WORKSHOPS
The Equity in Graduate Education Resource Center offers professional and organizational development opportunities that foster reflection, healthy discussion, and practical strategies for equitably recruiting, admitting, and serving students.
Our team of diverse facilitators from across the country translates the social science of graduate education into accessible language, interactive activities, and tools. A mix of individual and organizational learning will allow you to begin immediately implementing changes to policies and practices.
Workshops are primarily delivered online, though in-person delivery may be accommodated with advance scheduling and the coverage of associated travel costs.
These workshops were developed as part of research-practice partnership funded by the National Science Foundation and the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. All workshops have been updated in 2025.
Available Workshops
BEST PRACTICES IN GRADUATE ADMISSIONS
Traditional admissions practices do not consistently predict who will be successful in graduate school and may create legal exposure for universities. In this workshop, updated in 2025, participants will learn current data and research about best practices in graduate admissions, including limitations of the traditional process, the benefits of holistic review, and practices for thoughtfully redesigning one’s process in light of current institutional pressures.
This one-hour workshop can stand alone or be used as a foundation for the Strategies for Holistic Review. Content is suitable for anyone but is especially encouraged for departmental teams that are involved with graduate admissions, including faculty and administrators.
STRATEGIES FOR HOLISTIC REVIEW
Successful implementation of holistic admissions benefits from mission-driven intentionality from application design, to the selection of criteria, to review and decision-making procedures. In this workshop, which has been updated in 2025, participants build upon the content from the Best Practices Workshop to assess their current admissions practices, develop an evaluation rubric that they can put to use, and anticipate common challenges that may arise when changing admissions practices.
This 2-hour workshop is designed to be the second part of our two-part Equity in Graduate Admissions series. Content is suitable for leaders in graduate education admissions (faculty, administrators).
ALIGNING RECRUITMENT AND ADMISSIONS
Faculty can play an important role in broadening applicant pools and recruiting prospective graduate students, although their default may not be to view it as their role to do so. In this workshop, participants will learn recruitment practices and tools, engage in activities that clarify the potential of faculty to make a positive recruitment difference, and help them begin to construct a department recruitment plan that is aligned with their admissions rubric.
This 2-hour online workshop is designed to either stand alone or follow our two-part Equity in Graduate Admissions workshop series. Content is suitable for leaders in graduate education admissions (faculty, administrators).
DESIGNING, IMPLEMENTING, AND REFINING EVALUATION RUBRICS
Like all tools, how evaluation rubrics are designed and put to use matters for the outcomes that can be expected from using them. In this workshop, participants will delve into best practices for developing or refining admissions rubrics to be aligned with other elements of the selection process, organizational values, and the current legal landscape.
This 2-hour workshop is designed to either stand alone or as the first workshop in our three-part Equitable Selections Systems series. Content is suitable for leaders in graduate education admissions (faculty, administrators).
WRITING AND REVIEWING LETTERS OF RECOMMENDATION
Letters of recommendation are a standard element of both admissions and hiring processes for which there are many unspoken standards. In this workshop, participants will learn to deconstruct the purposes and problems of letters of recommendation. They will become attuned to subtle biases that can come through in letters and engage in activities to develop habits for more thoughtfully writing and reviewing them.
This 1.5-hour online workshop is designed to either stand alone or as the second workshop in our three-part Equitable Selection Systems series. Content is suitable for both writers and reviewers of letters of recommendation (faculty, administrators).
RETHINKING APPLICANT STATEMENTS AND INTERVIEWS
The highly subjective nature of assessing what constitutes “quality” in applicant statements and interviews may invite bias into the selection process. In this workshop, participants will examine how applicant statements and interviews can contribute to or reproduce inequities, and gain practice in redesigning application statement prompts and interviews to leverage equity-minded values.
This 2-hour workshop is designed to either stand alone or as the third workshop in our three-part Equitable Selections Systems series. Content is suitable for leaders in graduate education admissions (faculty, administrators).
SYSTEMIC CHANGE IN GRADUATE EDUCATION
Driving and sustaining institutional change takes an understanding of how culture is inherited and embedded in standard practices. In this workshop, participants will discuss positive case studies of academic departments and graduate programs that have made and sustained systemic change, and apply these lessons to developing their own coordinated approaches to recognizing culture and work and making change in their own departments.
This 2-hour workshop is designed to either stand alone or complement our other workshops on admissions, recruitment, and mentoring. Content is suitable for leaders in graduate education programs (faculty, administrators).
INTRODUCTION TO EQUITY-MINDED MENTORING
Mentorship impacts students’ academic experiences, sense of belonging, and scholarly identity development. In this workshop, we introduce a model of mentorship that considers both dyadic and organizational dynamics that can affect students. Participants will reflect on standard approaches to advising and mentorship, participate in activities that develop competencies, and learn about tools to ensure alignment on mentor-mentee expectations.
This 2-hour online workshop is designed to either stand alone or as the first workshop in our three-part Mentoring and Wellbeing Series. Content is suitable for a variety of audiences (faculty, administrators, graduate students/postdocs).
FOSTERING WELLBEING IN MENTORING ENVIRONMENTS
While some stress and uncertainty is unavoidable in graduate training, research mentor behaviors can impact the wellbeing of members of their research groups. In this workshop, participants will develop the skills to recognize and have open conversations about mental health and wellbeing with their research mentees.
This 2-hour online workshop is designed to either stand alone or as the second workshop in our three-part Mentoring and Wellbeing series. Content is suitable for a variety of audiences (faculty, administrators, graduate students/postdocs).
CREATING CULTURES OF MENTORING & WELLBEING
An often overlooked strategy for enhancing student and faculty wellbeing is attending to the design of organizational environments where learning and work occur, such as labs, graduate programs, and universities. In this workshop, participants will learn how to proactively build cultures that elevate mentoring and wellbeing in their labs or graduate programs. Activities include conducting an organizational culture self-assessments and lab manuals or graduate program handbooks.
This 2-hour online workshop is designed to either stand alone or as the third workshop in our three-part Mentoring and Wellbeing series. Content is suitable for a variety of audiences (faculty, administrators, graduate students/postdocs).
CurRent Facilitators
