A panel of NDSU full professors will discuss their perspectives and experiences in the promotion process on May 4. The event is planned over lunch in the Memorial Union Hidatsa room. Those interested in attending are encouraged to mark their calendars and watch future issues of "It’s Happening at State" and www.ndsu.edu/forward for additional information.

The event is the first in a series of panel presentations and is part of ADVANCE FORWARD’s Mid-Career Mentoring Program and the PROMOTE program which is funded by an ADVANCE PAID grant. The National Science Foundation ADVANCE PAID grant involves a group of states led by Utah State University in partnership with six other western public research universities including Kansas State University, New Mexico State University, University of Kansas, University of Idaho, Oregon State University and NDSU.

"PROMOTE proposes to both increase our understanding of the transition from associate to full professor and to address the difficulties women face through an interview study and an implementation phase," says Dana Britton, Kansas State University, who was on campus last semester to conduct interviews and focus groups for the research phase of the project.

Virginia Clark Johnson, dean of the College of Human Development and Education, with help from FORWARD members Canan Bilen-Green and Charlene Wolf-Hall, is providing leadership to the PAID grant efforts at NDSU. Many efforts are integrated with FORWARD programs. Bilen-Green, Wolf-Hall and Clark Johnson also are in the process of forming a group to help implement the PAID project goals at NDSU.