VCU receives grant to expand STEM female faculty recruitment and retention

The grant’s goal is to raise participation and advancement of women in science, technology, engineering and math careers at

VCU through structural and cultural change. It will be led by Montse Fuentes, dean of the College of Humanities and Sciences.

“ADVANCE IT VCU will decrease structural and cultural barriers that prevent the diversification and advancement of faculty in STEM fields and it will infuse great energy into VCU, an institution already primed to achieve inclusive excellence,” Fuentes, who is also a professor in the Department of Statistical Sciences and Operations Research, said in a statement. “It will transform VCU in ways that will effectively and systematically diversify its faculty.”

VCU exceeds national averages for female faculty in STEM studies, Fuentes says, but the university has insufficiently increased the number of diverse women faculty promotions into advanced positions. It also will consider work-life balance issues.

Specifically, the project will involve strengthening VCU’s recruitment processes, while exampinin career-life integration policies and practices, improving promotion and tenure policies, procedures and practices and facilitating professional development opportunities for women.