Welcome to the NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Aspire Alliance!
The Aspire Alliance created activities, strategies and resources that were designed to improve broadening participation for faculty, leadership and institutions to increase awareness, learning, skills/capacity, practices/policy, and inclusive cultures. The Alliance executed these activities through three change teams to impact organizations and individuals: Institutional Change, Regional Change, and National Change. It is through these mechanisms, along with the engagement in the NSF's Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES National Network and multiple organizational partners, that the Aspire Alliance has launched a national systemic change environment for STEM faculty.
The Alliance formally concluded its development and incubation work together in 2024. Key strategies and initiatives have been embedded with sustainable partners who will be continuing efforts grown from the original change teams. For more information on continuing efforts, see activities listed under "Continuing Activities" below.
Aspire Outreach and Impact
3500+ participants engaged. 1300+ inclusive practices and professional development activities.
195 organizational partners.
144 colleges and universities engaged in Aspire.
88 Fellows supported in the IAspire Leadership Academy.
65 4-year institutions across 5 cohorts in Institutional Change.
9 Regional Collaboratives with 35, 4-year and 22, 2-year institutions.
Continuing Efforts
APLU’s Institutional Change initiative (IChange) helps public research universities create the environment and policies that attract, retain, and support a thriving faculty to advance the institution’s education, research, and engagement missions. IChange uses an institutional-and community-based approach to create a customized action plan that helps colleges and universities addressing practice and policy barriers that exist in institutional context; faculty recruitment; faculty hiring; and faculty retention. IChange provides frameworks and tools to support institutions as they tackle challenges and improve their academic workplace.
For more information, visit https://www.aplu.org/our-work/2-fostering-research-innovation/aplu-aspire/institutional-change-network/
The SEER Institute, hosted by the Wisconsin Center for Education Research (WCER) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and developed from the National Change team, helps teams, projects, and organizations see the many contextual layers involved in change efforts, advance productive dialogue across diverse constituents, understand the implications of diversity and equity in team dynamics, plan change projects strategically, and build equity-minded and sustainable change. We offer five services: strategic planning, grant development, inclusive collaborative dynamics enhancement, organizational change development, research and evaluation, and professional development.
For more information, visit http://theseerinstitute.org
The Regional Collaborative (RC), hosted by the Office of Community College Research & Leadership (OCCRL) at the University of Illinois and developed from the Regional Change team, establishes and sustains community college and university partnerships, building inclusive pathways for diverse graduate students who want to explore and secure positions as STEM faculty. RCs are networked nationwide through postsecondary institutions that make up Aspire’s Regional Change Team. This team improves programming and partnerships to prepare an inclusive STEM faculty of the future that mirror and inspire the diverse community college students they serve.
For more information, visit https://occrl.illinois.edu/nsf-includes-aspire-alliance
The Aspire Alliance developed numerous articles, toolkits, and deliverables, which span the scope of Aspire's work from 2018 through 2024. For more information, please visit our Resources page.