Quarterly Newsletter- Engineering PLUS Alliance: Networking the Nation
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Partnerships Launching Underrepresented Students
Engineering PLUS: Networking the Nation
This ever-evolving Tableau-basedinteractive map attempts to bring together information that can foster potential networking between our extensive Engineering PLUS locations of interest.
This is a work in progress and is part of the CIDER (Continuous Improvement through Data, Evaluation, and Research) team’s efforts to provide useful information. You can learn more through our User Guide. We welcome feedback on the utility of what we have developed and suggestions for future interactions.Please email us at [email protected] with any questions, comments or suggestions.
In the face of expanding anti-DEI legislation and other legal and political headwinds, the United States is in greater need of organizations like the Engineering PLUS Alliance – and all other NSF INCLUDES Alliances – more than ever. According to the US Department of Labor, STEM occupations are expected to increase by 10.8 percent between 2022 and 2032, compared to just 2.3 percent for all other occupations.
Eng+ is dedicated to the effort of optimizing our nation’s workforce in engineering by ensuring that women and BIPOC students have the opportunity to contribute to our nation and to the engineering profession, groups that have been historically excluded from participation at rates comparable to their representation in the general population. Our efforts continue to work on a local, regional, and national scale as evidenced below. Indeed, core to our work is a belief that a collective alliance of networked communities is needed to build an inclusive infrastructure that will drive and sustain the systemic change needed to markedly increase the diversity of engineering students enrolled and graduating across the country.
From our planned Regional Hub expansion, to our collective effort to share and scale evidence-based practices in meetings, at conferences, in academies, and on social media, we have been delighted to meet and work with many organizations and industry professionals to expand our network and our Alliance. To name a few, we have attended 50K Coalition and DiscoverE meetings, RISE UP Alliance webinars, HBCU conferences, and many others.
We hope that you will join us to continue our pursuit to systemically and sustainably transform engineering education.
Thank you,
The Engineering PLUS Alliance
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November 7-8 2023, brought us our first National Convening. Nearly 40 community members came together in person and online to conduct discourse and meaning-making within and about the Engineering PLUS Alliance. For some of us, we were together in person as a national network for the first time since the project launched in 2021. Working in collaboration with the Najera Consulting Group Inc., we crafted a unique agenda and deliberate content so that our event could be a true value add to our community.
TOP ROW: Dr. Chris Botanga, Keynote speaker Dr. Saran Stewart, KF Flynn; MIDDLE ROW: Alex Cammett, Carmen Sidbury, Aida Abraha, Tim Enright, Jackie El Sayed; BOTTOM ROW: Marshall Milner, Emeli Valverde, Rebecca Zarch, Kayla Maxey, Stephany Santos, Simonne Ronk
We were fortunate and very grateful to have NSF Program Officers Drs. Regina Pope-Ford and Jesus Soriano Molla attend. Our keynote speaker, Dr. Saran Stewart [Associate Professor, Higher Education and Student Affairs, and Director of Global Education] of the University of Connecticut wowed, entertained, and educated us about her family’s history, the history of education in Jamaica, and the experience of historically marginalized groups within the United States education experience.
TOP: Richard Harris, Julie Smith; MIDDLE: Michael Silevitch, Gabe Najera; BOTTOM: Tyler Clark, Regina Pope-Ford
For the first time, we were able to host a national event in both modalities: online and in-person via our online work station. Video recordings of our presentations, discussions, and activities will be coming online via the Engineering PLUS Alliance Youtube Channel in early 2024. Our meeting space and AV/Tech were generously donated by Microsoft at the New England Research and Design center (Microsoft NERD).
TOP ROW: Jen Love, Kayla Maxey, Claire Duggan, Mike Chery-Winder, Talia Goldwasser; MIDDLE ROW: Rebecca Zarch, Karl Reid, Ray Phillips; BOTTOM ROW: Carmen Sidbury, Marshall Milner, KF Flynn
To expand its network, the Engineering PLUS Alliance (Eng+) issued its first request for proposal (RFP) to engage a new partner that will provide leadership and oversight to launch a third Regional Hub. This partnership will expand the Alliance as a part of our strategic plan to produce a professional network of professionals and institutions dedicated to the mission of changing the face of the national engineering landscape. The RFP closed on Tuesday, January 16, 2024 and we received two applications.
