Northwest ADVANCE Partnership funded by the National Science Foundation

Values-Based Academic Leadership Trajectories for Women in STEM (VAuLTS): The Northwest Regional Partnership

Advancement into leadership roles is challenging for women in STEM disciplines, who are as committed to their academic careers as men, and have a similar desire to progress to the upper ranks of leadership in their institution and discipline. Despite this, more women in STEM linger at lower mid-career ranks longer than their male counterparts, sometimes indefinitely. Supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) 1.2 million dollar (NSF) ADVANCE Partnership Award, VAuLTS addresses this inequity by empowering a cadre of change agents to implement strategies aimed at eliminating systemic barriers women face on the path to the highest ranks of professoriate in diverse higher education settings in the Pacific Northwest.

Project Goals:

• Increase mid-career STEM women faculty engagement in career advancement and leadership policy and practice decision-making at doctorate-granting and community college/undergraduate institutions using Network Improvement Communities (NIC), dual leadership and mentoring programs, and extending programming to community colleges and predominately undergraduate institutions (PUI).
• Support policy/practice transformation promoting advancement of mid-career women faculty in STEM at the institutional level for all higher education partners, enhancing equity messaging by leveraging individual leadership capacity, and empowering leaders to bring about institutional policy changes.
• This equity-focused regional effort will undergo comprehensive internal and external evaluations at the institutional and individual level to ensure broader impacts, supporting nation-wide dissemination via NSF INCLUDES.

Check out VAuLTS in the news!

Dr. Masha Gartstein was interviewed by WSU Insider. Read about it here.