Join us for the next Hugo Rossi lecture, co-sponsored by HHMI UPSTEM:
That None Shall Perish
Kelly Mack, Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U)
- Wednesday, February 19, 2020
- 4-5pm in ASB 210 (reception at 3:30)
Abstract
Every fifteen minutes, a student majoring in any of the STEM disciplines either changes his or her major to a non-STEM discipline or withdraws from college altogether (NSF 2019). This troubling phenomenon disproportionately, although not exclusively, affects students of color who now comprise the fastest-growing undergraduate populations in US colleges and universities. Advancing discovery and innovation demands that US institutions of higher education, and the professional organizations that support them, hear and heed the clarion call for greater diversity in STEM. However, wecannot continue to turn to mere workaround strategies that, by themselves, fail to address the root causes of the underrepresentation of diverse students in these disciplines. Rather, we must lean toward a broadening participation agenda that is more daring than accommodating, reflective than prescriptive, and more open- than closed-ended. Dr. Mack’s presentation will focus on the highly acclaimed AAC&U Teaching to Increase Diversity and Equity in STEM (TIDES) initiative, which is targeted toward empowering STEM faculty to implement culturally responsive teaching strategies in STEM classrooms. These strategies have been shown to not only effectively retain underrepresented students in STEM, but also to significantly improve STEM faculty self-efficacy in proactively addressing the academic needs of diverse students with cultural awareness, consciousness, and sensitivity.
Dr. Kelly Mack is the Vice President for Undergraduate STEM Education and Executive Director of Project Kaleidoscope at the Association of American Colleges and Universities (AAC&U). In this capacity, Dr. Mack provides leadership for the organization’s mission level commitments to quality and inclusion through the delivery of world class professional development aimed at empowering our nation’s finest STEM faculty to competitively train and educate more STEM students. Prior to joining AAC&U, Dr. Mack was the Senior Program Director for the National Science Foundation ADVANCE Program while on loan from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore where, as a Professor of Biology, she taught courses in Physiology and Endocrinology for 17 years.
Dr. Mack’s holistic approach to STEM reform is grounded in a strategic vision that foregrounds inclusion as an immutable factor for achieving excellence in undergraduate STEM education. Her leadership in STEM reform has led to: significant increases in the capacity of STEM faculty to implement culturally responsive pedagogies, major shifts in the ways in which leadership development for STEM faculty is delivered, and the expansion of both physical and virtual convening platforms for knowledge generation, exchange, and dissemination.
Recognized as a national thought leader in higher education, Dr. Mack’s work has been highlighted in Diverse Magazine and U.S. News and World Report. Currently, she is an advisor to several institutional transformation initiatives at NSF-funded ADVANCE institutions, as well as other national STEM reform collaboratives. She is also co-founder and chair of the board of the Society of STEM Women of Color, Inc., and has served as member of numerous board and national committees.
Dr. Mack earned the BS degree in Biology from the University of Maryland Eastern Shore and, later, the PhD from Howard University in Physiology. She has had extensive training and experience in the area of cancer research with her research efforts focusing primarily on the use of novel antitumor agents in breast tumor cells, as well as the use of bioflavonoids in the regulation of estrogen receptor positive (ER+) and estrogen receptor negative (ER-) breast tumor cell proliferation. Most recently, her research efforts have examined STEM leadership development and the impact of mindfulness on STEM faculty self-efficacy.
This event is co-sponsored by HHMI UPSTEM and the Office of Undergraduate Studies.
