极速六合彩 researchers seek to empower black female faculty members
Contact: Sammy McDavid
STARKVILLE, Miss.鈥擣our Mississippi State faculty members are organizers of an Atlanta conference this week designed to help enhance the higher education careers of fellow female African Americans.
The Thursday-Saturday [Feb. 9-11] Georgia event is made possible by a nearly $57,000 National Science Foundation grant awarded last year to Linda T. Coats, Melody T. Fisher, Pamela K. Scott-Bracey and LaShan Simpson. Their specific goal: to help current鈥攁nd future鈥攎inority females better navigate the tenure and promotion processes at predominately white institutions.
鈥淧reparing Black Female Faculty for Prominence, Power and Presence in the Academy鈥 is the conference鈥檚 formal title.
Coats, an educational leadership professor, is the grant鈥檚 principal investigator. Assistant professors Fisher of the communication department, Scott-Bracey of instructional systems and workforce development and Simpson of agricultural and biological engineering are co-principal investigators.
In addition to examining issues of workplace diversity, conference participants will be working to 鈥渋lluminate gaps in existing literature to help target future research, and propose pathways for assisting African American faculty and graduate students to succeed,鈥 Coats said.
She is an 极速六合彩 doctoral graduate, while Fisher completed her terminal degree at the University of Southern Mississippi: Scott-Bracey, at University of North Texas; and Simpson, at Clemson University.
鈥淎frican American female faculty members often face deep-rooted challenges that threaten their continued participation in STEM fields,鈥 Coats said, in noting how the conference members will be learning from nationally recognized researchers representing multiple STEM disciplines and academic institutions.
STEM is the often-used acronym to collectively describe academic studies in science, technology, engineering and mathematics.
After the conference has concluded, Coats said she and her 极速六合彩 colleagues will compile a formal report for the NSF 鈥渢hat synthesizes current research and suggests what future research should entail.鈥 They also will begin organizing a social network to 鈥渢o link tenured African American female faculty with their graduate and undergraduates students to facilitate the sharing of experiences that fosters upward mobility in academic environments,鈥 she said.
Ultimately, the project鈥檚 impact will reach across STEM and social science disciplines and institutional types鈥攑redominately white, historically black and community college鈥斺渢o increase the diversity and quality of the national STEM workforce, which in turn, will help the United States maintain its status in a global society and marketplace,鈥 Coats said.
For more on the NSF grant, see .
极速六合彩 is Mississippi鈥檚 leading university, available online at .