ASPIRE - The National Alliance for Inclusive & Diverse Stem Faculty

Association of Public Land-grant Universities’ Aspire Institutional Change (iChange) Initiative strengthens post-secondary institutions where science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) faculty from underrepresented groups are widely recruited, hired, and retained and all STEM faculty employ inclusive teaching, advising, and research mentoring. Aspire announced Iowa State University as a participant in Cohort 2 of iChange. The National Science Foundation funds this effort.

The goal of the iChange Network is to catalyze institutional change by providing a comprehensive, systematic approach to organizational transformation using a structured self-assessment process to inform the development and implementation of an action plan. In January 2020, Iowa State University began a self-assessment of our current practices and resources. The work continues to develop and implement an action plan for initial change and map ways to scale such efforts across STEM programs, as well as non-STEM units and the broader campus community.

Leadership:

Dawn Bratsch-Prince, Associate Provost for Faculty, served as the institution’s lead from October 2019 through April 2021.

Tera Jordan, Assistant Provost for Faculty Success, assumed the leadership role in April 2021 and currently leads the ISU Aspire Team.

Key achievements:

• Enhance collaborations with land-grant institutions
• Utilized Aspire principles to strengthen search committee as well as promotion and tenure committee training.
• Launched a new institutional model for New Faculty Programs and Resources.
• Received two grants focused on strengthening hiring and mentoring.
• Recognized with Martin Luther King, Jr. Advancing One Community group award.