The Women in Science & Engineering Leadership Institute has won a $50,000 award from the National Institutes of Health for its work in promoting gender equity among faculty.
WISELI is a campus-wide research center at the University of Wisconsin-Madison with a mission to bolster equity of women faculty and members of groups who are underrepresented in the university’s faculty and leadership. The center studies gender equity, diversity and climate at UW-Madison, implements evidenced-based solutions and monitors their successes. WISELI also provides workshops and materials that cover a broad range of diversity issues, such as identifying and reducing implicit and unconscious biases that may be based on race, ethnicity or gender.
Jennifer Sheridan, the acting associate dean for inclusion, equity and diversity at the UW-Madison College of Engineering, serves as WISELI’s executive and research director.
UW-Madison is one of 10 institutions across the United States to receive the NIH Prize for Enhancing Faculty Gender Diversity in Biomedical and Behavioral Science. NIH opened submissions for the prize in fall 2020, to recognize transformative approaches, systems, projects, programs and processes that have successfully enhanced and sustained gender diversity within an institution.
WISELI was founded in 2002 with funding from the National Science Foundation’s ADVANCE Institutional Transformation program. The center’s work is widely recognized, as colleges and universities around the world make use of its workshops, lectures and materials.
The NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health will host a forum in October 2021 to formally recognize the winning institutions and share their practices for enhancing gender diversity and equity.