never thought she鈥檇 achieve a doctoral degree, never mind landing a tenure-track job at the 91探花. Raised in Mexico, she moved to California when she was 11, and she鈥檚 the first in her family to earn a Ph. D. She once believed that a career in academia was unattainable due to the obstacles placed in society for people of color.

Now an assistant professor of Spanish at the 91探花and director of the Heritage Language Program, Amezcua said coming to the university directly from a doctoral program was intimidating. It was a new place, a new position, and she is breaking ground in a new field. But Amezcua said she feels at home thanks, in part, to an effort designed to support and retain underrepresented groups and first-generation faculty at UW.

鈥淚 just felt so reassured that I made the right decision,鈥� she said. 鈥淣ot only did I feel validated, but I felt like I was going to be receiving support.鈥�

It鈥檚 all part of a multi-pronged effort introduced last year to diversify the faculty ranks at 91探花and fits within the Race and Equity Initiative the university launched in 2015.

Amezcua participates in a new Faculty Development Program led by 91探花sociology professor . The inaugural cohort has 28 faculty from the Seattle and Tacoma campuses. These new faculty are paired with a mentor 鈥� a tenured professor 鈥� from their academic unit. There are workshops and discussions to provide supportive spaces to build community, network and foster professional development.

鈥淲e have created this program because we cannot be an excellent university without a racially and ethnically diverse faculty,鈥� said Harris, the 91探花Presidential Term Professor and special assistant to the provost. 鈥淲e cannot just hire diverse faculty, but we need to fully support our colleagues of color and ensure our community is a space where everyone can flourish, particularly at a predominantly white university.”

Provost Mark Richards last year announced the Faculty Diversity Initiative, a multimillion-dollar effort that included funding to hire and support diverse faculty. At his annual Town Hall Tuesday, Richards touted UW鈥檚 hiring trends and anecdotal feedback and noted that more work is necessary.

鈥淲e are making some strides in this direction 鈥� though there鈥檚 still a long way to go,鈥� Richards said.

Students benefit from a university with faculty members whose knowledge and understanding represent the diversity of Washington state, as do the people and communities that benefit from the UW鈥檚 research and scholarship, Richards said. Additionally, a diverse faculty signal to historically marginalized students, especially underrepresented racial and ethnic groups, that teaching and research careers are accessible, achievable and encouraged.

Nearly 27% of new hires into tenure-track positions in 2021 are from underrepresented populations, mostly Black and Latinx, Richards said, the most diverse new faculty cohort in recent 91探花history and a significant increase over previous years. What鈥檚 more, the number of underrepresented faculty in tenure/tenure track positions has increased 22% since 2017, and the number of women faculty in tenure/tenure track positions has increased 6.4% in that same timeframe.

鈥淢aintaining our fidelity to our public mission depends upon BIPOC scholars being offered jobs, joining, staying and leading our academic community,鈥� Richards said. 鈥淣ow is the time for us to make these efforts a more explicit, invested and systemic behavior at UW. Further and more critically, the Faculty Diversity Initiative is building upon efforts of generations of BIPOC faculty whose labor toward these ends has often gone unacknowledged and now must be properly centered and recognized.鈥�

In addition to UW鈥檚 Faculty Development Program, the university is taking multiple approaches to diversify the faculty and support underrepresented tenure-track groups.

The Office for Faculty Advancement in the past year presented 67 anti-bias workshops to faculty hiring committees, as well as two anti-bias webinars available to all 91探花employees.

At 91探花Medicine, launched the (SURF) program. Like the Faculty Development Program, this is a 12-month, small-group program focused on career development, coaching and peer co-learning for incoming medical faculty.

鈥淲e are investing in this important work to ensure the success, retention and recruitment of underrepresented minority faculty, and to realize the 91探花Medicine mission of an anti-racist institution that maximizes the potential of all faculty to improve the health of the public,鈥� Doll said.

