The School of Information is pleased to announce that Associate Research Professor Lecia Barker has recently received three new grants from the National Science Foundation to support her work on leadership, diversity and advancement of minorities within the computing field. These awards total almost $600,000 and will help to deliver on our school's mission to educate the next generation leaders in the information professions. Details of each of these awards is provided below.

Dean Dillon notes: "These awards are recognition of the Lecia's abilities as a scholar and as a relationship-builder and they will provide significant opportunities to shape education policy and practices for greater inclusion of all citizens in the information field". The National Science Foundation (NSF) is is an independent federal agency created by Congress in 1950 to promote and support the progress of science. It is the major funder of research in science and engineering in the US. These awards bring to five the number of NSF grants received by iSchool faculty in the last year.

The Grants

National Center for Women & Information Technology

NCWIT Lecia Barker, Research Associate Professor at the School of Information in Austin, has been awarded $315,576 from the National Science Foundation for her work with the National Center for Women & Information Technology (NCWIT). The mission of NCWIT is to ensure that women’s perspectives and expertise are fully represented in the influential world of information technology, particularly in terms of innovation and development. NCWIT works through its coalition of more than 100 prominent corporations, academic institutions, government agencies, and non-profits by building capacity for their efforts with high-quality social science research and analysis and by supporting their advocacy efforts. Dr. Barker will work collaboratively with other scientists to build a strong knowledge base for NCWIT’s efforts, develop content for evidence-based practices, provide leadership to the social science staff and policy, oversee the development of the Broadening Participation in Computing Collection in the Engineering Pathway Digital Library, and co-lead the NCWIT Extension Services for Undergraduate Programs, an initiative intended to implement systemic reform in 36 undergraduate programs in the U.S.

Empowering Leadership Alliance

Lecia Barker has been awarded $95,117 by the National Science Foundation Broadening Participation in Computing Program to provide consultation and lead the evaluation of the Empowering Leadership Alliance—Computing Scholars of Tomorrow. The Empowering Leadership Alliance (ELA) is a collaboration of Rice University (lead), the University of Texas at Austin, the University of California at Berkeley, Boston University, and the University of Illinois at Urbana- Champaign; its goal is to retain in his or her computing degree program every student who is a member of an underrepresented minority attending a majority institution in the United States. Minority students in computing at majority schools attend university under fundamentally different conditions than do majority students, often resulting in attrition either from the major or from the university. Barker provides consultation on research related to computing education and retention of undergraduate and graduate students and will oversee evaluation of project activities.

Alliance for the Advancement of African-American Researchers in Computing (A4RC)

Lecia Barker has been awarded $181,534 by the National Science Foundation Broadening Participation in Computing Program to provide consultation and lead the evaluation of the Alliance for the Advancement of African-American Researchers in Computing (A4RC). A4RC is a collaboration of three majority research institutions (University of Colorado, Georgia Institute of Technology, and Virginia Polytechnic University) and four Historically Black Colleges and Universities (Norfolk State University, Jackson State University, North Carolina A&T University, and Bennett College) to create a pipeline of students from the HBCUs into the doctoral programs of the majority institutions. Dr. Barker serves a three-part role for the project: she consults with project leaders about what is known with respect to motivating students to pursue graduate degree; conducts research on master’s students to understand their motivations with respect to doctoral study; and oversees evaluation of project activities.

For further information on each of these projects, contact Lecia.