Anticipated timeline:
Finalists Interviews: Conclude March 1
Selection Notification: Friday, March 8, 2024
Third Regional Hub Launch: Monday, April 1, 2024
What does a Regional Hub do, and what is expected of the leadership?
Regional Hub Leadership is responsible for:
Administrating the third regional hub of the Engineering PLUS Alliance
Hosting meetings with members, professional development, and convenings
Assisting with documentation of hub work towards project goals
Working with Eng+’s research team, CIDER.
Assisting with NSF Reports not limited to quarterly and annual
Attending limited national events or meetings
Collaborating with other Hubs
Recruiting institutional members for hubs
Recruiting stEm PEERs to attend the stEm PEER Academy
The Regional Hubs are responsible for:
Expanding the number of Engineering PLUS regional member institutions
Establishing and strengthening of the working relationships between institutions and Engineering PLUS Alliance, with a focus on broadening the participation of women and BIPOC students in engineering;
Providing opportunities for mid-career education professionals engaged or driven to improving the preparation, participation, and contributions of women and BIPOC through the stEm (E for our Engineering focus) PEER (Practitioners Enhancing Engineering Regionally) Academy
Supporting members in implementing best practices at their institution and region
Cementing faculty/leadership buy-in at regional institutions for scaling up best practices
Serving as institutional Ambassadors to lead and leverage activities that align with the overarching goal of EngPLUS by significantly increasing the number of women and BIPOC students graduating with BS and MS/Ph.D degrees in engineering to100K and 30K, respectively, by 2026 across the Alliance.
The LSAMP community is a critical partner to Eng+ as we look to Network the Nation. This past November, Alan Peterfreund and Richard Harris led a workshop at the LMRCSE conference in Chicago. The focus of our workshop was to explore two related topics; how can we promote greater inclusion of BIPOC voices in leading-edge science and technology and, correlated, increase the number of PhDs in engineering earned by BIPOC students.
We used a set of data posters to promote the conversation focusing on both the opportunities afforded by the historical level of federal investment underway associated with recent legislation and the challenges associated with motivating and supporting students to advance to the PhD level in engineering.
LSAMP leaders identified 2 challenges for promoting PhDs:
The limited economic benefit of a PhD as it relates to time to degree and salaries that were comparable to those with lesser degrees.
How to promote a better understanding of what it means to be a leader in science and technology centered on advocating for broader inclusion of voices in decision making that are currently underrepresented.
Are you an engineering faculty member or education professional engaged or driven to improve the preparation, participation, and contributions of those underrepresented in engineering?
Would you like to join a community of like-minded professionals committed to and equipped with the resources to change the face of our national engineering landscape?
Are you ready to take part in Networking the Nation?
Applications are Open Now: Click Here! Deadline: March 20th
Notification: Accepted applicants will be notified no later than April 17th, 2024
2024 Institute Orientation: April 30, 2024 12:00-1:00 ET
Institute: 10-1 pm EST on May 21, May 22, May 28, May 29, June 4, and June 5
Monthly: Attend virtual 1hr sessions and complete program updates (July 2024 – May 2025)
Those selected will receive a modest stipend and additional funds for select conferences
The Engineering PLUS Alliance is funding, training, empowering, resourcing, and supporting a national network of change agents. We call these agents stEm PEERs (Practitioners Enhancing Engineering Regionally). There are currently 38 stEm PEERs engaged in this learning community from public and private institutions across the country.
The Engineering PLUS stEm PEERs engage in a 2± year professional development and research experience to support the design and implementation of evidence-based practices at their home institution. PEERs will have the opportunity to learn and engage with program experts, researchers, and practitioners. Throughout the 2-year engagement, participants will deepen their knowledge and understanding of the challenges and successful strategies guiding the transformation of our national Engineering landscape. In addition, participants will utilize data and assessment to inform their specific efforts and support and inform the implementation of synergistic program efforts at their respective institutions and beyond. PEERs will be guided and supported to submit project outcomes as publications to LSAMP, ASEE, and/or the National INCLUDES Network to inform future broadening participation collaborations. PEERs will launch a growing community of engineering education equity leaders.
We are headed to CoNECD with 22 stEm PEERs. Our pre-conference meeting will provide an opportunity for networking, and discussion and for our current PEERs to provide direct input on the next PEER Academy. Regina Pope Ford will join our session to share information regarding funding opportunities at NSF. Our meeting will wrap up with a discussion regarding the impact of SCOTUS at PEER-affiliated institutions led by Richard Harris. We will also formally present on stEm PEER Academy during the conference.