Getting to know the 91探花and meeting faculty across campus has been invaluable, said , an assistant professor of marketing at the Foster School of Business. Given that she is the only Black tenure-track faculty at Foster, connection to a larger community through the Faculty Development Program is especially important.

鈥淗aving a sense of community can really help make the experience more enriching,鈥� she said. 鈥淲e are able to learn from each other鈥檚 journeys as well as what it means to be faculty within the classroom and a research scholar. The program helps us gain access to faculty and administrators who are at various stages of their careers so we can truly envision our own careers at UW.鈥�

That sentiment was echoed by , an assistant professor of sociology. He sought out the 91探花to launch his faculty career because of the university鈥檚 reputation for forward-facing research that鈥檚 connected to community.

鈥淲hat鈥檚 been encouraging so far is the fact that although we are in different disciplines, have maybe different research agendas or different reasons for why we entered this profession, we’re here,鈥� he said.

In academia, where so much emphasis is placed on producing the next research paper or publication, Ince said he now is part of a cohort that also supports him in celebrating small achievements in the moment.

鈥淚t’s encouraged me to again look outward and recognize the commonality that I have with other faculty of color, rather than the things that may direct differences,鈥� Ince said. 鈥淲hat’s giving me hope is the fact that I know that I have a community that cares about me holistically and not just about what I can produce.鈥�

For more information, contact Harris at yharris@uw.edu.

In 2017, the Heising-Simons Foundation 鈥� a family foundation that works in climate and clean energy, science, education, and human rights 鈥� established the to support early-career astronomers engaged in planetary research. Just over a year later, the Foundation that it would overhaul the selection process for the program because, out of 12 fellowships awarded in the program鈥檚 first two years, only two 鈥� one each year 鈥� went to female scientists.

鈥淓ven with our good intentions, we find ourselves part of a system that drives to less rather than more diversity,鈥� said the Foundation in . 鈥淲e commit to working to change our Fellowship and that system for the better.鈥�

Over the next year, the Foundation worked with 鈥� director of the 91探花鈥檚 , an NSF-funded body to promote female STEM faculty on campus 鈥� to modify the application and evaluation process for the 51 Pegasi b Fellowship based on social science research. The goal: to put male and female scientists on a more equal footing.

The Heising-Simons Foundation used the revised method to choose its next class of fellows. In March of this year, the Foundation that six scientists would receive 51 Pegasi b Fellowships in 2019, four of them women.

In published Dec. 6 in the journal Nature Astronomy, Yen shared the changes that the Heising-Simons Foundation implemented, and how its lessons could inform changes in academia, education and philanthropy to boost diversity, equity and inclusion in all STEM fields. Yen sat down with 91探花News to discuss this unique case study.

This is just one postdoctoral fellowship that researchers in astronomy can apply for. Why is this case so important?

These fellowships have a large impact on career trajectory. When postdoctoral researchers apply for faculty positions, grants or other opportunities, they鈥檒l be evaluated in part based on research they鈥檝e already done and fellowships they鈥檝e previously earned. So, when the process to award things like postdoctoral fellowships already treats male and female candidates differently, it has an impact not just in regard to diversity, equity and inclusion, but also the demographic makeup of faculty, senior researchers, administrators and mentors.

What prompted the Heising-Simons Foundation to change the way that this fellowship was awarded?

With just two fellowships going to female scientists in its first two years, there were strong reactions from the astronomy and philanthropic communities, all essentially asking: Why is the gender diversity so skewed in these fellowships while we鈥檙e having these conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion?

The Heising-Simons Foundation listened, and asked, “How can we make this better?” They reached out to experts and began a year-long process to change the way that they solicit applications and evaluate candidates.

How did you approach working with the Foundation for this fellowship?

I worked with them to evaluate the application process and as a facilitator during the evaluation and review process. Our goal was to bring changes to the fellowship application and evaluation process that reflected effective practices for diversity, equity and inclusion.

