Pamela Leggett-Robinson (PLR Consulting) Awarded $4.2M In Funding For National Science Foundation (NSF) Racial Equity In STEM Education Project
Drs. Tamara Pearson, Pamela Leggett-Robinson (PLR Consulting), Felicia Benton-Johnson, and Kathaleena Edward Monds are awarded $4.2M in funding for their National Science Foundation (NSF) Racial Equity in STEM Education project: Understanding Persistence through the Lens of Interruption: A Framework for Transformation (UPLIFT). This collaborative project between Spelman College, PLR Consulting, Georgia Institute of Technology, Albany State University will study the impact of interruptions on Black women’s collegiate STEM experiences and their persistence and matriculation in STEM majors. Although interruptions are daily occurrences in the lives of all people, Black women are interrupted more frequently than others as a matter of their sheer existence and each occurrence results in a loss of focus, a loss in momentum, and a loss in confidence, and requires time to rebound. Through documenting the experiences of undergraduate Black women in STEM as they progress from first year to senior year, using a theoretical framework grounded in Black Feminist Thought and Intersectionality, we will develop a framework for interruption that investigates the relationship between systems of oppression and Black women’s intent to persist in STEM.