As the new director of Washington State University’s ADVANCE program, Jennifer Thigpen wants to help provide female and other under-represented faculty members the guidance and mentorship she felt she missed early on in her career.
“There is a certain value to learning by doing, but I also think it shaved years off my life as I moved towards tenure,” said Thigpen, an associate professor in the WSU Department of History who began her new role at the start of the semester. “A little more formal mentoring with someone who could have foreseen the obstacles I would face down the road would have made my path less stressful and anxiety provoking. The opportunity to make the process smoother for others is one of the reasons why I am passionate about the work of the ADVANCE program.”
ADVANCE at WSU was originally founded in 2008 to remove obstacles to recruiting, hiring, retaining, and advancing female faculty members in STEM fields. According to the National Science Foundation, women comprise only 21% of full professors in science fields and 5% of full professors in engineering despite earning about half the doctorates in science and engineering in the nation.
Over the last decade, the ADVANCE program has received more than $1.2 million in NSF-funding and expanded its scope significantly to support both female and under-represented faculty members (regardless of gender) in all fields of study. The program currently provides WSU faculty with support for work/life balance and leadership training opportunities, such as the external mentor program which connects early career professors with off-campus academic leaders.