What are some of those best practices?

First, don鈥檛 narrow the applicant pool any earlier than you need to. That makes it more likely that fellowships will be awarded in a way that addresses diversity, equity and inclusion. Second, ensure that the information collected from applicants actually captures what we want to know about them, and also create an evaluation rubric for reviewers. This avoids situations in which evaluators might 鈥渇ill in the blanks,鈥� read between the lines or make assumptions about applicants that might introduce bias into the selection process. Also, we just want to ensure that we鈥檙e aware and acknowledge that bias happens to all of us.

So what are some of the changes that the Heising-Simons Foundation put in place to reflect those best practices?

Previously, postdoctoral researchers would apply through the universities that they wanted to work at. The universities would then pick which applications to send to the Heising-Simons Foundation. We changed the process so that postdoctoral researchers would apply directly to the Foundation, which would then forward those applications to the relevant universities. This keeps the universities involved in the selection process, which the Foundation wanted, but also increased the percentage of female applicants from less than 25% under the old system to more than 30%.

What about changes to the information given by applicants?

Research has shown that we鈥檙e not as good as we think we are in evaluating applications without bias coming into play. This is true even in science. Part of overhauling the process involved changes to the application itself 鈥� the information we鈥檙e requesting from the applicant. This involved stepping back and asking, 鈥淲hat do we really want?鈥� Do we want someone innovative, for example? If so, how do we collect information that will let us identify innovation, for example, among the pool of applicants? And what criteria will reviewers use to evaluate and score the applications?

By starting from those types of goal-oriented questions, we made changes to the application, such as asking for an open-ended statement from the applicants about diversity, equity and inclusion. We also improved the rubric for reviewers to use in evaluating and scoring applications, including justifications for their score.

What about steps to reduce bias in the evaluation and selection process?

We did quite a lot. To provide a common context among the reviewers, I provided background research about bias 鈥� that it happens, often in counterintuitive ways, and can affect outcomes like who receives a fellowship. They reviewed applications in-person, and we took concrete steps to avoid introducing bias through things like 鈥渄ecision fatigue.鈥� This is a well-documented phenomenon, and happens when you just 鈥減low through鈥� a list of cases with no breaks. Here, we handled the applications in randomized bundles of six, followed by a brief break. This randomized discussion also helped with anchoring bias where we latch onto a first impression 鈥� like an ordinal score or ranking 鈥� that influences our future thinking about that application.

On paper, these might look like lots of changes, but they really aren鈥檛. They鈥檙e small changes that required a modest investment in time and resources to come up with and implement. But that investment had a large effect on reducing bias and ensuring that the evaluation and selection process is sensitive to diversity, equity and inclusion. These changes support the overall goal of scientific excellence, noting that excellence has many dimensions.

These changes don鈥檛 seem specific to astronomy.

That is correct. They鈥檙e widely applicable to STEM fields, academia and funding organizations. Many types of organizations have made commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion in STEM fields. But it takes a lot of leadership to actually make it happen. The Heising-Simons Foundation said that it wants to make the investment 鈥� caring enough to not just say, 鈥淲e want to do better,鈥� but to actually do better. And even after a change like this, the work is not over. This is an ongoing conversation, and the work must continue.

How would you like to see conversations about diversity, equity and inclusion evolve?

I would like people to consider diversity as part of excellence. People right now want to know what the value of diversity is in an organization. But let鈥檚 put it another way: What鈥檚 the value 鈥� or the cost 鈥� of being homogenous?

For more information, contact Yen at 206-543-4605 or joyceyen@uw.edu.

Starting this academic year, the 91探花 is implementing an option allowing students and other members of the 91探花community to express what pronouns they go by in their everyday lives.

The 91探花Office of the Registrar plans to integrate pronoun use into class rosters as early as winter quarter if resources and schedule allow.

