The LEADER Consortium: Launching Equity Across the Dayton Entrepreneurial Region

Since the time of the Wright brothers’ bicycle shop, the Dayton region has established a heritage of scientific and technological innovation. It is home to more than a dozen institutions of higher learning and also to the principal research and graduate education arms of the U.S. Air Force at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

Women have contributed prominently to this heritage from the start. Katharine Wright was the only member of the Wright brothers’ family to complete college; she contributed ideas, funding, and organization to the developing science and business of powered flight, and she is one of the few American women to be awarded the French Legion of Honor. Yet now, a century later, while Wilbur and Orville are household names, few know of Katharine’s talents and contributions. This disparity is emblematic of the STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics) fields and professions today.

These days, many of the issues recognized nationally as important to women in STEM disciplines—issues of recruitment, retention, and climate—also persist in Dayton’s regional universities.

Publicly launched in November of 2008, the LEADER Consortium, a partnership of four diverse institutions of higher education in the Dayton region, proposes to apply models and methods from social science to improve the climate for STEM women at levels ranging from the individual to the unit and to the institution.

We envision that through the LEADER Consortium, Dayton can acquire renown as a community of STEM practice that welcomes women STEM professionals and provides an environment promoting equity, satisfaction, and success. Also, increasing the visibility of STEM women in the academy will inspire our daughters and granddaughters to pursue STEM careers.