Northern Arizona University (NAU) delivers a student-centered experience to 30,000 students. Recently, the Hispanic-serving institution (HSI) announced that a team of researchers has launched two projects aimed at reducing disparities in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate pathways.
“These initiatives are prime examples of the work that is critically important for HSIs and Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) like NAU to increase economic mobility and equitable postsecondary educational value,” said NAU President José Luis Cruz Rivera, who recently testified before the House Higher Education and Workforce Investment Subcommittee about the need increased investments in HSIs. “Together, we can propel more low-income, first-generation students and students of color to the middle-class and beyond. Support for HSIs will pave the way for less inequality, more social mobility, and broader economic prosperity in America.”
The NAU researchers include principal investigator (PI) Catherine Propper, a professor in the Department of Biological Sciences; and co-PIs assistant research professor Anita Antoninka of the School of Forestry; professor Monica Brown of the Department of English, and professor Angelina Castagno of the Department of Educational Leadership, who also is director of the Diné Institute for Navajo Nation Educators.
“As the child of a Peruvian immigrant to the United States, I’m very excited to be a part of making higher education accessible and inclusive,” Brown said.” We will work toward the elimination of structural barriers so that we might reduce disproportionality and systemic inequities found in STEM fields. As a group, we will work both on personal action plans and systemic, institutional change.”
The team will create a bridge program between NAU-Flagstaff and partners Diné College, a tribal college on the Navajo Nation, and NAU-Yuma, a Hispanic-serving Institution. A key element of this partnership is collaborating with clinical professor Francisco Villa from NAU Yuma and associate professor Don Robinson and professor Shazia Tabassum Hakim from Diné College.
The Alfred P. Sloan Foundation awarded Propper and the team a $499,750 grant for a project called Multi-institutional transformation and graduate student support initiative (MITSI): Building bridges and transforming institutions to support graduate STEM education.
NAU is supporting the project through a matching grant of $590,450, combining funding from the Office of the President, the Office of the Provost, the College of the Environment, Forestry, and Natural Sciences, the College of Engineering, Informatics, and Applied Sciences, the College of Arts and Letters, the College of Education and the Graduate College.
Genentech has awarded additional funding and is partnering with the Sloan Foundation to earmark $200,000 for Priming the STEM Ph.D. pathway: Equity-centered faculty as key stakeholders in BIPOC graduate student success initiatives.
Led by Castagno and Brown, with support from Antoninka and Propper, this project is designed to provide STEM faculty development training in anti-racist educational practices in doctoral-granting programs across the Southwest.
Both initiatives will:
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