About
LEVERAGE, led by an alliance of the seven largest national diversity‐serving engineering professional organizations, will provide a fully integrated system for faculty transition stages with the objective of doubling the number of historically underrepresented engineering faculty by 2025. This resource is a result of an INCLUDES grant from the National Science Foundation (EEC #1649384). The partner organizations include:
- American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES)
- Great Minds in STEM™ (GMiS)
- MAES, Latinos in Science and Engineering (MAES)
- National Society of Black Engineers (NSBE)
- Society for Advancement of Hispanics/Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS)
- Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers (SHPE)
- Society of Women Engineers (SWE)
Collectively, these organizations have 300 years of experience supporting and celebrating women and the historically underrepresented in pursuing engineering careers.
LEVERAGE adapts the AISES’ PATHWAYS model to strengthen and expand the collaborative work with ASSIST to create full circles of support and opportunities for year-round engagement for diverse individuals pursuing academic careers as engineering faculty.
In 2014, AISES was funded by NSF (DBI #1444853) for Lighting the Pathways to Faculty Careers for Natives in STEM to create full circles of support for students pursuing academic career pathways.
In the fall of 2015, NSF’s Broadening Participation in Engineering program funded the seven organizations collaborative to pursue a common goal of supporting diverse engineering faculty success through ASSIST: Strengthening Engineering Faculty through Diversity‐Serving Professional Organization Engagement (EEC #1548322, EEC #1548197, EEC #1548200, EEC #1548319, and EEC #1548214).
The LEVERAGE partner organizations are professional affinity groups that support the professional development, persistence and success along the academic career pathways of underrepresented individuals, allowing their careers to be set within their cultural context. The LEVERAGE programs developed will provide mechanisms for creating discipline and/or research specific affinity group affiliations. LEVERAGE resources and activities are created to have a direct impact on participant productivity and well‐being.
