New Leader of LEADER: David Goldstein

"It makes perfect sense that David take over as director of the LEADER Consortium," said then LEADER Director Michele Wheatly last October. While most would have expected Michele to identify a woman to lead what she often called “her baby,” a little background information will bring understanding to why Dr. David Goldstein is the perfect replacement for the woman who has long championed efforts to support faculty women in STEM at Wright State University… and in the region.

A strong advocate for women in STEM throughout his professional career, David has over 20 years at WSU and is currently the Chair of the Department of Biological Sciences. As a faculty member and chair, David has always encouraged women students in his department to pursue studies and careers in the sciences. When he became chair in 2002, only 10 percent of his faculty were women. Today, the number of women is 8 out of 18 for a total of 44 percent.

After becoming chair, David grew increasingly aware of the challenges faced by STEM women students and faculty members and, in 2006, partnered with Michele Wheatly to write and submit a proposal to the National Science Foundation (NSF) for an ADVANCE Program grant to increase the retention and advancement of women in academic STEM careers. While their proposal was not selected for an award at that time, lessons learned and the initiatives they started prepared Michele and David, along with other co-PIs, on a new project in 2008, which successfully landed an ADVANCE grant award of $2.86M from NSF.

Considered by the LEADER Leadership Team as an “expert” when it comes to family-friendly policies for his faculty, David has become quite familiar with university policies, particularly those for parental leave. According to one of his faculty members, Dr. Paula Bubulya, "David was truly supportive of my continued progress toward promotion during the past year since my second daughter was born, and he is continually supportive of many other women faculty in our department." As such, David's leadership and advocacy will serve to improve the climate for STEM women faculty across the Consortium. A perfect replacement? He is indeed.