Action Collaborative on Transforming Trajectories for Women of Color in Tech

The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine (NASEM) and 35 other institutions launched a new Action Collaborative on Transforming Trajectories (ACTT) for Women of Color in Tech in 2023 (see press release). Through the action collaborative, organizations will work together to improve pathways in tech education and participation in the tech workforce for women who identify as African American, Black, Hispanic, Latina, Native American, Asian American, Alaska Native, Native Hawaiian, or Pacific Islander. The effort is being guided by the National Academies’ report Transforming Trajectories for Women of Color in Tech, which provides evidence-based findings and recommendations for increasing recruitment, retention, and advancement of women of color in tech fields.  

Proudly, the University of Arizona is one of the founding members of this group and is committed to participate the national effort to improve pathways in STEM education and participation in the STEM workforce for women of color. 

There are three working groups currently being identified: 

  1. Awareness and recruitment: This working group will build, collect, and disseminate resources that increase awareness of the value and importance of accounting for intersectionality in recruitment efforts; as well as tools and strategies that promote and create opportunities for broad recruitment of women of color in tech training and workforce.
  2. Recognition, retention, and advancement: In addition to addressing obstacles that hinder the retention and advancement of women of color in tech, this working group will identify promising practices and develop strategies that catalyze the following in both academia and industry.
  3. Supporting and Promoting Organizational change: This working group will explore, highlight, and disseminate best practices for building institutional capacity and helping institutions understand internal systemic barriers, promote organizational transformation, and consider what resources and strategies are needed to support institutional change to be more inclusive and welcoming for women of color in tech.

Additional Resources:

ACTT Fellows

The purpose of the ACTT Fellows is to serve as University of Arizona point of contact for Action Collaborative on Transforming Trajectories for Women of Color in Tech over the course of the work. The fellow will complete any necessary paperwork to maintain the university’s participation in the partner network. They will provide any materials or reports necessary to the action collaborative in order to stay active. They will attend any relevant conferences and share information from NASEM’s reports or materials with the University of Arizona community, which includes shared governance, campus partners, community, and alumni organizations.

 

Prof. Shufang Su

Dr. Shufang Su, UA ACTT Fellow 

Professor and Head, Department of Physics, College of Science

Professor of Physics

shufang@arizona.edu

520-621-5540

Prof. Shufang Su serves as the Department Head of Physics in College of Science. She received her Ph.D. from MIT in 2000. She was the John A. McCone Postdoc Fellow at Caltech from 2000 to 2003, and joined the faculty of the University of Arizona in 2003. Her primary research interests are in theoretical particle physics, focusing on important connections between theory and experiments as well as links between particle physics, astrophysics and cosmology. She was elected as an American Physics Society (APS) Fellow in 2014 for her fundamental contributions to the phenomenology of Higgs boson, dark matter, supersymmetry, and other physics beyond the Standard Model, which have stimulated and guided experimental search programs. 

She has served in leadership roles in the APS, including chair of the APS Four Corners Section and chair of the APS Committee on Scientific Publications. She also served on a number of advisory committees in the U.S.A. and abroad. She is the faculty advisor for Women in Physics Club (now renamed as Physicists of Inclusion and Equity) at UA, mentor for the UA “Steps in the Scholar Journey Program”, as well as a mentor for the UA Mentor Institute of the Faculty Development Communities for Promotion program. She is a UA Faculty Senator, and serves on the Committee of Eleven. She is also one of the founders of the Faculty of Chinese Heritage Association at UA, and served as the first president of the association. In 2023, she was awarded UA College of Science (CoS) Galileo Circle Fellow, which is the highest honor at CoS for its most distinguished faculty. She was also named one of the University of Arizona's 2023 Women of Impact. Starting Fall 2023, she took the leadership role of Physics Department Head. 

 

Prof. Kathleen Melde

Dr. Kathleen Melde, UA ACTT Fellow 

Professor and Associate Dean of Faculty Affairs and Inclusion, College of Engineering

Professor of Electrical and Computer Engineering

melde@arizona.edu

520-626-2538

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Supporting units on campus

  • Faculty Affairs
  • College of Science
  • College of Engineering