AAU PhD Education Initiative

Program overview

The Association of American Universities (AAU) PhD Education Initiative aims to change the culture surrounding doctoral education at AAU member institutions so that graduate education is more student-centered, placing greater emphasis and focus on students as individuals with diverse educational and professional interests, needs, and challenges.

Indiana University Bloomington is one of eight AAU member institutions, representing 32 academic departments, forming the inaugural pilot group of the AAU PhD Education Initiative. Under the leadership of the University Graduate School, the initiative works to implement reforms within IUB's diverse PhD programs to make the array career pathways more visible, valued, and viable for all students.

1. Institutional Change. Influence the culture and behavior in departments to foster increased inclusion of current and prospective doctoral students from diverse backgrounds and to provide PhD students with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to succeed in careers within and beyond academia.

2. Data Transparency. Adopt institutional policies and practices to make PhD program data—including data about the career pathways and employment trends of their PhD alumni—widely available.

3. Strategies. Highlight and encourage effective university, disciplinary society, and federal agency strategies and programs.

Administration
David Daleke, Team Leader	Vice Provost for Graduate Education	daleked@iu.edu
Rahul Shrivastav	Provost and Executive Vice President	provost@indiana.edu
Amelia Brown	Administrative Assistant to the Vice Provost	vpgehs@iu.edu
Katherine Kearns	Assistant Vice Provost for Student Development	kkearns@iu.edu
Gavin Mariano	PhD Student, Higher Education	gmariano@iu.edu
Jeff Rutherford	Assistant Dean for Academic Affairs	jruther@iu.edu
Linda Shepard, Data Transparency Team Leader	Senior Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education	lshepard@indiana.edu
Trevor Verrot	Graduate Career Coach, Walter Career Center	tmverrot@iu.edu
STEM Pilot Department	Psychological and Brain Sciences
Karin James, STEM Team Leader	Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies	khjames@indiana.edu
Bill Hetrick	Professor, Department Chair	whetrick@indiana.edu
Amy Holtzworth-Munroe	Professor	holtzwor@indiana.edu
Humanities Pilot Department	History
Amrita Myers, Humanities Team Leader	Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies	apmyers@indiana.edu
Wendy Gamber	Professor	wgamber@indiana.edu
Peter Guardino	Professor	pguardin@indiana.edu
Affiliate Department	Anthropology
Andrea Wiley, Affiliate Department Team Leader	Professor, Department Chair	wileya@indiana.edu
Stacie King	Professor	kingsm@indiana.edu
Affiliate Department	Applied Health Science
Jon Macy, Affiliate Department Team Leader	Interim Assistant Dean for Graduate Education	jtmacy@indiana.edu
Eric Walsh-Buhi	Professor, Department Chair	erwals@iu.edu
Affiliate Department	Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Douglas Edmonds, Affiliate Department Team Leader	Associate Professor, Director of Graduate Studies	edmondsd@indiana.edu
David Polly	Professor, Department Chair	pdpolly@indiana.edu

PhD Career Diversity Symposium

Graduate students, postdoctoral scholars, and faculty mentors are invited to join in the inaugural PhD Career Diversity Symposium. Hear about our campus’ participation in the AAU’s PhD Career Pathways project (2019-2022), an initiative with seven other universities to make diverse PhD career pathways visible, valued, and viable for all PhD students and postdocs.

Events in the symposium include a keynote by Sara Pietraszek-Mattner (ExxonMobil), presentations from departmental teams highlighting their activities and outcomes, panel discussions, and concurrent workshops for participants in different roles. We hope the event is an opportunity to build communities of practice, foster curriculum development responsive to students from diverse backgrounds, and provide PhD students and postdocs with the knowledge, skills, and abilities to succeed in a range of careers.

Thursday, November 10, 9:00 a.m. - 3:30 p.m.
Indiana Memorial Union

Symposium Program

Event Program

9:00-9:15am

Welcome & Overview

David Daleke, Vice Provost for Graduate Education and Health Sciences

Vice Provost for Graduate Education David Daleke will share background about Indiana University Bloomington’s involvement in the AAU PhD Career Pathways Initiative and provide an overview of today’s PhD Career Diversity Symposium.

