Session 1:

Presenter: Melanie Escue

Description: Dr. Melanie Escue has spent the past few years engaged in nationally funded research projects exploring im/migrant health and well-being, has facilitated and co-created institutional trainings, and was part of an initiative to start the first undocumented student scholarship at the University of South Florida.

This interactive session will bring awareness of the experiences and needs of immigrant students on our college campuses and how we - as faculty, staff, and administrators, can make a meaningful difference in how institutions support our immigrant student populations. Attendees will leave this session inspired and equipped with a toolkit and resources to raise awareness of/support immigrant students in their classrooms and at their institutions.

Replacing the Broken Rung in North Carolina Institutions: Designing Leadership Pathways to Support Black Women’s Success

Description: In the corporate and nonprofit sectors, there is some evidence that Black women have the most education at the bottom of career and leadership ladders. In this session, we will discuss approaches to leadership succession planning within the state and consider alternatives more productive towards garnering equity in leadership representation generally, but especially with respect to Black women.

Navigating Hidden Curriculum and Workload Inequity: A Gendered Perspective on Agent, Ally, and Advocate Roles of Women Doctoral Program Directors

Presenters: Sandra Dika, Cathy Howell, Kristie Opiola, and Tina Heafner

Description: Scholars have noted the hidden curriculum of doctoral education; the unspoken rules of academia that are often inaccessible to students with BiPOC and other marginalized identities due to lack of explicit information and mentoring. That hidden curriculum extends to doctoral advising and doctoral program direction, similarly affecting marginalized faculty and staff who disproportionately occupy these roles. In our panel discussion, we will share our perspectives and experiences serving as agents, allies, and advocates for doctoral students, particularly those with marginalized and minoritized identities, in our role as doctoral program directors in a College of Education. Three of us have served for several years in program direction, while one of us is new to the position. We each hold different faculty ranks and status. We lead programs ranging in enrollment intensity and teaching modalities. We have functioned as experts and mentors to one another as we help students and colleagues alike navigate the hidden curriculum, and we have become vocal advocates within our college and the institution to combat workload inequities that affect women and particularly women of color in program direction roles. Attendees will learn about ways to advocate for marginalized students, to promote transparency and equity, and to seek institutional support when leading graduate programs.

Session 2:

Overcoming Imposter Syndrome: Strategies to Build Confidence

Presenter: Amy Wartham

Description: Ever felt like a fraud at work? As if at any moment, everyone else is going to realize that you’ve bluffed your way to your current position? This phenomenon is known as the Impostor Syndrome.

Imposter Syndrome is a term used to describe a set of beliefs that has us feeling like we’re frauds, we are in some way lacking or unworthy, we don’t deserve our successes and/or it’s only a matter of time before we’re “found out.” Research shows that although Imposter Syndrome is experienced by men, it is particularly prevalent among women with over 70% of us experiencing 'imposter symptoms' during, and in many cases throughout, our careers.

This program will share some specific strategies to overcome Imposter Syndrome and build confidence.

Pathways to Persistence: Sharing Strategies for Advancing Current and Future Women in STEM

Description: Our session is dedicated to legitimizing and advancing women working in postsecondary STEM disciplines, recognizing the crucial role that female faculty and staff play in shaping both the learning experiences and persistence of females in STEM.

Scholars argue that female students typically hold more fragile STEM identities than their male counterparts, leading to decreased persistence in their STEM education and careers (Riegle-Crumb et al., 2020). The perception of the STEM disciplines, namely mathematics, as neutral, objective, logical, and masculine, amplifies this phenomenon by discouraging traditionally feminine qualities like empathy, creativity, and care (Becker, 1995; Carli et al., 2016; Gilligan, 1993; Sfard et al., 2005). To combat the damaging notions of disciplinary masculinity, we argue that it is our responsibility to promote both 1) feminine perspectives and ways of knowing, and 2) female models of persistence in the STEM disciplines, drawing heavily on the notions of solidarity, agency, alliance, and advocacy.

This interactive session aims to leverage solidarity and our personal experiences to discover how, when, and why we assume the roles of agent, ally, and advocate. We will share personal narratives from academia and facilitate participant sharing of strategies and initiatives that 1) empower female faculty and staff to initiate positive change, 2) enhance their sense of belonging and self-efficacy, 3) persist in their careers, and 4) create opportunities for women in STEM.

Participants will leave with strategies for understanding how and when to be an ally, agent, and advocate for themselves and other women in STEM spaces.

Agents of Our Own Bodies in Spaces of Resistance

Presenter: Kim Jones

Description: Modern dance movements as an expression of resistance and agency. We move to live and migrate to survive. Resistance to dominance and oppression in the world, and also in one's own life. Resistance finding routes of possibility, even as critics eye the work with skepticism.

In this movement workshop, Korean American artist/Associate Professor Kim Jones will present a movement workshop. Attendees will explore the use of breath in coordination of conscious movement. Participants will learn about the basics of the Martha Graham technique as an embodied practice, explore Jones’s historical and creative research of re-imagining earlier 20th century dance works as a form of resistance. We will discuss, how do these concepts/movements impact us today? How to find oneself in the face of obstacles, how to center oneself in chaos.

Session 3:

Sort It Out!

Presenter: Kristin Walker

Description: Do you find yourself attending conferences, but then don’t know how to act upon what you’ve learned? Are you looking for ways to put great ideas into action? This session will help you do just that. During this session, you will learn a framework that will help you make the most of ideas gained from this or any conference. Get ready for an engaging hands-on sorting game. Engage your senses and collaborate with your fellow attendees to organize notes and ideas you’ve collected during the conference. Be ready to create a dynamic plan for how to act upon your ideas that aligns with your professional goals.

When they come into the session, attendees will be divided into groups. During this sorting game, groups will move around the room and work together to gather and sort ideas. Groups will navigate through multiple stages of interactive, hands-on sorting. Each participant will leave with the game tools they engaged with during the session to continue to develop their own next steps post-conference.

This session will ask attendees to reflect upon things they learned at the conference, give them tools to make an action plan for next steps, and inspire them to put the ideas into action when they return to their institutions.