EAGER: Collaborative Research: Alliance-Building Offshore to Achieve Resilience and Diversity (All-ABOARD)

The Alliance-Building Offshore to Achieve Resilience and Diversity (All- ABOARD) project builds on the power of off-shore experiences and leverages the expertise of this team of investigators into a unique professional development model that will provide four inter-generational teams of geoscience leaders with the tools they need to advance the goals of diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) on their home campuses. PIs will recruit participants, in teams of four, who range in experience from undergraduate to Dean, hail from diverse institutions, and are emerging and established campus DEI leaders. These teams will engage in a transformative leadership development experience that begins at home with structured training webinars, continues with a unique workshop aboard a state-of- the-art scientific research vessel and a port city, and continues with intensive efforts back on their home campuses. During the All-ABOARD workshop, these teams will explore shared challenges, ask uncomfortable questions, engage in uncomfortable discussions in order to better understand routes to improvement, and brainstorm a real and achievable DEI project to implement back home. The efficacy of these projects will be supported by robust community building before, during, and after the workshop. The PIs hypothesize that investing focused effort on intergenerational teams in this unique context with sustained support will lead to a crucible in which potential DEI leaders are recruited and retained, their leadership qualities nurtured, empowered and made resilient, institutional barriers are identified and addressed, and collective impact is maximized.

The ultimate goal of All-ABOARD project is to build a resilient community of transformational DEI leaders at all levels of geoscience academia. The innovation here is to create resiliency through a network of strong bonds across and between different levels of power and positionality. All-ABOARD will build a community that includes those who currently hold positions of power, e.g., chairs/deans, as well as energetic early career faculty, graduate students and undergraduates who will fill such positions in the future. All-ABOARD's specific goals include: 1) Creating resilient peer and near-peer mentoring networks, 2) Cultivating transformative leadership in DEI among individuals, 3) Recruiting intergenerational teams with a shared goal for addressing an institution-specific DEI need and 4) Connecting like-minded institutions and individuals to maximize impact and promote collaboration on DEI projects.

This award reflects NSF's statutory mission and has been deemed worthy of support through evaluation using the Foundation's intellectual merit and broader impacts review criteria.