from 9 HBCUs received seed grants,11 from 9 HBCUs participated in career coaching, and between 4 and 6 women attended weekly writing groups. A retrospective analysis was conducted to determine the long-term impacts of the four activities. One-on-one, semi-structured interviews were conducted with past participants to determine the impact activities had on their careers. Current faculty rank and position of each participant were compared to the rank and position held when they initially participated in ADVANCE-PAID activities. Surveys were sent to participants to assess how this project impacted their success, informed their decision or interest in pursuing administration, and how the various activities helped them overall. Group averages were compared by activity or combination of activities.

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