Dr Heather Metcalf
Director of Research and Analysis for the Association for Women in Science (AWIS), USA.
Heather Metcalf, Ph.D. is Director of Research and Analysis for the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) where she leads empirical work on gender and the science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workforce. Dr Metcalf’s research contributes to the AWIS vision of positive system transformation in STEM. She has undergraduate degrees in applied mathematics and computer science (Clarion University of Pennsylvania, 2003) and holds master’s degrees in computer science (The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005) and gender studies (University of Arizona, 2007). Dr Metcalf earned her doctorate from the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education (2011), where she studied higher education science and technology policy. She utilizes her unique interdisciplinary background to conduct applied research on diversity and equity issues in STEM fields. Dr Metcalf’s postdoctoral research was funded by a National Science Foundation ADVANCE grant and focused on STEM faculty equity.
Throughout her career, she has utilized her work to influence change in academic, industry and public policy spaces and to train researchers and practitioners in building equity into their daily thought and work. Dr Metcalf has research, policy, and programmatic expertise on myriad topics in STEM, such as bias; educational and workplace cultures; harassment and discrimination; innovation and entrepreneurship; pathways; workforce development; organizational and systemic change; recruitment and retention; equity across fields, sectors, and ranks; mentoring; sense of fit; self-efficacy; federal funding; institutional and federal policy; structural and cultural barriers; and work-life integration.