Sustaining the Academic Pipeline: A Professional Development Workshop Series for Academics of Color

Abstract

Land-grant institutions were designed to improve the lives of individuals and communities by removing barriers to education. However, despite years of effort to address the lack of scholars of color at these institutions, disparities have persisted. Many graduate students and faculty of color have reported that the workshops meant to diversify academia at their institutions did not speak to their unique experiences or challenges. Ultimately, this contributed to their decision to be less engaged in their institutions or leave academia. Using components of the Kirkpatrick model of evaluation (Kirkpatrick, 2007), the authors evaluate a professional development workshop series created by an interdisciplinary team of Black women faculty and staff at a historically white, land-grant, research 1 (R1) university in the Midwest. This series was designed to address the unique experiences of scholars of color. Six graduate students and two faculty members evaluated the workshop series through semi-structured qualitative interviews. Participants describe their decision-making processes to come to a historically white institution, their mentoring experiences, and the impact of a lack of diverse peers and feelings of isolation. Implications for evaluation and practice are discussed.