Improving MSI Pathways to STEM Graduate Education Through Grantmaking: Lessons for the Field

In Short

• One of the most promising ways to widen pathways to STEM graduate education is within reach: creating and strengthening partnerships between minority-serving institutions and the nation’s master’s and doctoral STEM programs.

• The most effective partnerships are those that educate their communities along the way, including engaging STEM faculty and departmental leadership.

• Faculty-to-faculty relationships are necessary for systemic change to occur, as evidenced by multiple change models.

• Innovation, like everything in higher education, is context dependent, necessitating a rethink about what innovation is and where and how it occurs.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Lorelle L. Espinosa

Lorelle Espinosa, PhD, is the Program Director of Higher Education at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, where she is responsible for developing and implementing evidence-based strategic priorities for the foundation’s grantmaking to effectively advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM higher education.

Tyler Hallmark,

Tyler Hallmark, PhD, is the Program Associate of Higher Education at the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, where he helps oversee the foundation’s grantmaking to effectively advance diversity, equity, and inclusion in STEM higher education and manages the Creating Equitable Pathways to STEM Graduate Education grant portfolio.

Kaylan S. Baxter

Kaylan Baxter is a Doctoral Candidate in Urban Education Policy and Research Assistant in the Pullias Center for Higher Education at the University of Southern California. Baxter studies approaches to postsecondary accountability and data usage, examining their implications for the opportunities, experiences, and outcomes of racially minoritized students.