Programs
The SEEDS Office covers all four University of Miami science colleges: the College of Arts and Sciences, Rosentiel School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences, College of Engineering, and the Miller School of Medicine. SEEDS is funded by an NSF ADVANCE for Women in Science grant, with significant cost-share from Provost Tom LeBlanc. SEEDS orchestrates programs below, maintains this website to assure dissemination of SEEDS and other diversity information, works with chairs and search committees to address implicit bias issues and to aid recruitment and retention of women and underrepresented minorities, and forms a UM-wide entity that is visibly focused on science and engineering careers and diversity.
The SEEDS climate survey is designed to reveal how women and men scientists and engineers experience their working environments at UM.
Networking is an efficient and cost-effective community-building enterprise in which faculty experience near-immediate benefits. SEEDS networking has two components: Large, UM-wide events once or twice a year and local focus groups.
Since improving the quality of professional development programs for all faculty has proven effective in addressing climate issues elsewhere, these workshops will be made widely available.
SEEDS Mentoring
This program has a several components. Speed Mentoring fosters intense, one-on-one interactions with multiple faculty. The Sponsored Mentors program assures mentoring interactions with selected speakers brought in by other units. Mentoring interactions are also built into the Networking, Focus Groups, and SEEDS Distinguished Lecturers programs.
SEEDS “You Choose” Leadership Award
This program is designed to support investigator-initiated opportunities that assist the winner's careers. The type of award is not pre-specified: applicants may for instance seek support to attend a leadership or scientific conference, visit a lab to establish a collaboration, bring in a speaker or collaborator, mount a career skills event, etc. The activity is up to the applicant. A competition takes place once each year.
SEEDS Distinguished Scholarship Lectureships
These lectureships will bring prominent women and other underrepresented minority scientists and engineers to UM and thereby provide role models and professional networking opportunities for all our faculty and students, men and women. Special emphasis is placed on inviting women of color, particularly Hispanic women.
Interactive theatre is a powerful educational tool that is used to address, for instance, gender and minority climate issues that bar success. This component will facilitate the transformation of climate. Once developed, this resource can be expanded to address additional issues, as in teaching.
Working from Within to Transform Departments
Within selected departments, resident faculty from the Steering Committee are armed with advocacy and financial support to work from within the home department, using a ‘transformational toolkit” composed of special initiatives customized to meet local concerns. For instance, in RSMAS, the Steering Committee representatives are working on an initiative to expand UM's child care. They have also funded a Women in Science panel of women from a diverse array of disciplines and backgrounds who shared their insights into the nuances that women face while pursuing a profession in marine science. The one panel discussion was followed by a casual catered lunch, allowing an opportunity for networking.
Best Practices
In the future, SEEDS will be working with the Provost, Deans and UM's Faculty Affairs office to examine the language used in UM policies and practices, to help assure clarity, transparency and uniformity.
