MSU faculty join efforts to boost retention in engineering academia

Contact: Camille Carskadon

STARKVILLE, Miss.—Two colleges at Mississippi State University are on a mission to help transform engineering academia.

Backed by an $800,000 grant from the National Science Foundation, MSU and other institutions of higher learning are establishing a mentoring hub to provide crucial networking, training and resources for university and community college engineering faculty, as well for postdocs and graduate students preparing for careers in academia.

MSU’s Bagley College of Engineering and College of Education are working with lead institution University of Akron, as well as Northeastern University and the University of Florida, to increase diversity, improve teaching effectiveness and retain top engineering talent in higher education. The MSU team is led by Tonya Stone and Linda Coats.

“We’re very excited about the potential impact of this program,” said Stone, principal investigator, associate professor in MSU’s Michael W. Hall School of Mechanical Engineering and the Dr. Oswald Rendon-Herrero Diversity Endowed Chair. “Our goal is to not only increase the number of faculty and students from underrepresented populations in engineering but also provide mentoring and mentor training to engineering faculty to help foster a more inclusive campus community.”

The NSF project—Broadening Participation for Engineering Track 3 (BPE-Track-3): ACADEME (Academics with Diversity Education and Mentorship in Engineering) Inclusive Mentoring Hub—aims to simplify the transition to faculty roles in engineering for women and minorities.

This retention effort will support long-term improvements in engineering academics and public scientific engagement by preparing new faculty to foster innovative discoveries.

Coats, co-principal investigator for the grant and a professor in MSU’s Department of Industrial Technology, Instructional Design and Community College Leadership, said effective mentoring is essential to the retention of engineering faculty. She noted new faculty, especially those from diverse backgrounds, may not always be assigned effective mentors, impacting their desire to succeed and remain in academia.

“Mentoring is essential, but it’s an area where many faculty members lack formal training,” said Coats, an expert in effective teaching and culturally responsive mentorship. “We want to give mentors the tools and strategies to have a transformative impact, whether they're working with a first-year postdoc or a junior faculty member.”

The ACADEME Mentoring Hub kicked off in September, and additional modules and other components of the training are expected by summer 2025.

Mississippi State University is taking care of what matters. Learn more at www.msstate.edu.