Winner of the 2002-2003 Faculty Support Awards:
Dr. Marla McIntosh, Professor, Natural Resource Science and Landscape Architecture

Dr. Marla McIntosh will use her Diversity Initiative Award to study the participation and roles of women in the academic sector of agricultural sciences. The goal of her research is to identify causes and suggest solutions to the pervasive gender imbalance among agricultural professionals and academics, particularly among high-level positions. For example, Dr. McIntosh is the only female full professor in a department of 40 tenure-track faculty. Using national databases, she will analyze data to determine the extent of a "pipeline" effect where the proportion of women "leaks" at each level throughout the professional pipeline. She will also investigate where women who leave academia are going and why they are leaving. Results of her study, which include 1700 responses to a survey of members of the American Society of Agronomy are planned to be published. Also, she intends to submit her study and recommendations to the Office of Human Relations.