Tuesday, May 5, 2020
Faculty Focus
By Amanda Alaniz
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, TEXAS – During a time when most people are still working from home and scheduling more Zoom meetings, 15 UTRGV STEM female faculty managed to complete UTRGV’s 2020 ADVANCE Leadership Workshop series that transitioned from in-person to online.
The workshop is part of the UTRGV’s National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE grant under the College of Engineering and Computer Science. It is an opportunity for STEM women faculty to participate in a leadership workshop focused on cultivating the knowledge and skills to accelerate leadership success.
The series started Feb. 7, with the first session taking place on the Edinburg Campus; faculty then participated in individual Zoom coaching meetings for the second session.
The final session had been planned for April 3 on the Edinburg Campus, but with social distancing mandates due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it was split into two online sessions.
The 15 faculty completed the workshop series on April 23.
Upon completion, faculty received a stipend for research and/or travel support, as well as a certificate.
ABOUT UTRGV
The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) was created by the Texas Legislature in 2013 as the first major public university of the 21st century in Texas. This transformative initiative provided the opportunity to expand educational opportunities in the Rio Grande Valley, including a new School of Medicine, and made it possible for residents of the region to benefit from the Permanent University Fund – a public endowment contributing support to the University of Texas System and other institutions.
UTRGV has campuses and off-campus research and teaching sites throughout the Rio Grande Valley including in Boca Chica Beach, Brownsville (formerly The University of Texas at Brownsville campus), Edinburg (formerly The University of Texas-Pan American campus), Harlingen, McAllen, Port Isabel, Rio Grande City, and South Padre Island. UTRGV, a comprehensive academic institution, enrolled its first class in the fall of 2015, and the School of Medicine welcomed its first class in the summer of 2016.