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Hispanic Serving Institution Pathways to the Professoriate


In 2016, Northwestern began a pipeline partnership with The Penn Center for Minority Serving Institutions as one of five Majority Research Institutions (MRIs) participating in the Hispanic Serving Institution Pathways to the Professoriate (HSI Pathways) program.

The goal of HSI Pathways is to increase the number of Hispanic/Latino professors in Humanities disciplines at colleges and universities in the United States. Northwestern is one of five institutions chosen to take part in this $5 million grant from the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. Our partnership with HSI Pathways will support the University’s continued efforts to improve the diversity of Northwestern’s graduate community. The program will prepare ninety students from HSIs for doctoral programs over a five year period. HSI Pathways fellows will participate in a summer research program with cross institutional conferences; and also receive mentoring, professional development, networking opportunities, and support with graduate school applications.

Five Northwestern faculty members were selected as HSI Pathways mentors, to support the research development and graduate school preparation of students in the program: 

TGS Associate Dean for Diversity and Inclusion, Damon L. Williams will partner with HSI site coordinators to ensure the program’s success.