鈥淧roviding instructors with their students’ self-identified pronouns is our highest priority so that faculty don’t have to assume them based on name or appearance,” said Helen Garrett, 91探花Registrar.

On (Oct. 16) the 91探花 community is invited to celebrate the ways in which using someone鈥檚 pronouns have a positive impact on the community as a whole.

鈥淩espectful pronoun use cultivates a safer, more inclusive and welcoming community for everyone,鈥� said Jen Self, director of the 91探花.

International Pronouns Day is a day of celebration that 鈥渟eeks to make respecting, sharing and educating about personal pronouns commonplace,鈥� according to its website.

For ideas on how to participate, and information on plans to add a pronoun option at the UW, please visit the on pronouns.

The 91探花 has been ranked the in the state by Forbes. The 91探花also topped the national for LGBTQIA+ students published by Best Colleges, an organization that ranks higher education institutions in various categories.

The ranking puts the 91探花as the top academic employer in the state and the No. 1 public institution to work for. The fifth overall ranking follows private companies Costco, Google, Boeing and Nordstrom. Forbes partnered with market research company Statista to pinpoint the organizations liked best by employees in the magazine鈥檚 first state-by-state ranking of America鈥檚 best employers.

Separately, named the 91探花as the No. 1 school for LGBTQIA+ students. The publication pointed out the UW鈥檚 welcoming admissions fairs, Q Center and as some of the university鈥檚 pride points. Academic pursuit of LGBTQIA+ topics with an engaged faculty also helped put the 91探花on top.

Earlier this year, Forbes ranked the 91探花as one of the in the U.S.

Late last year, the 91探花’s quietly marked its 15th birthday. But now, with thriving programs for early-career faculty and record numbers of female faculty in STEM fields, the center is ready for a party.

On March 31, ADVANCE will hold a belated celebration of its work and achievements since it was founded in 2001. With workshops, new resources and mentoring services the center has strived to remake the faculty recruitment and retention process to emphasize diversity in the sciences and develop resources to support early-career faculty.

“Our work through ADVANCE is to build successful and productive faculty, because their success is the university’s success,” said , 91探花associate dean of engineering for diversity and access, professor of electrical engineering and faculty director of ADVANCE.

There’s a lot to celebrate. Since ADVANCE opened its doors, the 91探花has nearly doubled the number of female faculty in 19 STEM departments across three 91探花colleges, from 60 in 2000 to 112 in 2015. In addition to this 93 percent increase, more than half of the female faculty in those departments are now full professors with tenure, countering the stereotype that female faculty don’t achieve full professorship as often as their male colleagues.

The 91探花also boasts the among the top 50 engineering schools in the country.

ADVANCE has worked to both increase the number of female faculty members in the STEM fields where they are historically underrepresented and establish support networks for faculty in the early stages of their careers.

“At UW, the early-career stage for faculty is very different today than it was when ADVANCE started,” said center director . “Today in our STEM departments there is awareness of the critical importance of addressing faculty professional development, supporting faculty success at all levels and supporting our female faculty.”

The bulk of the center’s work currently focuses on three endeavors to promote faculty recruitment and retention:

• Career development workshops for pre-tenure faculty
• Workshops on effective leadership for department chairs and college deans
• A 鈥淢entoring-for-Leadership鈥� lunch and speaker series for female faculty

ADVANCE designed its workshops for early-career faculty to address subjects that are important for faculty success, but which are often lacking in traditional doctoral and postdoctoral training.

“Our workshops cover topics that faculty have asked for help with, such as time management, personnel management, student mentoring and work-life balance,” said Yen. “Faculty want and need professional development. They know they can come to ADVANCE with questions and for help and resources. You don’t have to make it up as you go along or reinvent the wheel.”

Nine universities were in the first cohort of National Science Foundation ADVANCE grantees in 2001, each of whom was awarded a five-year grant. Each university’s ADVANCE program piloted a different approach. The 91探花center’s flagship innovation was to focus on leadership development at the university, particularly of department chairs and deans.

