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This is my last column as editor of “Reference Serials.” All correspondence regarding this column should now be sent to the new editor: Virginia A. Gilbert, Editor, “Reference Serials,” Reference Services Review, 117 Perkins Library, Duke University, Durham, NC 27706.

The purpose of this paper is to examine two types of departmental interventions focused on creating healthier and more equitable academic departments as well as enhancing faculty members’ capacity for collective dialogue, goals and work. Both interventions were informed by the “dual-agenda” approach and focused on targeted academic units over a prolonged period.

This paper uses a variety of qualitative and quantitative data (including National Science Foundation (NSF) ADVANCE indicator data) to assess the potential of dual-agenda informed interventions in reducing gendered structures and gendered dynamics.

The authors outline essential components of a dual-agenda model for maximizing success in creating more gender equitable work organizations and discuss why the authors are more optimistic about the dual-agenda approaches than many past researchers have been in terms of the potential of the dual-agenda model for promoting more equal opportunities in work organizations.

Most previous dual-agenda projects referenced in the literature have been carried out in non-academic contexts. The projects examined here, however, were administered in the context of multiple academic departments at two medium-sized, public US universities. Although other NSF ADVANCE institutional transformation institutions have included extensive department-focused transformation efforts (e.g. Brown University, Purdue University and Syracuse University), the long-term benefits of these efforts are not yet fully understood; nor have systematic comparisons been made across institutions.

Supporting the advancement of science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) in ways that help to ensure the health, prosperity, welfare and security of the nation has been central to the mission of the US National Science Foundation (NSF) since 1950, the year Congress created the agency. Preparing a highly qualified and diverse STEM workforce plays a central role in supporting this mission. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Over the past several decades, many positive steps have been taken throughout the US education system to help ensure a more diverse STEM workforce. Even so, women remain underrepresented among STEM faculty in higher education, especially at the upper ranks. Contributing to women’s underrepresentation are systemic obstacles to the recruitment, retention and promotion of women of different racial, ethnic, disability, sexual orientations and nationality statuses.

The NSF ADVANCE Program is designed to address these barriers. Success for ADVANCE is, therefore, best defined in terms of the changes made to the structures and climates of academic workplaces, rather than in numbers of women hired, retained or promoted in any one institution at a given point in time.

This introduction briefly examines the origins of ADVANCE, key transitions in the program over time, its reach nationally and internationally, and its future.

This chapter juxtaposes human trafficking of children by their families with structural disadvantage characterizing cycles of violence to suggest that carceral approaches alone cannot break trajectories of crime. It highlights contexts where familial violence is culturally normalized and where the victim–offender binary is challenged. The devadasi system in a district in the Northern region of the State of Karnataka, India, and stories of women and communities in urban India provide a context for the discussion. This chapter posits the need to explore community corrections, restorative and transitional justice, and social justice in criminal justice administration to build safe families and communities for children.