ABOUT ACCESS+
Overview
STEM professional societies (ProSs) play an important role in shaping and maintaining disciplinary culture, standards, and education (Borman, Halperin, & Tyson, 2010; Chanderbhan-Forde, Heppner, & Borman, 2012; Smith et al., 2021; Campbell-Montalvo, et al., in press). Consequently, STEM professional societies are positioned as critical levers for STEM culture reform (e.g, NAP #11153) and can be aligned to support the diversification of the discipline, and transformation from the current narrow definition of disciplinary distinction, to that of inclusive excellence.
The ACCESS+ Initiative seeks to build on the successful efforts of the five biologically oriented professional societies that comprised the original ACCESS project, to scale up and extend the impact of DEI efforts of Boundary Spanners within and across multiple STEM professional societies. Read more.
Partner Organizations
We are a partnership of two organizations and three initiatives recognized for national STEM diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) leadership.
- The Women in Engineering ProActive Network (WEPAN) is the nation’s first network dedicated to advancing DEI cultures in engineering education, and brings 30 years of experience in serving women in the engineering domain.
- The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is a boldly inclusive, mobilized, and global scientific community that ignites, enables, and celebrates scientific excellence and science-informed decisions and actions.
- The ADVANCE Resource and Coordination (ARC) Network brings NSF ADVANCE-specific expertise, community, and a library of resources.
- The INCLUDES Aspire Alliance National Change Team connects the proposed work to the Aspire Alliance and broader national NSF INCLUDES efforts.
- The Alliance to Catalyze Change for Equity in STEM Success (ACCESS) Project provides “proof of concept,” as a multi-society of DEI change leaders from five biological professional societies, and serves as the foundation for the proposed ACCESS+ Initiative.
Our Team
Past Contributors
FAQs
ACCESS+ is an NSF ADVANCE partnership grant-funded initiative that seeks to extend the breadth and number of STEM professional societies engaged in addressing disciplinary diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI).
The goal of ACCESS+ is to prepare and support motivated cohorts of STEM professional society change leaders who serve as DEI “Boundary Spanners.” DEI Boundary Spanners are individuals who facilitate connection(s) between organizations by finding, translating, and diffusing DEI information and resources for mutual benefit; working to support STEM DEI reform; and “weaving” together stakeholders and partners towards collective DEI goals.
Cohort members first spend two months working on the Equity Environmental Scanning Tool (EEST), a self-assessment tool that helps Professional Societies assess and benchmark organizational diversity, equity, and inclusion efforts.
They then spend nine months engaging in a Community of Practice, focusing on action planning and implementation, engaging in addtional EEST frames, meeting with peers, participating in webinars, and applying for Catalytic funding in the form of DEI mini-grants.
The Community of Practice meets once a month.
Once the cohort has started and cohort members have completed their action planning, they will receive an invitation with a link to apply for the DEI mini-grant.
Contact
ACCESS.plus@wepan.org | 720.943.4587 | WEPAN, 2001 L Street NW, Suite 500 – 50176, Washington, DC 20036
ACCESS+ is funded by an ADVANCE Partnership grant from the National Science Foundation (HRD #2017953), and through support from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund. Any opinions, findings, conclusions and/or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.