“A huge part of our success has been engagement with department chairs, because they have a significant impact on the success of early-career faculty,” said Riskin. “And since ADVANCE started working with chairs and deans back in 2002, we’ve found them terrific partners for recruiting and retaining diverse faculty, providing resources and addressing the problems and concerns of early-career faculty.”

Another endeavor is to help female faculty across the 91探花consider leadership opportunities as part of their career plans, such as becoming department chairs. This led to the 鈥淢entoring-for-Leadership鈥� lunch and speaker series, which is the only ADVANCE program open only to female faculty. One past speaker at this event was 91探花President , who was principal investigator for ADVANCE during much of its tenure.

Looking forward, Yen and Riskin said they want ADVANCE to continue these current projects, but also expand the center’s focus to include increasing female faculty from underrepresented minority groups and creating new programs to support mid-career faculty.

For its first six years, 91探花ADVANCE was supported by the National Science Foundation. The 91探花center continued thanks to additional grants and support from the UW, NSF and the National Institutes of Health.

###

For more information, contact Yen at 206-543-4605 or joyceyen@uw.edu and Riskin at 206-685-2313 or riskin@uw.edu.

Women’s relative lack of participation in science, technology, engineering and math is well documented, but why women are more represented in some STEM areas than others is less clear.

A new 91探花 is among the first to address that question by comparing gender disparities across STEM fields. Published Oct. 12 in the journal Psychological Bulletin, the paper identifies three main factors driving the disparity 鈥� and the most powerful one, the researchers conclude, is a “masculine culture” that makes many women feel like they don’t belong.

“There is widespread knowledge that women are underrepresented in STEM, but people tend to lump STEM fields together,” said lead author , a 91探花associate professor of psychology. “This is one of the first attempts to really dig down into why women are more underrepresented in some STEM fields than others.”

Women now earn about 37 percent of undergraduate STEM degrees in the United States, but their representation varies widely across those fields. Women receive more than 40 percent of undergraduate degrees in math, for example, but just 18 percent of degrees in computer science.

The 91探花study focused on six of the largest science and engineering fields with the most undergraduate degrees: biology, chemistry and math, which have the highest proportions of female participation, and computer science, engineering and physics, which have bigger gender gaps.

The researchers analyzed more than 1,200 papers about women’s underrepresentation in STEM, and from those identified 10 factors that impact gender differences in students’ interest and participation in STEM. Then they winnowed the list down to the three factors most likely to explain gendered patterns in the six STEM fields 鈥� a lack of pre-college experience, gender gaps in belief about one鈥檚 abilities, and a masculine culture that discourages women from participating.

The paper identifies three main aspects of that masculine culture: stereotypes of the fields that are incompatible with how many women perceive themselves, negative stereotypes about women鈥檚 abilities and a dearth of role models. Those factors decrease women’s interest in a field by signaling that they do not belong there, the researchers write.

A lack of pre-college experience is also a factor, the paper finds. The gender gap in STEM interest is smaller among high school seniors at schools with stronger math and science offerings, the researchers note. But courses in computer science, engineering and physics are less likely to be offered and required in U.S. high schools than courses in biology, chemistry and mathematics 鈥� leaving students with little information about what those fields are like and who might be suited for them.

“Students are basing their educational decisions in large part on their perceptions of a field,” Cheryan said. “And not having early experience with what a field is really like makes it more likely that they will rely on their stereotypes about that field and who is good at it.”

A lack of experience does not itself cause women’s underrepresentation in STEM, the researchers write. Women are attracted to many fields that students are typically not exposed to before college, such as nursing and social work, the researchers note. But when a lack of early experience is accompanied by a masculine culture, the gender proportion skews male. Early learning opportunities in STEM, Cheryan said, will only attract girls if they convey that girls belong in those fields as much as boys do.

