Funds from this grant support the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering (NACME) in its role as the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation’s administrative partner for the University Centers of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM), Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP), and Sloan Centers for Systemic Change (SCSC) signature initiatives. NACME provides grants management, scholarship disbursement, and programmatic design and oversight for UCEM and SIGP campuses, including high-touch interaction with Sloan Scholars and program grantees. NACME also collects, compiles, and analyzes program data, including data on Sloan Scholar demographics, recruitment, retention, and graduation outcomes. Other grant funds support community engagement activities, including the design and oversight of programming offered at the annual SREB Institute on Teaching and Mentoring and coordinated engagement with the Sloan Scholars Mentoring Network.

This grant to University of Southern California’s Pullias Center for Higher Education funds its Equity in Graduate Education (EGE) Consortium which will provide strategic support for 10 Sloan Centers for Systemic Change (SCSC). Participation in the EGE will equip SCSC project teams with data, tools, and change management strategies to achieve systemic change. The EGE Consortium model is one of cohort-based learning within and across universities through a “networked improvement community” approach. Campus teams develop and implement action plans that create ongoing systems of faculty and other forms of development. Teams are typically made up of 6-10 people, including 2-3 liaisons to consortium leadership who act as point persons and a conduit for the professional development that EGE provides its campuses. Funded activities include virtual workshops, bi-monthly liaison meetings, and an in-person meeting for campus liaisons. Up to six hours of individualized coaching/consultation is available to each team. A “train-the-trainer” model is employed such that liaisons host their own campus workshops for faculty, staff, and students using material developed by EGE. Each SCSC campus will enroll in one of three “tracks” to focus their professional development and institutional change efforts, selecting from 1) Admissions & Recruitment, 2) Mentoring & Wellbeing, and 3) Equitable Selection Systems. The tracks will be developed, refined, and delivered in collaboration with content experts complementary of the EGE leadership team.

This grant provides three years of partial, continued support to the Sloan University Center of Exemplary Mentoring (UCEM) at Duke University. The UCEM theory of change posits that through financial support, strong mentoring, supportive community, and institutional commitment, students in STEM can thrive and institutions can change graduate science and engineering education in ways that make it more welcoming, inclusive, and equitable for all. In addition to providing core support for the Duke UCEM, grant funds will enable the university to advance recruitment efforts and foster new partnerships with Minority Serving Institutions; strengthen student support with an emphasis on multi-level mentoring, student mental health and well-being, and the cultivation of new faculty champions; and identify resources and approaches to sustain and institutionalize the UCEM and its work beyond Sloan funding. Grant funds will be administered by the National Action Council for Minorities in Engineering, the Foundation’s administrative partner for the UCEM program.  

Funds from this grant support student scholarships at six Sloan Indigenous Graduate Partnership (SIGP) campuses between 2024-2028: University of Arizona, University of Kansas, University of Montana, Montana State University, Purdue University, and the State University of New York College of Environmental Science and Forestry. As the Foundation’s administrative partner, NACME distributes the scholarship funds and provides other, related support (e.g., verifying student eligibility, tracking account balances, reporting to the Foundation, etc.).