Project CEOS at Ohio State

Project CEOS - Comprehensive Equity at Ohio State - is a National Science Foundation-funded project aimed at increasing the representation and advancement of women in the STEM fields: science, technology, engineering and mathematics. The focus is on workplace transformation - changing the characteristics of our institutional culture that make it more difficult for women to stay on the job and advance their careers.

The project differs from many other gender equity projects with its focus on retention and advancement - not on recruitment (although it may make it easier to recruit women and minorities to the university). This focus acknowledges what most women know to be true - that the problem isn't getting women into the pipeline, it's about making it possible for women (and men) to move through the pipeline while juggling the demands of life outside of work.

Joan Herbers, former dean of the College of Biological Science at OSU, is the principal investigator for the project (that's PI in research project lingo) and leads a team of co-investigators and project managers who represent seven collegs and schools at OSU. The colleges participating in the first phase of the project are: initially: Biological, Mathematical and Physical Sciences, Engineering, and Veterinary Medicine.