EMPOWER: Enhanced Mentoring Program with Opportunities for Ways to Excel in Research

• In Event: Women Weathering the Workplace: The Critical Roles of Mentors, Sponsors, and Coaches

Short Description

EMPOWER is a university-structured faculty mentoring program supporting 120 faculty through research and advancement while promoting diversity and benefiting the institution. This presentation will describe the development and five-year review of the program highlighting individual faculty advancement and advancement of the university research mission.

Detailed Abstract

Years of mentoring literature document the benefits that institutions derive from supporting “developmental relationships” such as mentoring for employees. These benefits include: increased productivity and organizational stability, increased socialization and communication, retention of valued employees, preservation of intellectual capital and institutional memory, support of cultural diversity, improved leadership capacity and succession planning and cost-effectiveness. (Zellers, Howard, & Barcic, 2008).

Mentoring to support the research function of faculty has also been recognized as an important benefit, not only to the academy but also for national interests in science. For example, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Research Integrity has recognized mentoring as a key institutional strategy for fostering responsible conduct among future generations of scientists (Steneck, 2004). Additionally, a medical school study reported by Carr, Bickel, and Inui (2003) established that faculty with mentors were more likely to have a productive research career.

Although it is well established in the literature (e.g., Bisbee & Miller, 2006) that attaining positions of academic leadership in higher education typically begins an established career as a faculty member followed by steps of academic advancement, women faculty have a longer trajectory in their careers and are not well represented in the full professorship ranks. A report issued in 2006 by the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) on faculty gender equity issues concluded, “Women are receiving doctoral degrees at record rates, but their representation in the ranks of tenured faculty remains below expectations, particularly at research universities. Women face more obstacles as faculty in higher education than they do as managers and directors in corporate America” (West & Curtis, 2006, p. 4.) In fact, the report documented that women held only 24% of full professorships in the United States.

We faced a similar scenario on the Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI) campus. Internal data from the university indicated that as of 2010, women were 22% of full professors at IUPUI and constituted 30% of the tenured faculty. And despite the fact that the number of male and female Ph.D. and M.D. recipients are about equal and women earn equal research funding early in their careers, far fewer women are applying for NIH-funding in the period of late postdoctoral and early faculty years (Ley & Hamilton, 2008).

Given these concerns, it is important to note the volume of evidence in the research literature indicating that formal mentoring programs are especially beneficial for women and minorities (Bland, Taylor, Shollen, Weber-Main, & Mulcahy, 2012; Ragins & Cotton, 1999). These programs could mean the difference between success and failure for early career faculty, who are searching for guidance, a sense of belonging, and confidence in their academic journey as well as for mid-career faculty seeking a path to full professorship.

Design and Outcomes
To address these issues on the IUPUI campus, the Office for Women (OFW) and the Office of the Vice Chancellor for Research (OVCR) convened a focus group of senior women faculty in the spring of 2011. The participants discussed how the university could: (a) Increase the participation of women faculty in research activities, and (b) support women in advancing their careers. The top request from the women was mentoring. Subsequently, the OVCR and OFW developed an enhanced mentoring program for women and underrepresented faculty. This program, known as EMPOWER (Enhanced Mentoring Program with Opportunities for Ways to Excel in Research) pairs assistant professors with tenured associate professors (or above), and associate professors with full professors, for an academic year to assist them in developing an agenda for research or creative activity with the aim of making an application for external funding.

Goals and Effectiveness
The desired outcomes for the participant/mentees are clearly stated: (1) to become more productive researchers and scholars; (2) to be promoted and tenured; and (3) to pursue and receive external funding for their research and scholarship.

Simultaneously, the university is assessing the extent to which the following goals are achieved: (1) retention of women faculty and faculty from underrepresented groups; (2) support of cultural and gender diversity; (3) career development of researcher/scientists and researcher/scholars; and (4) increase in external funding for the university.

During the five-year period between 2011-2016, a total of 62 mentees (52 women and 10 men) have completed the program. Among the participants, 28 mentees have been from under-represented minority groups. The total return in external funding to the university has been $2.8 million, which is seven times the return on our investment to date.

A formal evaluation at the end of the first year concluded: “Overwhelmingly, mentees described positive professional outcomes due to their participation in the EMPOWER program. Accomplishments from the program included, but were not limited to conceptualizing, proposing, and securing external funding; writing and publishing; collaborating, networking, and relationship building; formulating and working towards professional goals; and navigating inequalities in the academic system ” (Evaluation of EMPOWER, 2012, p. 26).

We are now in the process of evaluating the impact of the first five years of the program. The Center for Multicultural Urban Education is conducting a survey of the 120 participants (mentors and mentees) in the program to date.
The final report will be completed by July 31, 2017, with key learnings related to the program’s areas of effectiveness then incorporated into the ILA symposium presentation.

Participants

• Kathleen S. Grove, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

• Etta Ward, Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis

• Samantha M. Paredes Scribner, IU