Today's grand challenges such as protecting the population from disease, mitigating climate change and eliminating social inequality can not be solved by STEM alone. There are human factors where we needed and missed the input of fields like psychology, sociology, and even communications to our collective detriment. These fields have higher levels of participation from historically marginalized communities. By using data as a connector, we empower natural areas of collaboration and new pipelines for faculty and student engagement in STEM education. The broader faculty network that will be created through this project will empower a sustained advocacy network for systemic institutional change.

Address the critical broadening participation challenge in STEM of lack of access to data knowledge and tools, and build faculty capacity at the institutional and individual levels in teaching data science, at not only historically underserved institutions (HBCUs and HSIs), but also within the Social Impact Areas of 1. Criminal Justice, 2. Geosciences and Health Disparities, and 3. Food and Water Systems.