Mission, Vision, and Values

A digital banner with a dark purple background has bright blob shapes in the corners that fade from fuchsia to gold. The header reads Mission, Vision, & Values. To the left of the letters a turquoise icon of a target with an arrow hitting the bullseye.

Our MISSION is to leverage collaboration and work with university faculty and administrative partners to adapt knowledge from NSF ADVANCE programs and other programs for faculty equity in STEM to effect change at SF State. We approach this mission in alignment with the stated MISSION of SF State as an institution that “honors roots, stimulates intellectual and personal development, promotes equity, and inspires the courage to lead, create, and innovate.” 

Our VISION is grounded in feminist intersectionality and structural change. We seek to develop and implement systemic approaches to address faculty gender disparities and dynamics at the intersection of race, ethnicity, and other identities and social positions such as sexuality, nationality, and professional rank and hierarchy for tenure track and contingent faculty. 

We seek to make visible the ordinary formal and informal operation of biases as well as racism, sexism, homophobia, and other systems of power and privilege that embed in academic life as we implement structures that render visible these power relations and support faculty and promote equitable career advancement.

We aspire to:

  • Amplify faculty strengths 
  • Adjust the imbalance of workload performed by women and faculty of color. 
  • Highlight forms of service and leadership often rendered invisible to official structures despite the importance of the work to our students and the career trajectories of faculty.
  • Break the silos and false divisions among service, scholarship, and teaching and understand these as part of an integrated academic and professional career. 
  • Ensure all faculty are accountable for their relationships and especially their privilege.
  • Build coalitions to eradicate biases such as intersectional systems of racism, sexism, and homophobia that continue to shape faculty professions in ways that are clear to many but often officially disregarded. 

Our VALUES are feminist, anti-racist, and intersectional. We value collaboration; we cultivate equity and inclusion. We center and support the STEM faculty's strengths and translate this effort to all our faculty.