Assistant Professors Tracy Lucht and Kelly Winfrey will both be busier next year, as each received a grant to fund their passion projects in the next academic year.
Lucht and Amy Erica Smith, assistant professor in political science, were awarded $5,000 for their proposal, “Strategies for Being Productive and Getting Recognized: Strengthening the Ranks of Women Faculty at ISU.” This initiative will entail a half-day, hands-on professional development workshop for female faculty members and advanced graduate students to address advancement strategies in departments that historically have struggled to maintain a gender-diverse faculty.
“This is something I am passionate about, so I am very happy this initiative was funded,” Lucht said. “The workshop will be a collaborative effort and will support the professional development of women research faculty and graduate students. Women are underrepresented as faculty members nationally and here at Iowa State — especially at the higher ranks. Receiving this grant makes me hopeful because I think it demonstrates a commitment by the university to recruit and support women at all levels.”
Winfrey also secured one of the 10 grants given by Iowa State for the 2016-17 academic year; her grant will support the Ready to Run® Iowa program, which the Carrie Chapman Catt Center for Women and Politics puts on at Iowa State every other year. Winfrey, who has a dual appointment between the Greenlee School and the Catt Center, first organized the workshop, which is part of the national Ready to Run® network organized by the Center for American Women in Politics, in 2015. In its first year, she noticed that few women of color or younger women participated and decided to apply for funding to help change that.
“I am thrilled and honored to receive the Women & Diversity Grant,” Winfrey says. “This will provide much needed resources to expand the reach of Ready to Run® Iowa to a larger and more diverse group of women that can and should consider political office.”
The $1,800 grant Winfrey was awarded will be used to promote the spring 2017 Ready to Run® program among women of color and younger women on and off campus and to provide scholarships to women from each underrepresented group who attend the workshops.