“If we鈥檙e not providing students with a welcoming culture, these efforts are not likely to succeed,” she said.

Belief in one’s abilities was a common theme in previous studies and may help explain current gender gaps, but Cheryan said inconsistent findings made it a less compelling factor. For example, she said, girls tend to report less confidence in their math abilities than boys, but the field of math is still relatively gender-balanced.

Similarly, Cheryan said, gender discrimination in hiring and other opportunities was not able to explain current patterns of variability. The researchers expected to find less discrimination in the fields with higher female representation, she said, but discovered that it differed little across the six areas.

The researchers embarked on the study focusing primarily on women鈥檚 choices, Cheryan said, but quickly realized that explaining women’s underrepresentation required also looking at men鈥檚 choices. The proportion of women receiving computer science degrees, for example, has declined steadily since the mid-1980s, due more to an influx of men to the field than a drop in women鈥檚 participation. Cultural historians attribute the shift to the advent of the personal computer and an accompanying stereotype of the nerdy male computer genius.

“When we drilled down into the numbers, we realized that if we just looked at women, that wouldn’t tell the whole story,” Cheryan said. “Underrepresentation is shaped just as much by what men are doing as by what women are doing.鈥�

The researchers conclude that a more inclusive culture across STEM fields is the most effective way to boost female participation. That can be achieved, Cheryan said, by developing “subcultures” that make girls feel they belong, whether that involves to create a more welcoming environment or counteracting negative stereotypes about women鈥檚 abilities by making it clear that everyone has the potential to succeed.

“Cultural change is never easy, but there are lots of examples of it being done successfully, and it translates into changing who鈥檚 in a particular field,” she said.

The research was funded by the Sloan Foundation and the National Science Foundation. The study’s co-authors are , a 91探花master鈥檚 student in psychology when the research was conducted; , a former 91探花undergraduate now at Ohio State University; and , former lab manager of the UW’s .

For more information, contact Cheryan at scheryan@uw.edu or 206-612-9812.

Like post-secondary schools across the country, the 91探花 has struggled to attract and retain a talented, diverse faculty.

But efforts that have been quietly underway for a few years are starting to pay off, attracting top-level candidates to the 91探花even over schools that are able to offer bigger salaries and more perks. That work involves not simply convincing excellent candidates to come to the UW, but creating a supportive and inclusive environment that prompts them to stay, said , the UW鈥檚 associate vice provost for faculty advancement, who was hired in 2015 to help increase faculty diversity on campus.

“The money helps. We know that,” Allen said. “But after a certain threshold, we still need to compete in other ways. It鈥檚 not just about the money.”

Over the last four years, the UW鈥檚 Office for Faculty Advancement has helped recruit close to 50 faculty members whose work contributes to campus diversity and inclusion 鈥� many of these from historically underrepresented groups 鈥� including 18 starting this fall, through a multipronged approach that considers everything from how positions are advertised to helping faculty members balance competing demands for their time.

That starts with appealing to highly skilled candidates. To that end, faculty representatives attend academic conferences to scout for potential candidates, introduce themselves and talk up the university. The university has started jointly advertising positions in multiple departments focused on areas of study involving minority populations to signal to applicants that they would have potential allies on campus.

Faculty from various departments and schools also serve on each other鈥檚 search committees and meet with candidates. Last year, for example, the university brought four African-American female candidates to campus to interview for a position in black feminism in the Department of Gender, Women and Sexuality Studies and coordinated their visits with the Department of American Ethnic Studies, which was hiring for a position focused on African-American history.

鈥楢 network of people鈥�

When applicants come for interviews, Allen encourages the hiring unit to arrange for them to meet with faculty members or graduate students from other departments whose work intersects with theirs. It can also be helpful to provide opportunities for candidates to meet other people from underrepresented backgrounds on campus and to let them know about social and cultural aspects of Seattle that might interest them. Knowing they will become part of a larger diverse community can make a critical difference for minority candidates who might otherwise feel isolated, Allen said.