Below you can hear from PEERs themselves on their experiences with the stEm PEER Academy:
stEm PEER: Josiah Owusu-Danquah from Cleveland State University
Co-PI’s Michael Silevitch and Clarie Duggan, were recently bestowed the honor of having the NU STEM Center named for them.
The Michael B. Silevitch and Claire J. Duggan Center for STEM Education seeks to build and support a community of educators, researchers, and students with the collective goal of strengthening the K-20 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics) educational ecosystem.
The Center’s vision to:
Build, support and sustain a community of individual, institutional and organizational support in STEM engagement, enrichment and persistence.
Impact advancement in STEM education through expanded collaboration, mentoring and training to increase access and diversity in STEM.
Increase student involvement with STEM subjects and careers by designing, implementing and supporting academic and extracurricular programs in STEM fields.
Michael Silevitch, Clarie Duggan, and Gregory Abowd
The Engineering PLUS Alliance is undergoing a change in leadership. Karl Reid, our original Principal Investigator (PI) has left Northeastern University for MIT but will still hold a leadership role within Engineering PLUS as a Co-PI.
We are thrilled to announce that Gregory Abowd, Dean of Engineering at NU, will assume the role of PI. Gregory sits on the Engineering Dean’s Council of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), the entity through which the Alliance is working to catalyze institutional change. Moreover, as an engineering dean, the visibility and potential impact of the Alliance is elevated among his peers who are overseeing change projects across the country. Finally, Gregory brings a critical eye to our work, and more broadly the mission, now that we are nearing the halfway point and continuing our shift from infrastructure to the generative work of the Alliance.
We hope you will join us in welcoming Gregory to the team and to our Networked Nation.
We are hard at work connecting and creating community among our national leaders in engineering. How do you become involved?
Maybe you would like to join as a Partner, or as a Collaborator. Maybe you want to be within our Hubs and bring your institution on board. Maybe you want this effort to last beyond the NSF INCLUDES Alliance grant period and want to assist us in our sustainability mission. Perhaps the stEm PEER Academy has struck your interest and you are eager to submit an application. Or, maybe you just want to make sure that you are up to date with our work and out community. Please check us out on the platforms below and be sure to join us in Networking the Nation.
NSF’s Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES National Network
NSF’s Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Alliance Engineering PLUS (Partnerships Launching Underrepresented Students). This work is supported by the National Science Foundation under award HRD-2119930. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
TOP ROW: Dr. Chris Botanga, Keynote speaker Dr. Saran Stewart, KF Flynn; MIDDLE ROW: Alex Cammett, Carmen Sidbury, Aida Abraha, Tim Enright, Jackie El Sayed; BOTTOM ROW: Marshall Milner, Emeli Valverde, Rebecca Zarch, Kayla Maxey, Stephany Santos, Simonne Ronk
TOP: Richard Harris, Julie Smith; MIDDLE: Michael Silevitch, Gabe Najera; BOTTOM: Tyler Clark, Regina Pope-Ford 
TOP ROW: Jen Love, Kayla Maxey, Claire Duggan, Mike Chery-Winder, Talia Goldwasser; MIDDLE ROW: Rebecca Zarch, Karl Reid, Ray Phillips; BOTTOM ROW: Carmen Sidbury, Marshall Milner, KF Flynn 
of Engineering at NU, will assume the role of PI. Gregory sits on the Engineering Dean’s Council of the American Society of Engineering Education (ASEE), the entity through which the Alliance is working to catalyze institutional change. Moreover, as an engineering dean, the visibility and potential impact of the Alliance is elevated among his peers who are overseeing change projects across the country. Finally, Gregory brings a critical eye to our work, and more broadly the mission, now that we are nearing the halfway point and continuing our shift from infrastructure to the generative work of the Alliance. 
Maybe you would like to join as a Partner, or as a Collaborator. Maybe you want to be within our Hubs and bring your institution on board. Maybe you want this effort to last beyond the NSF INCLUDES Alliance grant period and want to assist us in our sustainability mission. Perhaps the stEm PEER Academy has struck your interest and you are eager to submit an application. Or, maybe you just want to make sure that you are up to date with our work and out community. Please check us out on the platforms below and be sure to join us in Networking the Nation.
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NSF’s Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES National Network
