Calls to diversify the professoriate have been ongoing for decades. However, despite increasing numbers of scholars from underrepresented racial minority groups earning doctorates, actual progress in transitioning to faculty has been slow, particularly across STEM disciplines. In recent years, new efforts have emerged to recruit faculty members from underrepresented racial minority groups (i.e., African American/Black, Hispanic/Latinx, and/or Native American/Native Hawaiian/Indigenous) through highly competitive postdoctoral programs that allow fellows the opportunity to transition (or “convert”) into tenure-track roles. These programs hybridize some conventional aspects of the faculty search process (e.g., structured interview processes that facilitate unit buy-in) along with novel evidence-based practices and structural supports (e.g., proactive recruitment, cohort communities, search waivers, professional development, enhanced mentorship, financial incentives). In this policy and practice review, we describe and synthesize key attributes of existing conversion programs at institutional, consortium, and system levels. We discuss commonalities and unique features across models (N = 38) and draw specific insights from postdoctoral conversion models developed within and across institutions in the University System of Maryland (USM). In particular, experience garnered from a 10-year-old postdoc conversion program at UMBC will be highlighted, as well as the development of an additional institutional model aimed at the life sciences, and a state-system model of faculty diversification with support from a NSF Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) grant.

and the Professoriate (AGEP), and Co-PI for the Louis Stokes Alliance for Minority Participation (LSAMP) and Bridge to the Doctorate programs for the USM. Dr. Tull serves on a number of boards for women and diversity in STEM initiatives throughout the US and in Latin America. She is an active member of the Latin and Caribbean Consortium of Engineering Institutions (LACCEI), and co-leads the "Women in STEM" initiatives for the organization. As a former professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, her engineering and speech science research covered topics of accessibility. Her current research in Maryland looks at intersections of social science theories, STEM equity, and physics.

Abstract-In order to address the challenges of the XXI century, especially those related to global sustainability, it is critical that institutions of higher education recruit, retain, and advance a diverse and excellent STEM professoriate. Notwithstanding awareness and programmatic interventions such as the National Science Foundation's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program and ADVANCE program, in the United States, African Americans, Hispanic/Latinos, and women remain underrepresented at all points along the pathway to the STEM professoriate. This paper highlights the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's (UMBC) efforts to acknowledge and directly confront its own challenges with faculty diversity in STEM through innovative approaches and partnerships under the rubric of "Invitation to Engage." We hope that our conversations about this pressing issue, along with a review of our expanded approaches, will encourage other institutions to examine their current practices, and serve as an adaptable model to enact change. Through this paper we issue an open invitation for others to critically engage in these dialogues and to develop and take impactful and novel actions to repair the pathway to the STEM professoriate.Keywords Resumén-Con el fin de abordar los retos del siglo XXI, especialmente aquellos relacionados a la sostenibilidad global, es de suma importancia que las instituciones de educación superior incorporen, retengan y promuevan una facultad diversa y de alto grado en el área de STEM. A pesar de los esfuerzos de concientización e intervención de programas como el Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) y ADVANCE de la Fundación Nacional de Ciencia (NSF), existe en los Estados Unidos una baja representación de africano americanos, hispanos/latinos, y mujeres en la vía a formar parte de la facultad en el área de STEM. Este trabajo subraya los esfuerzos realizados en la Universidad de Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) para sacar a relucir y confrontar directamente dichos retos en su propia facultad de STEM utilizando innovadores enlaces y enfoques bajo la rúbrica "Invitación a Participar". Esperamos que nuestro dialogo sobre esta cuestión apremiante y el resumen de nuestro amplio enfoque aliente a otras instituciones a examinar sus prácticas internas y sirvan como modelo para promover el cambio. A través de este trabajo ofrecemos una invitación abierta para que otros también aborden críticamente estos diálogos y desarrollen acciones innovadoras para reparar la trayectoria para formar parte de la facultad en STEM.Abstract-In order to address the challenges of the XXI century, especially those related to global sustainability, it is critical that institutions of higher education recruit, retain, and advance a diverse and excellent STEM professoriate. Notwithstanding awareness and programmatic interventions such as the National Science Foundation's Alliances for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP) program and ADVANCE program, in the United St...

Issues related to career-life balance (CLB) disproportionally affect women in STEM. These issues disrupt women's career pathways, and in many cases, push them out of academia. In order to halt the exodus of women from academic careers in STEM, universities must develop interventions around CLB that recognize and address the everyday gendered CLB challenges that women graduate students, postdoctoral fellows, and faculty face. This paper showcases narratives from the University of Maryland, Baltimore County's (UMBC) international CLB initiative with underrepresented STEM faculty and graduate students that set the stage for the development of three additional CLB projects. The results of the former international project inform the partial implementation of the expansion projects at UMBC, which include: 1) Accelerating Post-Leave Associate Professor, Advancement through Intensive Support at Critical Junctions, 2) a campus-wide CLB awareness campaign and, 3) campus-wide CLB educational workshops. Through this outreachcentered paper, anchored in existing best practices and first person narratives of CLB struggles at UMBC, we aim to spur conversations and provide a model for other institutions to weave CLB into the fabric of university culture as a normalized and cherished community value.

Dr. Autumn M. Reed is Program Coordinator for ADVANCE Faculty Diversity Initiatives. In this role Dr. Reed develops educational-awareness programming and initiatives, maintains a clearing house of resources on faculty diversity equity issues, collects and reports data, coordinates program evaluation efforts, and provides support for the Executive Committee on the Recruitment, Retention and Advancement of Underrepresented Minority Faculty, the ADVANCE Executive Committee, and the UMBC Postdoctoral Fellows Program for Faculty Diversity. She is bilingual in Spanish and English and specializes in intercultural and gender communication, and implicit bias, as they relate to the recruitment, retention, and advancement of underrepresented minority faculty.