Mentoring among African American women in the engineering academy

Abstract

African American women are among the least represented population among engineering faculty in the U.S., and a demographic that faces unique challenges affecting their retention in the academy. This fact was the impetus for an NSF-funded workshop and research project focused on their unique challenges and strategies that enable them to survive and thrive in the academy. This paper summarizes the outcomes of the Intergenerational Mentoring Workshop held Summer 2019 and aims to equip the broader engineering education community with insights for supporting this endangered demographic. The workshop was attended by 24 African American women engineering faculty who represented a wide range of roles in the academy. The day-long workshop consisted of multiple sessions in which participants shared their insights, challenges, and promising solutions. This paper includes the results of qualitative and quantitative data collected from a focus group with a subset of participants, observations made by an external evaluator, and post-workshop surveys. Preliminary data suggests that all participants agreed that the workshop met their expectations and encouraged them as a professional; and 95% agreed that the workshop was appropriate for what they needed at this point in their careers and that the overall workshop had an appropriate balance of interactive activities to keep them engaged. Finally, 80% of the participants indicated they had clarity as to how to address challenges African American women face. Highlights of the research efforts associated with this project will also be discussed.