Why do Women Leave Academia? A Framework to Retain Women in Higher Ed

The barriers to success for women in academia arise from long standing systemic issues which result in reduced retention of female academics, the so called ‘leaky pipeline’, unfortunately these barriers have only become greater since the COVID-19 pandemic.

Along with unconscious bias in hiring and promotions and fewer grants awarded to female researchers, the pandemic has seen the majority of caregiving responsibilities fall onto women for children and elderly family members. The response to this increasing burden on female academics needs to be addressed to prevent the loss of women in academia in even greater numbers.

WIRI will be joined by Prof. Pamela B. Davis and Dr. Rosarii Griffin for a discussion on these issues of retention and frameworks for action to address these problems.

Why do Women Leave Academia? A Framework to Retain Women in Higher Ed

Register to attend here

MEET THE PANELISTS:

Prof. Pamela B. Davis, MD, PhD is currently Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin Research Professor and Professor at the Center for Community Health Integration, Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine.

She became dean of the School of Medicine and senior vice president for medical affairs at Case Western Reserve University in 2007 after serving as interim dean during the previous year. She stepped down in 2020 to serve as the Arline H. and Curtis F. Garvin Research Professor in the Center for Community Health Integration. She received her BS in chemistry, summa cum laude, from Smith College in 1968, and the doctorate in physiology and pharmacology in 1973 and her medical degree in 1974, both from Duke University.

In 2014, Dr. Davis was inducted into the Institute of Medicine, now known as the National Academy of Medicine. She was also elected as the 2015 Chair of the Medical Sciences Section of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where she was elected a fellow. In 2020 she was inducted into the National Academy of Inventors. For more than 40 years, she has been funded by the NIH, and has served on the Advisory Council to the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases, the Board of Scientific Counselors for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, and the Advisory Council for National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences. Most of her more than 150 peer reviewed papers report research in cystic fibrosis, but in 2021 her research focus shifted to using informatics approaches in large databases to gain insight into important clinical problems, most recently the reciprocal interaction of COVID and several chronic conditions, and she is supported by the NIH for this work in the Multiple Principal Investigator mode.

Dr Rosarii Griffin is a lecturer and researcher whose expertise is in international and comparative education at University College Cork (UCC).

Rosarii is currently researching the potential impact of BREXIT on the Irish third level education sector. Rosarii has over 20 years experience of teaching and researching at UCC, Harvard, Oxford and Brussels (ULB). She was a guest lecturer in ‘international education’ in Japan, Korea, Turkey, Cyprus, UK (LSE, Oxford and Hull Universities), and the USA. Rosarii’s projects focus on pedagogical capacity-building issues pertaining to teaching and learning, curriculum, assessment and professional development education. She has gained extensive experience of workig in Africa: South Africa, Lesotho, Uganda, Malawi and Rwanda. She is currently an Executive Steering member of UCC’s Centre for Global Development (2012-19). Rosarii is also a Director of the International Researcher Association (2017-2019); Chairperson of UCC’s Researcher Staff Association (2017-2019) and was twice elected Governor at UCC, most recently 2014-19. Rosarii was Director of the Centre of Research for Global Development, Limerick (2008-11), and Director of the NGO Action Lesotho (2011-15). Rosarii is also a Fellow of the Royal Society of Arts, London. Previously, Rosarii was elected President of Graduates, St Hugh’s College, Oxford (2000-1) and Vice-President, Exeter College, Oxford (1998 & 2000). Since then, Rosarii has published four books and numerous chapters and articles on ‘international and comparative education’ issues. Rosarii also presents a weekly award winning radio ‘Perspectives’ show based on social justice issues. She has two children whom are at the centre of her life.