“Everyone wants a community,” he said. “And that doesn鈥檛 have to be in the same department, but you want to know there鈥檚 a network of people who understand your work, who you can collaborate with, an intellectual community as well as a social community.”

, the UW鈥檚 new vice president for the Office of Minority Affairs & Diversity and chief diversity officer, sees recruiting a diverse faculty as the purview not only of administrators, but also of faculty and staff. He encourages faculty members who meet promising candidates at meetings or other events to let them know about the 91探花or even ask them to send their CV.

“Diversity and inclusion is everybody鈥檚 everyday responsibility,” said Hall, who started his position in August. “The type of faculty we want to have here at the 91探花 鈥� top-notch, top-tier researchers 鈥� everybody鈥檚 going to be going after those folks. We need to be recruiting all the time.”

For Hall, those efforts start with building a pipeline of minority students who can become the next generation of 91探花faculty. That means exposing undergraduates to research early with the goal of sparking their interest in academic careers, he said, and informing them about the appeal of life as a faculty member.

“We need to do a better job of talking about that, to undergraduate students and certainly to graduate students,” he said.

鈥楨veryone comes knocking鈥�

But hiring a diverse and inclusive faculty is only half the challenge. Keeping people long-term is perhaps even more difficult.

The UW鈥檚 hiring and retention efforts are bolstered by $1 million in funding this academic year, including a first-time allocation of $500,000 earmarked for retention. The 91探花has traditionally done a good job of hiring and supporting junior faculty members, Allen said, but as their careers ascend through major grants, book publishing or high-profile research, they are at risk of being hired away by other universities.

“People from underrepresented backgrounds, if they鈥檙e at all good 鈥� and anyone who鈥檚 gotten a job here is good 鈥� have many, many options,” Allen said. “We often hire really well at the junior level, we mentor these colleagues well, we nurture their careers, and the minute they get national attention, Johns Hopkins, Stanford, Harvard, everyone comes knocking.”

A cornerstone of the UW鈥檚 retention effort is its membership in the , a Detroit-based company that provides workshops and intensive mentoring to help all faculty, but especially women and people from underrepresented backgrounds, move forward in their careers while balancing competing demands. That balance can be particularly challenging for underrepresented faculty members, who are often sought out for committees that would otherwise lack diversity. Additionally, minority graduate and professional students frequently request women and faculty of color as advisers, Allen said.

“If there鈥檚 a department with nine white men and one woman of color, who gets asked to be on every committee?” he said. “It鈥檚 hard to say no when you get asked.”

Last year, the 91探花paid for 20 faculty members across its three campuses to go through the center鈥檚 12-week Faculty Success Program, also known as its “boot camp,” at a cost of $3,250 each. In a follow-up survey, 91 percent of participants said their work-life balance had improved after participating in the program and 100 percent reported increased productivity.

University leaders are also focused on the need to create an inclusive and diverse culture at the departmental level. With approximately 2,200 tenured and tenure-track faculty members across 16 colleges and schools, that鈥檚 no easy task, said Norma Rodriguez, director of the 91探花Office for Faculty Advancement.

“These are complex issues, because departments have their own localized culture, and then the college has a culture, and the university has a culture,” she said. “We want departments and units to think about culture at the local level and how they can positively affect that to contribute to retention.”

Efforts to increase faculty diversity at the 91探花dovetail with the university鈥檚 Race and Equity Initiative, launched by President in April 2015 to combat institutional bias by actively encouraging dialogue and engaging the community. Hall said the commitment of Cauce and other university leaders to make meaningful changes around diversity 鈥� along with the UW鈥檚 “cutting-edge” programs to support academic achievement among underrepresented students 鈥� were significant factors in his decision to take the job.

