Our Vision

Our vision is to leverage state university systems to diversify STEM faculty utilizing postdoctoral pathways into tenure track faculty positions.  The RISE UPP Alliance will leverage the inter-institutional frameworks developed by the two Core Model Partners, University of California’s President’s Postdoctoral Fellowship program (PPFP) and the University System of Maryland’s AGEP Promise Academy Alliance (APAA), to assist with the adoption or adaptation of those models at three Scaling Partner systems:

1. The University of Texas (UT) system

2. The Texas A&M University (TAMU) system

3. The University of North Carolina (UNC) system 

Each Scaling Partner system has 5-8 institutions, including R1, R2, minority serving and teaching-intensive institutions committed to collaborate and pilot reproductions of the Core Model Partner programs.

The RISE UPP Alliance will help Scaling Partners act as systems to facilitate the recruitment, training, community and network building, and subsequent hire of minoritized postdoctoral scholars into tenure-track positions within their university systems.

To retain, support and advance these scholars equitably, the RISE UPP Alliance recognizes that departments, institutions, and systems must also be transformed. Therefore, activities will center on four areas of evidence-based interventions: