Lessons Learned from an NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Backbone for a National Alliance for an Inclusive and Diverse STEM Faculty

The NSF Eddie Bernice Johnson INCLUDES Aspire Alliance (NSF #1834518, 1834522, 1834510, 1834513, 1834526, 1834521), one of the inaugural INCLUDES alliances funded in 2018, aims to build a more inclusive and diverse STEM faculty across 2 and 4-year institutions. The Aspire Alliance is a large and diverse alliance, composed of 6 collaborating institutions, 6 cross-functional teams (3 support, 3 action-orientated/change-focused), 120+ 2 and 4-year institutional partners, and 39 organizational partners. This presentation will focus on the experiences of the backbone organization (Turner, S., Merchant, K., Kania, J., & Martin, E., 2012), one of the 3 support teams, which is led through the Association of Public and Land-grant Universities (APLU). In this presentation, we will examine the use of a collaborative infrastructure model in a Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI)-focused project as required by the NSF INCLUDES project, as well as share our emerging lessons learned and advice to nascent backbone organizations. Our insights will focus on navigating the challenge of integrating three elements of our alliance: collaborative infrastructure and shared decision-making model, needs for accountability and hierarchical structure in NSF, and implementing the values of DEI in our work. We will briefly discuss how these elements have changed over the evolution of our project.