FIU Office to Advance Women, Equity & Diversity (AWED) provides research-based educational diversity, equity, and inclusion training for the academic workplace and beyond. The overarching goal of FIU Office to Advance Women, Equity & Diversity is to create institutional change through evidence-based education and implementation.
Our programming and activities are designed to create, through the process of intervention and subsequent diffusion, a social system that acts proactively to advance women and underrepresented groups, within FIU and beyond. We focus on behavioral change to yield impactful results and create a more inclusive climate. Our efforts to produce institutional change are grounded in social science knowledge. We review the impact of programming for their effects on different constituencies, in order to better understand how change is actually occurring.
Our mission
Our mission is to help individuals and groups create equitable institutional change through evidence-based education, including implementation, to ensure the safety and inclusion of all.
Our vision
We believe the workplace should be a safe and inclusive place for all. Our focus on changing behaviors will positively support the institutional change needed to create a sense of belonging for everyone through education, training, and support for individuals and organizations.
Our goals
Provide an equitable institutional climate for underrepresented groups including, women, racial/ethnic minorities, LGBTQ+ people, and persons with disabilities, at all professional levels
Increase the representation from historically underrepresented groups, such as women, African-American and Hispanic-American and others
Ensure institutions deliver a welcoming environment for all by creating a safe and inclusive workplace
Support diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging initiatives by providing resources and concrete solutions to improving the institutional climate
History
Established in 2016 by FIU Former Provost Kenneth G. Furton, FIU Office to Advance Women, Equity & Diversity (AWED) aims to achieve and sustain faculty equity and diversity as an essential element of FIU's academic excellence. The office is supported by a five-year $3.2 million Institutional Transformation grant awarded in 2016 by the National Science Foundation. It is aimed specifically at developing strategies to increase the number of women and underrepresented minority groups. AWED develops and manages a wide range of programs to promote faculty equity, diversity and inclusion, including workshops and trainings to improve faculty hiring and promotion processes, faculty mentoring, and interdisciplinary networking.