Mines DI&A Fellows
Program Overview
The DI&A Fellows program recognizes highly accomplished and motivated faculty and staff for their exceptional DI&A leadership and service, and provides support as they to gain leadership experience and drive institutional change at Mines. Each Fellow drives a strategic initiative or program that furthers the vision and mission of Mines DI&A. Fellows also learn about all the innerworkings of Mines DI&A and serve as a representative for campus internally and externally.
Now Accepting 2024 Fellows Applications
We are excited to announce an opportunity for faculty and staff to become a DI&A Fellow. Applications are being accepted February 12, 2024 through March 15, 2024. DI&A Fellows will be announced early May. Each fellowship is awarded for a one calendar-year period starting Fall 2024 and the recipients will receive $10,000 discretionary funds.
If you would like to apply, please submit this application to diversity@mines.edu.
2022 Fellows
Dr. Lakshmi Krishna
Director of Undergraduate Research Scholars
Department of Physics
Annette Pilkington
Director
Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Program
Professor Susan Reynolds
Teaching Professor
Civil and Environmental Engineering
The 2022-2023 DI&A Fellows are supported by Chevron.
Centering Inclusive Mentoring for Advancing DI&A at Mines
Engaging undergraduates in research has been championed as a high-impact practice that increases student retention and success. Furthermore, engaging underrepresented students in a meaningful research experience can foster a sense of belonging, increased self-efficacy, persistence in STEM, research productivity, and career satisfaction. Inclusive mentorship is the key to engaging students in meaningful research experiences. Inclusive mentorship is about cultivating authentic mentoring relationships and acknowledging the role of mentees’ social identities in their career development to foster a sense of belonging. This project aims to develop a research mentoring workshop based on the “Entering Mentoring” curriculum designed and developed by Center for Improvement in Mentored Experiences in Research (CIMER) to ensure mentors and mentees can receive training and skills to sustain productive mentoring relationships.
Leadership Coaching for Mines Employees
Annette Pilkington, Director of the Women in Science, Engineering and Mathematics (WISEM) Program will design and implement a leadership coaching program for Mines employees. The program will use ontological coaching, an approach that focuses on the nature of being, or the way a person “is” in the world. This focus is the basis for a person’s behavior, communication, perceptions and attitudes about themselves. This type of life and leadership coaching helps people see new and expanded possibilities for their actions, thereby enabling them to overcome barriers to change and learn new behaviors. With increased awareness, participants can achieve significant personal and professional growth. The Mines pilot program for approximately 40 participants will use both individual and group coaching during the spring of 2023.
Neurodiversity@Mines: A celebration of all kinds of minds at Mines
People with differences in brain behavior should be valued for their uniqueness, not stigmatized for their differences. Neurodivergent individuals may have a wide array of strengths, such as incredible focus on preferred projects, strong passion for social justice, an ability to think broadly and creativity, excellent pattern-recognition skills, and the capacity to work independently. Despite these strengths, neurodivergent people often face significant challenges, such as feeling misunderstood, coping with overt or subtle bullying, masking neurodivergent characteristics to better fit in, and experiencing anxiety or mental burn-out. This project will create a dialogue around neurodiversity so that we foster an environment in which bright and quirky people are supported and celebrated as a core part of the Mines community.
Project webpage: https://www.mines.edu/diversity/neurodiversity/
PATHWAYS TO MINES THROUGH PARTNERSHIPS WITH BIPOC STUDENTS IN DENVER PUBLIC SCHOOLS
 Dr. Derrick HudsonAssistant Teaching Professor, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences |
Dr. Derrick Hudson will further develop pathways to Mines via the iSSACHAR Center for Urban Leadership in partnership with Denver Public high schools. Founded in 1999, the Issachar Center provides a 10-month leadership and academic training program for college-age adults and an incarnational leadership program for existing young leaders to develop their skills as emerging leaders in their communities. Organized into cohorts, students will participate in a one-credit hour experiential, service-learning (non-degree granting) course led by Dr. Hudson next fall. The course will dig into systemic inequality within Denver neighborhoods, contributions of underrepresented groups to society and connect personal experiences to the larger context. The course’s curriculum modules are portable to other classes as micro-insertions to help foster diversity and inclusion dialogue on campus. Mines faculty will also visit local high schools and other venues to raise the profile of Mines as a destination for students of color who aspire to attain a STEM education. |
DEI TOOLKITS FOR STUDENT LEADERS
 Alex LeachAssistant Director, Case Management and Clery Compliance, Office of Institutional Equity & Title IX |
Alex Leach will work to identify campus efforts to increase students’ multicultural competency and support these efforts via a Student Leadership Institute, a multi-day program followed by monthly learning and skill development opportunities. The Institute will lay a foundation for all participants to understand their own social identities and the ways their identities influence how they see and experience the world. Students will be equipped with a toolkit designed to empower critical thinking and challenge inequities across a system, resulting in organizational culture change. The toolkit will be designed “for beyond Mines” in mind, portable diversity, equity and inclusion skills for the workplace. Alex will use her experience with restorative practices in addressing conflict and increase understanding of how stories and data can be leveraged to spur change. |
SOCIAL JUSTICE ACROSS THE CORE CURRICULUM
 Dr. Shannon MancusAssociate Teaching Professor, Humanities, Arts, & Social Sciences |
Dr. Shannon Mancus will direct initiatives designed to scaffold social justice across the Mines curriculum. Using best practice, and building off the diversity, equity and inclusion integration she has implemented in Nature and Human Values, she will work with course coordinators and the core curriculum committee to identify opportunities to further integrate justice content. Dr. Mancus will also design an asynchronous course to help professors facilitate difficult conversations in the classroom, a DEI curriculum roadmap and an immersive simulation for professors to practice techniques for supporting underrepresented students when experiences of implicit bias and microaggressions occur in the classroom. |
DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION TRIO PROGRAM
 Dr. Justin ShafferAssociate Teaching Professor, Department of Chemical and Biological Engineering |
Dr. Justin Shaffer will lead campus’ grant application process for the Department of Education’s Trio program. Programs such as Upward Bound, help attract and support low-income, first-generation and rural students to and during their years at Mines. Upward Bound provides high school students access to mentoring, tutoring, classes and help with college preparation and the application process. |