“The 91探花 has a long and storied history in terms of equity, diversity and inclusion. It hasn鈥檛 always been good, but the leadership is really committed to struggling with some difficult issues,” he said.

“There are people here who are committed to making this a place that is welcoming, inclusive and affirming of all our students, faculty and staff.”

Allen said faculty diversity is both a local and national challenge that requires a multigenerational approach.

“Our success has to be measured in more than one way,” he said. “How fair and effective are our processes for recruitment and retention? How inclusive are we able to make our colleges and schools? How well does our faculty support the needs of our diverse student body and of our diverse communities?

“And, perhaps most important, we need to think about what we are doing to help produce a larger cohort of diverse graduate and professional students who can become the faculty of the future.”

The 91探花 , supported by a number of leading Puget Sound-area businesses and law firms, has announced the creation of the to help bring greater diversity to the school and the legal profession.

The gap between diversity in the legal profession and that of the United States population has widened in recent years, according to the 2013 Microsoft-commissioned . The Gregoire Fellows Program, which starts this spring, was designed to address that gap 鈥� to develop a pipeline of diverse law students and support them throughout their education.

“If we are to realize our goal of leadership for the global common good and of creating a legal profession as diverse as our society’s makeup, we need to encourage more under-represented students to enter the legal profession,” said , dean of the School of Law and Dean and Judge James W. Mifflin University Professor. “This innovative partnership will help us better reach students who are currently pursuing other paths. Moreover, by enhancing diversity in our classrooms we will enhance our academic excellence for all students.”

Nine fellows chosen for their potential to increase diversity in the legal world will be named as part of the school’s entering class this fall. They will receive paid summer internships with participating law firms and departments after the first year of study, and financial assistance with bar exam preparation at the end of their studies. The fellows also will have opportunities to participate in a mentorship program by , former Washington state governor.

“In Washington, diversity is a community value, and it gives our state a base of strength and knowledge on which to build our future,” Gregoire said. “We know that most law school graduates remain in the state to practice after graduation. The fellows program offers the potential to increase diversity in both the legal profession and the judiciary to better represent our growing and diverse population in Washington.”

The 91探花School of Law is ranked in the top 10 among public law schools nationally and has a longstanding commitment to diversity and equality, yet faces many of the same challenges as law firms do in recruitment and retention. With this program, the school hopes to increase diversity in the legal profession by closing a large gap between the number of under-represented students admitted to the school and the number of those who ultimately enroll.

King County has grown increasingly more diverse in recent years, with 30 percent of residents identifying themselves as African-American, Asian, Hispanic or mixed ethnicity in the most recent census. However, the Washington State Bar Association reported that all minorities represented only 12 percent of its membership in 2012.

“Diversity needs to be one of the core values of the legal profession, and it needs to become even more central than it is today,” said Brad Smith, general counsel and executive vice president of legal and corporate affairs for Microsoft, one of the program’s initial sponsors. “I believe we each have an important role to play in advancing diversity, and we are thrilled that so many Seattle-based legal entities have come together to create the Gregoire Fellows Program to increase diversity in the legal profession in King County and Washington state.”

Corporations confirmed as providing initial support in the 2015-16 school year include Amazon.com Inc., Starbucks Corp., Microsoft Corp., Nintendo of American Inc., Seattle Genetics Inc., Vulcan Inc. and Weyerhaeuser Co. Law firms confirmed for initial support are

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP; Foster Pepper PLLC; K&L Gates LLP; Lane Powell PC; Orrick, Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP; Perkins Coie LLP; and Stoel Rives LLP. Program organizers say participation by other firms and companies is welcomed.

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Members of the press wishing more information may contact the Rapid Response Team at Waggener Edstrom Communications for Microsoft at 503-443-7070 or rrt@waggeneredstrom.com; Michelle Lancaster of Microsoft at 425-705-3324 or milanca@microsoft.com; or School of Law Dean Kellye Testy at 206-543-2586 or lawdean@uw.edu.