Bridge to Faculty Program wraps up another exciting year

Leigh Hellman, Office of Diversity, Equity and Engagement | Posted on December 15, 2024
The photo features two rows of people, with 11 people standing in the back row and 12 people standing in the front row. They are standing against a blue textured wall with a large red circle in the center and the outline of the letters “UIC” cut out in the middle of the red circle.
Group photo with the chancellor, provost, B2F team and scholars at the 2024 B2F Scholar Reception held on Monday, September 23

The Bridge to Faculty (B2F) program, which runs out of the UIC Office of Diversity, Equity and Engagement (ODEE), focuses on transitioning underrepresented postdoctoral scholars into tenure-track faculty positions. Started in fall 2020, this two-year program is currently facilitating its fifth cohort, who entered B2F in fall 2024.

The fifth cohort includes nine new scholars and brought the B2F community to a total of 50 scholars across 39 departments in 12 colleges. The program has successfully transitioned 34 scholars to faculty, with four of those scholars successfully transitioning this past fall, and 10 more hires are on the way. Since its inaugural cohort, the B2F program has had a successful transition rate of 92% through cohorts 1-4.

The fall 2024 new faculty include:

  • ash stephens, Criminology, Law and Justice
  • Tristesse Burton, Pharmacy Practice
  • Ignacio Meza Escalante, Biological Sciences
  • Azadeh Safaeian, Disability and Human Development

 

The fall 2024 B2F scholars include:

  • Joshua Adkins, Materials Engineering
  • Víctor Florez-García, Epidemiology and Biostatistics
  • Riad Kherdeen, Art History
  • Victoria Laney, Biomedical Engineering
  • Jeehyun Jenny Lee, Communication
  • Amina Malik, University Library
  • Kumar Ramanathan, Political Science
  • Michelle Villegas-Downs, Human Development Nursing Science
  • Lucinda Williamson, Biomedical Engineering
Modified on December 15, 2024