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ADVANCE SPACES
NSF ADVANCE SPACES (Strategic Partnership for Alignment of Community Engagement in STEM) is a partnership among 14 colleagues from a11 academic institutions across the United States and four core professional societies in environmental engineering.
Its purpose is to advance women and underrepresented racial and ethnic minority women in academic science and engineering careers. NSF ADVANCE SPACES is a four-year, collaborative project funded by the National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE Program.
The SPACES project aims to identify, understand, and minimize the loss of women faculty through targeted activities and by leveraging the deep, interconnected leadership team and our core professional societies. The SPACES project team includes recent presidents of these societies, environmental engineering department or program leaders, department heads, engineering deans, and national leaders in community-engaged research and equity initiatives.
Our Products
Hobbs et al. 2026 “Focus on Innovation in Environmental Engineering for Community-Engaged Research” Environ. Res. Lett. 21 060201; DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ae5313. [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ae5313]
Bielefeldt, A.R. 2025. Women having their say: Experiences of hierarchical microaggressions. American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference & Exposition. 19 pp. DOI 10.18260/1-2--57468. [https://peer.asee.org/57468]
Bielefeldt, A.R. 2025. Coming to America and helping communities: Stories from women in academia. American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference & Exposition. 18 pp. DOI 10.18260/1-2--56113. [https://peer.asee.org/coming-to-america-and-helping-communities-stories-from-women-in-academia]
Bielefeldt, A.R. 2025. Community engaged researchers share insights into successes and cautions [Traditional research paper]. American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference & Exposition. 18 pp. DOI 10.18260/1-2--56117. [https://peer.asee.org/community-engaged-researchers-share-insights-into-successes-and-cautions-traditional-research-paper]
Bielefeldt, A.R., S. Davis. 2025. ‘I cannot relate’: The importance of socioeconomic status in the journeys of women of color in academia (Research). American Society for Engineering Education (ASEE) Annual Conference & Exposition. 20 pp. DOI 10.18260/1-2--55315. [https://peer.asee.org/i-cannot-relate-the-importance-socioeconomic-status-in-the-journeys-of-women-of-color-in-academia-research]
Bielefeldt A.R., Montoya L.D., Chavira G., Ferro A.R. (2025). Perceptions of the Value of Community-Engaged Research in the Promotion and Tenure Process for Environmental Engineering and Science Faculty, in press, Journal of Women and Minorities in Science and Engineering. 31(4):1–28 DOI:10.1615/JWomenMinorScienEng.2024050820. [https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/00551c876cc2f027,353f1d0236464a70,74d956c127384787.html]
Martin, P. J. J., Wen, Y., Woods, A., Fayida, T., & Hobbs, S. (2024). Exploring pesticide transport, groundwater, and environmental justice in a changing climate: A community engaged research approach. Environmental Research Letters.19 094009, DOI 10.1088/1748-9326/ad67f3 [https://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1748-9326/ad67f3]
Community Engaged Research Rubric
| 10 Elements | Below Expectations | Meets Expectations | Exceeds Expectations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1. Centering on Communities | |||
| 2. Shared Leadership | |||
| 3. Capacity Building | |||
| 4. Shared Funding | |||
| 5. Shared Data | |||
| 6. Equitable Valuing of Community Knowledge | |||
| 7. Equitable valuing of CER Scholarship | |||
| 8. Action Oriented Outcomes | |||
| 9. Culturally Specific Communication & Dissemination | |||
| 10. Culturally Specific Assessment |
The rubric above can be used to guide and/or evaluate community engagement by academics; meeting or exceeding the outlined elements distinguishes Community-Engaged Research from other types of engagement, such as Service Learning. Adapted from Bielefeldt (2024.)
Have you written an article, produced a tool, or are currently conducting work in the Community Engaged Research space? Please write to us to share your resources or collaborate. Email: spaces@clarkson.edu
CONTACT US: If you have questions about the NSF ADVANCE Partnership SPACES program, please email spaces@clarkson.edu.
What Is Community-Engaged Research?
Community-engaged researchers work together with people from a community to solve issues associated with the health and well-being of the community. These issues are often related to environmental exposures to pollutants and related health effects.
Community-engaged researchers repeatedly have the rigor of their scholarly activities questioned or discounted as service during annual review, tenure, and promotion evaluations. This systemic undervaluation of their research contributes to the attrition of many women who enter engineering motivated to address societally important problems. The personal and societal costs of their contributions and the associated innovative, effective engineering solutions for underserved communities are enormous.
Participating Institutions and Societies
Institutions participating in ADVANCE SPACES include: Clarkson University (lead), University of Arizona, University of California Berkeley, University of California Irvine, University of Colorado Boulder, University of Miami, University of South Florida, California State University Northridge, Michigan State University, San Jose State University, and Syracuse University.
The core participating professional societies include: the American Academy of Environmental Engineers and Scientists (AAEES), the American Association for Aerosol Research (AAAR), the Association of Environmental Engineering and Science Professors (AEESP), and the Water Environment Federation (WEF).