• Skip to main content
  • Skip to primary sidebar
  • Skip to footer
  • Home
  • Features
  • Campus News
  • CSUDH.edu
  • Contact
  • People
    • Staff Spotlight
    • Faculty Highlights
    • Alumni
  • Magazine
  • For Journalists
    • CSUDH In The News
    • Press Releases
    • Facts and Figures
    • Find Media Experts
    • Gallery
    • News Reporting on Campus

CSUDH News

The primary source of news and information about California State University, Dominguez Hills, its students, faculty, and staff.

CSU Research Project Nurtures STEM Faculty

July 20, 2022 By Lilly McKibbin

Two people wearing white lab coats in a laboratory, with a microscope

Faculty often face a steep learning curve when they begin their careers. In addition to juggling courses and research, they must navigate the complex maze of academia, its power structures, and its demands. For faculty from underrepresented populations, the experience can be especially isolating and discouraging. To address this, a collaborative CSU research project aims to improve retention and tenure for early-career, underrepresented, faculty in STEM by providing strengths-based training and personalized support. 

“CSU AGEP Alliance for Diversity and Strengths of STEM Faculty” implements, evaluates, and scales the Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) Alliance model of increasing the number of historically underrepresented STEM faculty. It also addresses “the very specific issues that every early career faculty member faces,” says Associate Professor of Psychology Philip Vieira, who serves on the CSUDH campus leadership team with Professor of Sociology Kara Dellacioppa and Professor of Marketing Kirti Celly. 

CSUDH was one of four pilot campuses for the project when it launched in 2019 through a five-year grant from National Science Foundation. Now in its fourth year, the project has supported 32 faculty members, including seven at CSUDH, and has spread to nearly every CSU campus. 

“A university is only as strong as its faculty are strong,” says Dellacioppa. “If this model is adopted on an institutionalized level, perhaps we will see better retention from faculty in STEM from underrepresented communities.”  

Graph depicting: CSUDH faculty is 42 percent White, 18 percent Hispanic/Latinx, 14 percent Black, 14 percent Asian, 1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native, 3 percent two or more races, and 8 percent not specified. Campus STEM faculty is 41 percent White, 20 percent Hispanic/Latinx, 15 percent Asian, 12 percent Black, 1 percent American Indian/Alaska Native, 9 percent not specified, and 2 percent two or more races.
The project team is also currently examining faculty hiring practices, and exploring how the university can hire more STEM faculty of color.

Program coaches guide new faculty through understanding their strengths and identities, and how those interact within the classroom or laboratory. There is also an emphasis on culturally informed teaching practices, which help faculty better empathize with students and understand how students’ upbringings might influence their approach to learning.  

The result, Vieira says, is better outcomes for both faculty and students.  

“Students are the direct beneficiaries,” he says. “We want to do a better job of keeping our students in STEM and helping them succeed by supporting the faculty that are engaged directly with them.”  

Dellacioppa agrees, and says that early-career faculty should take the time to grow their skillsets and self-understanding.  

“As faculty, you have students, colleagues, and research opportunities vying for your attention,” she says. “I wish every faculty member had this. It’s an investment in yourself I’ve not seen anywhere else in academia. This [one year] time commitment has payoffs in how you experience your career.”  

Assistant Professor of Psychology Ashley Membere, who has taught at CSUDH since 2019, says that being a participant helped her to leverage her strengths in teaching, service, and research, and also led to personal growth.  

“I know myself better as a person after completing the program,” she says. “It gave me a more holistic view of myself, and how all the little pieces of me fit together. I would tell any faculty member of color to do it, because it is very enriching personally and in terms of teaching.”  

CSUDH is still accepting applications from early-career, underrepresented STEM faculty members interested in participating for the 2022-23 academic year. For more information, contact Kara Dellacioppa or Philip Vieira.  

Filed Under: Archive, News Tagged With: CSU, diversity, Faculty, Research, STEM, support, teaching

Primary Sidebar

Social Media

  • Facebook
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
2nd in Economic Mobility

Press Releases

Installation view of “Personal, Small, Medium, Large, Family”

CSUDH University Art Gallery Presents “Personal, Small, Medium, Large, Family” by Mario Ybarra, Jr.

September 19, 2023

Student walking near Science and Innovation building on campus.

CSUDH Recognized as a Top Performer in the 2023 Sustainable Campus Index

September 15, 2023

Map showing geography of Southern California

Getty Foundation Awards CSUDH $180,000 for Brackish Water Los Angeles

May 9, 2023

See all Press Releases ›

CSUDH in the News

Students working on computers.

Daily Breeze: CSUDH Offers New Master Program for Incarcerated People for Fall 2023

September 11, 2023

Woman doing work on a computer.

KTLA: California Department of Corrections, CSU Dominguez Hills Unveils Graduate Program for Inmates

September 5, 2023

Exterior photograph of San Quentin State Prison

EdSource: A First for California’s Incarcerated Students – Now They Can Earn Master’s Degrees

September 5, 2023

See more In the News ›

Faculty Highlights

Headshot of Carolyn Caffrey.

Faculty Highlights: September 2023

Headshot of Jonathon Grasse

Faculty Highlights: August 2023

Rama Malladi

Faculty Highlights: July 2023

Staff Spotlight

Cesar Mejia Gomez

Staff Spotlight: Cesar Mejia Gomez

Staff Spotlight: Ludivina Snow

Staff Spotlight: Gilbert Hernandez

Footer

California State University, Dominguez Hills Logo

Related Sites

  • csudh.edu
  • magazine.csudh.edu
  • gotoros.com

EMAIL NEWSLETTER

Get CSUDH News directly in your inbox

Copyright © 2023 · California State University, Dominguez Hills