NSF grant to aid in hiring faculty

UNL has received a $3.8 million National Science Foundation grant that will help us recruit, promote and retain female faculty in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM). This is an institutional transformation grant from NSF's ADVANCE program, which aims to increase participation and advancement of women in STEM careers.

To quote from Chancellor Perlman's email announcement: "The five-year ADVANCE-Nebraska grant will enable UNL to create new programs to recruit and support women faculty through each stage of their career and will be a clearinghouse for job applicants to learn about UNL's existing family friendly policies and for department chairs to get information about best hiring practices. A key task will be facilitating dual-career hires. The overall goal is to ensure that the pools of applicants for jobs in science, technology, engineering and mathematics departments match or exceed the percentage of women who receive doctoral degrees in those fields."

Barbara Couture, Senior Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs, is the Principal Investigator for this grant. Three co-PIs for the grant are in the College of Arts and Sciences. Mary Anne Holmes, Associate Professor of Practice in Geosciences, is project director for the grant and Julia McQuillan, Associate Professor of Sociology, are co-PIs, as am I. Moreover, a key component of the grant is research by Christina Falci, Assistant Professor of Sociology, using network analysis and mapping to help determine how we can best help faculty to succeed.

This grant should help transform the college and UNL. We will be able to hire, promote and retain better faculty, both male and female. My thanks to all those that helped us get this extremely competive grant. I look forward to working with the faculty and staff in the college to accomplish the goals we have set.