Announcing Dr. Joan Ramage, Next Faculty Director

The Office of the Provost and the Lehigh ADVANCE Center for Women STEM Faculty announce  Dr. Joan Ramage as the next Faculty Director of the Center starting in April 2022 for a three year appointment. 

The mission of the Lehigh ADVANCE Center for Women STEM Faculty is to support faculty diversity, inclusion, and equity across all disciplines through institutional transformation. Dr. Ramage, Associate Professor in the Earth and Environmental Sciences Department, will bring her passion and experience leading geoscience equity and inclusion efforts and her prior involvement with Lehigh ADVANCE to elevate development of new training tools, research questions, and collaborations. Dr. Ramage will serve after inaugural faculty director Professor Kristen Jellison became the RCEAS Associate Dean for Faculty Development. 

Ramage brings a strong track record of successfully mentoring women undergraduate and graduate students, and is an inaugural member of her department’s Committee on Diversity and Inclusion. She brings experience designing and implementing workshops as part of the National Association of Geoscience Teachers Early Career and Traveling Workshop Programs, with a special interest fostering diverse and inclusive communities. Professor Ramage Macdonald uses remote sensing to understand what variations in glaciers and snow can tell us about hydrology and climate. 

Ramage says, “Equity and inclusion are essential for everyone, and I am excited to work on ADVANCE programming that strengthens opportunities for women faculty and to develop opportunities for all faculty to become better leaders, colleagues, mentors, and allies. I look forward to serving in this role to help improve the retention and success of women faculty in STEM at Lehigh, and in strengthening the ways that their retention and belonging will also improve the experience for future faculty and students of all genders. I am excited to build on the extensive work that has already been done and to make sure ADVANCE is visible and effective on campus and beyond.”

We thank Dr. Jellison for her leadership and partnership as it relates to sustaining ADVANCE after the initial 2010-2016 NSF ADVANCE Institutional Transformation grant. The ADVANCE faculty director works closely with Dr. Marci Levine, Staff Center Director, and a range of senior leaders and stakeholders guiding and applying evidence-based strategies and programs, frequently from research in STEM fields, to our entire campus.  The directors welcome input from the campus community on new and ongoing initiatives. 

In recent years, the portfolio of ADVANCE has expanded greatly, and it is an excellent time for new leadership and harnessing the enhanced infrastructure and intersectional approaches to faculty diversity and inclusive excellence. Much about ADVANCE, its history and its ongoing work to support women in STEM and other underrepresented faculty while simultaneously developing leadership capacity, is available online. Current initiatives touch on critical policies and processes that promote equity in areas such as:

Faculty Recruitment & Onboarding,  Faculty Retention, Climate & Community, Mentoring, Professional Development, Tenure and Promotion, Service and Workload Equity. Lehigh ADVANCE is a member of the Council for Equity and Community, provides individual and group-level consultations, and is a sought after thought partner and collaborator with numerous campus colleagues. Nationally, the ADVANCE Center is an active member of the third cohort of the NSF Aspire IChange Alliance and is a co-investigator on a funded NSF research project about External Review Letters and biases. ADVANCE regularly attends and presents at STEM Diversity & Inclusion Conferences and is a vibrant member of the national ADVANCE Implementation Mentors Network.