  {"id":14,"date":"2023-02-13T15:34:37","date_gmt":"2023-02-13T20:34:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/new.umaine.edu\/empower\/?page_id=14"},"modified":"2025-10-03T09:46:23","modified_gmt":"2025-10-03T13:46:23","slug":"about-us","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/about-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Program History"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>The EMPOWER program reflects a multi-leveled collaboration between faculty, administrators, and leadership at the University of Maine. The seeds of the project lay in productive discussions across the year 2020 between the Vice President for Research, the Provost, College Deans, and members of the Faculty Senate Research and Scholarship Committee. Recognizing a gap in faculty mentoring culture at 91¸£Àû that emerged in the winding down of the Rising Tide Center (originally funded by an NSF ADVANCE grant), these parties articulated a vision for a mentoring and research support program.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The goal for this program is clear: help faculty, especially faculty identifying as members of historically underrepresented groups, thrive at the University of Maine.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The EMPOWER program, as launched in early 2021, is modeled directly on a successful program bearing the same name with a decade-long history at Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis (IUPUI). One of the architects of that program, Assistant Vice Chancellor for Research and Development Etta Ward, was involved in early discussions with the 91¸£Àû team spearheading the effort. A former colleague of Vice President Varahramyan, she generously shared IUPUI\u2019s experiences and provided a framework for 91¸£Àû\u2019s program. <\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"238\" src=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-1024x238.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-254\" srcset=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-1024x238.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-300x70.jpg 300w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-768x178.jpg 768w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-1536x356.jpg 1536w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-2048x475.jpg 2048w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-105x24.jpg 105w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-317x74.jpg 317w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-423x98.jpg 423w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-634x147.jpg 634w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-846x196.jpg 846w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-951x221.jpg 951w, https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/646\/2024\/02\/EMPOWER-24-1268x294.jpg 1268w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 320px) 85vw, (max-width: 768px) 67vw, (max-width: 1024px) 62vw,1024px\" \/><\/figure><\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The EMPOWER program reflects a multi-leveled collaboration between faculty, administrators, and leadership at the University of Maine. The seeds of the project lay in productive discussions across the year 2020 between the Vice President for Research, the Provost, College Deans, and members of the Faculty Senate Research and Scholarship Committee. Recognizing a gap in faculty [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":478,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"_kad_blocks_custom_css":"","_kad_blocks_head_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_body_custom_js":"","_kad_blocks_footer_custom_js":"","_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-14","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.2 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Program History - EMPOWER Faculty Mentorship Experience<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/umaine.edu\/empower\/about-us\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Program History - EMPOWER Faculty Mentorship Experience\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The EMPOWER program reflects a multi-leveled collaboration between faculty, administrators, and leadership at the University of Maine. The seeds of the project lay in productive discussions across the year 2020 between the Vice President for Research, the Provost, College Deans, and members of the Faculty Senate Research and Scholarship Committee. 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