Whittenberger Auditorium, Indiana Memorial Union

or Zoom: https://go.iu.edu/4Cc8

9:15-10:45am

IUB AAU Program Panel

Stacie King, Department of Anthropology
Jon Macy, Department of Applied Health Science
David Polly, Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences
Amy Holtzworth-Munroe Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences

Faculty members from participating IU Bloomington graduate programs in the Career Pathways Initiative will share their experiences in the project. Focusing on a conversational discussion of their main positive takeaways and challenges, they will share: 1) why their program joined the initiative and what they wanted out of the project; 2) what their graduate program tried; and 3) what their program department discovered, what was a disappointment, and what lessons were learned.

Whittenberger Auditorium, Indiana Memorial Union

or Zoom: https://go.iu.edu/4Cc8

11:00am-12:00pm

Keynote: The Sky’s The Limit

Dr. Sarah Pietraszek-Mattner, O&G Geoscientist, Manager and Executive, ExxonMobil

The traditional academic career path for PhDs now shares the field with numerous options. Sarah talks about her career journey in industry and how she used her PhD to get her there. She also talks about what makes a PhD so special outside of academia, and how to highlight those experiences as you design your own career.

Whittenberger Auditorium, Indiana Memorial Union

or Zoom: https://go.iu.edu/4Cc8

12:00-1:00

Lunch (registration closed)

Frangipani Room (RSVPs closed), Indiana Memorial Union

1:15-3:30pm

Life as a Postdoc Outreach Session

Lead by Biology postdoctoral scholar Canan Karakoç, current IU postdocs will give short presentations about their lives as postdocs, what their research is about, how they chose their career paths, and what they love (and hate) most about it! They will have 7 minutes (+ 3 min for questions) to present to a broad audience in a fun and informal way, and there is no limit for creativity! Light snacks provided. Sponsored by the Postdoctoral Association of IU Bloomington.

Walnut Room, Tree Suites, Indiana Memorial Union

1:15-2:15pm

Enhancing PhD Career and Professional Development Supports in your Department

With representatives from departments in the Humanities, Social Sciences, and STEMfields who have taken innovative approaches insupport of graduate student career andprofessional development, this panel will share the processes used to create newopportunities and specialized programming at the department level. Resources, such as internship networks, external collaborations, and field-specific Professionalization Workshop Series, will be discussed, and the keynote speaker will offer her perspective as to the utility of such efforts for PhD professional development outside of an academic context. Facilitated by Walter Center Graduate Career Coach Trevor Verrot.

Redbud Room, Tree Suites, Indiana Memorial Union

1:15-2:15pm

Tell us about your PhD research...in three minutes!

This workshop will help graduate students and postdoctoral scholars hone the key messages about their research for specific audiences and purposes. Participants will learn how to incorporate concepts about theme, storytelling, visuals, and social presence into an engaging research summary. Our 2022 winner of the IU Three Minute Thesis competition, Vic Overdorf, will share their experiences and tips for creating a compelling overview of their research. Facilitated by Drs. Katie Kearns (University Graduate School) and Sean Sidky (Writing Tutorial Services).

Maple Room, Tree Suites, Indiana Memorial Union

or Zoom: https://go.iu.edu/4CbY

2:30-3:30pm

Post-graduation Outcomes for PhD Recipients

Vice Provost for Graduate Education David Daleke and Senior Assistant Vice Provost for Undergraduate Education Linda Shepard invite participants to a take a closer look at career outcomes data for IU PhD students. What do we know about the career pathways of our graduates after the dissertation? In this highly interactive session, we will cover a range of topics about doctoral awardees such as student debt, employment rates, employers, salaries, with various breakdowns like student demographic or discipline. Information will be shared using dashboards designed for the campus, enabling further exploration of trends with departmental colleagues. Comments will be encouraged. The resources for this session include NACE First Destination Survey (2014-2021), and two newly acquired data sources presented here for the first time, IU responses to the Survey of Earned Doctorates from 2016 to 2020 and Academic Analytics data purchased for graduates between 2000 to 2020.

Redbud Room, Tree Suites, Indiana Memorial Union

2:30-3:30pm

Mentoring for grad school and career options too

We will discuss ways of improving mentorship of graduate students for success in graduate school and for a wide range of careers paths beyond. Dr. Doug Edmonds and graduate student Anne Kort, both from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, will lead the discussion and include examples from their graduate program.

Maple Room, Tree Suites, Indiana Memorial Union

Learn More

For questions about the event, contact Katie Kearns at kkearns@iu.edu or Jeff Rutherford at jruther@iu.edu.

AAU PhD Education Initiative

Program overview

Long-Term Initiative Goals

Administration and Participating Departments

PhD Career Diversity Symposium

Symposium Program

Event Program

Learn More

The University Graduate School resources and social media channels