AGEP 2022 National Research Conference

The AGEP National Research Conference 2022 was created in response to the NSF's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program solicitation (NSF 16-552). The goal of the AGEP program is to increase the number of historically underrepresented minority faculty in STEM. The use of the term "historically underrepresented minority" reflects language from Congress, and in the context of the AGEP program, the AGEP populations are defined as STEM doctoral candidates, postdoctoral scholars and faculty, who are African Americans, Hispanic Americans, American Indians, Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and Native Pacific Islanders.

The AGEP program seeks to advance knowledge about models to improve pathways to the professoriate and the successes of graduate students, postdoctoral fellows and faculty, who are members of racial and ethnic groups that are underrepresented in STEM. AGEP awardees develop, implement, study, evaluate and disseminate AGEP Alliance Models to transform the dissertation phase of doctoral education, postdoctoral training and/or faculty advancement, and the transitions within and across the pathway levels.

As the nation addresses STEM achievement gaps in postsecondary education, our universities and colleges struggle to recruit, retain and promote STEM faculty who are members of AGEP populations and who serve as role models and academic leaders for students to learn from, work with and emulate. Recent NSF reports indicate that STEM associate and full professors, who are members of racial and ethnic groups, occupy 8% of senior faculty positions at all 4-year colleges and universities, and about 6% of faculty positions at the nation's most research-intensive institutions.

This AGEP National Research Conference will advance knowledge about initiatives that can be institutionalized, sustained, and strengthened to increase the number of historically underrepresented minority faculty in STEM.

This conference convening will bring together hundreds of AGEP and non-AGEP awardees to advance knowledge and broader impacts about academic STEM career pathways. The goals of the conference are: 1) To provide a venue for AGEP Alliances to gain knowledge and share best practices on methods to strengthen, institutionalize, expand, and sustain their Alliances and communicate project findings; 2) To provide a venue for AGEP Alliance teams to share best practices and methods about interacting with and supporting their project participants; and 3) To provide NSF with a platform to garner stakeholder input from the AGEP awardees and to share new funding opportunities, policy changes and program updates with the awardees.

The two and half-day conference is scheduled for November of 2022, in Corpus Christi, TX. In addition to plenary and keynote sessions, research presentations and a poster session, there will be round-table and small group discussions, and other interactive sessions to increase conference engagement. The proposed work includes evaluation components and a dissemination plan to publish peer-reviewed conference proceedings.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.