Career Arcs that Blend Industry, Government and Military Service with Faculty Experiences to Increase Diversity in the Engineering Professoriate

This paper presents a new model of academic careers that allows for more inclusive hiring, tenure and promotion practices across the long arc of individual careers. The traditional model of a faculty career implies and requires a leaky pipeline, where participants who choose careers outside of academia are left behind and are never allowed re-entry. Our new career model describes points of re-entry and strategic exits that allow for building diversity in academia in ways that go beyond what has been practiced when academic stakeholders and systems base hiring and promotion practices on the traditional academic model. The model introduced here provides key points of study and development that can allow for increased diversity in the professoriate.