LEAD-it-Yourself! (LiY!) is an NSF-sponsored program that disseminates planning and educational materials and offers an online toolkit to enable institutions to conduct their own local or regional LEAD-inspired workshops to advance STEM faculty diversity and inclusion. Many LiY! resources have been adapted from materials initially developed for Leadership Excellence for Academic Diversity (LEAD) workshops (held from 2007-2009) or contributed by the LiY! user community.
More information about the project can be found in our complete LiY! NSF project abstract and our Equality, Diversity, and Inclusion journal article "Promoting gender diversity in STEM faculty through leadership development."
Phases of LiY!
LiY! is iteratively launching and evaluating the online toolkit to ensure that dissemination of LiY! content is both successful and sustainable. Over time, multiple institutions will employ an increasingly robust version of the toolkit to build workshops and use resources contributed by the LiY! team and the LiY! community.
Phase 1: Boise State University Pilot
UW ADVANCE partnered with the Boise State University (BSU) College of Engineering to implement a LEAD-inspired workshop at BSU. UW ADVANCE worked with BSU Engineering Dean Amy Moll to adapt a LEAD bias keynote session for a BSU department chair workshop. The workshop was held in August 2014 at BSU and included a bias keynote session presented by LiY! co-PI Joyce Yen. Content and strategies developed for the BSU workshop have been incorporated into the LiY! toolkit and resources. BSU continues to work with the LiY! team to provide feedback on the toolkit content and participate in usability studies of the toolkit.
Phase 2: Train-the-Trainer Workshop
LiY! held a Train-the-Trainer (T3) workshop in October 2015 at the University of Washington (UW) in Seattle, WA. Over 45 people attended the one-day workshop. Workshop participants were the first to use the Workshop Planner tool. Participants also exchanged ideas on how to best facilitate faculty workshops that advance STEM faculty diversity and inclusion, experienced a LEAD-inspired bias keynote presentation, and connected with other professionals interested in STEM faculty diversity. Workshop participants also shared their workshop planning resources on the LiY! website.
Phase 3: Remote Site Implementation
The final phase of remote site implementation involved institutions using the LiY! toolkit without direct input from the LiY! team. Institutions interested in gaining early access to the LiY! toolkit to plan their faculty workshops applied for workshop funding in exchange for participating in the LiY! program evaluation and usability studies. UW ADVANCE offered seed funding to three institutions to plan and hold a leadership workshop on their campuses during 2016 or 2017 using the LiY! website.
Evaluation Plan
The University of Washington's Center for Evaluation & Research for STEM Equity (CERSE) conducted iterative evaluation on the LiY! project, utilizing both implementation fidelity and outcomes evaluation approaches. Implementation fidelity evaluation is critical for understanding whether programs achieve their desired outcomes and how training materials should be modified. Thus, key areas for this evaluation include workshop compliance with program content, workshop structure, relevant experience of workshop facilitators and speakers, and reasons for any adaptations from the LiY! toolkit materials. CERSE also conducted an outcomes evaluation to measure the impact of LiY! on workshop participants.
Contact Us
We would love to hear from you. Please reach out to us by your preferred method.
- email: liyuw@uw.edu
- phone: (206) 543-4605
Our Team
Dr. Eve Riskin
Principal Investigator riskin (at) uw.edu
During the LiY! grant, Dr. Eve Riskin is the Associate Dean of Diversity and Access in the UW College of Engineering and Professor of Electrical Engineering. She is also Director of UW ADVANCE and has been involved with the UW ADVANCE program since its inception. She works with Dr. Yen on developing content for the toolkit, collaborating with the remote sites, and planning and offering the Train-the-Trainer workshop.
Dr. Joyce Yen
Co-Principal Investigator joyceyen (at) uw.edu
During the LiY! grant, Dr. Joyce Yen is the UW ADVANCE Director, who has organized and facilitated a wide variety of national and local workshops. She oversees the toolkit content development, leads the Train-the-Trainer workshop, and serves as the primary liaison between UW ADVANCE and the remote sites.
Dr. Jan Spyridakis
Co-Principal Investigator jansp (at) uw.edu
During the LiY! grant, Dr. Jan Spyridakis is a Professor of Human Centered Design & Engineering, UW, and served as department chair from 2008-2014. She works with the web developer and user researcher to ensure effective user-centered web and information design. She was a 2009 LEAD workshop attendee.
Dr. Cara Margherio
Assistant Director, Center for Evaluation & Research for STEM Equity clm16 (at) uw.edu
Cara managed the evaluation and assessment of the LiY! project. As Senior Research Associate at the Center for Workforce Development, Cara served as evaluator on several NSF- and NIH-funded projects. Cara earned a PhD and MA in Sociology at the University of Washington, and a BA in Sociology and BS in Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh.
Jon Shilling
Web Developer
Jon migrated the existing LiY! website from Drupal 7 to Drupal 8. As a web developer and user experience designer, his goal is to use the latest and greatest technologies to help make the Internet a better and more equitable place for everyone. He also supports website maintenance, plays a mean banjo, and enjoys writing biographies in the third person.
Andrew Wilson
Original Web Developer
Andrew designed and developed the website. He used a user-centered design approach and ensured the website meets the WC3 web accessibility initiative. He also trained the LiY! team to maintain the website.