ADVANCE

Georgia Tech’s ADVANCE Professors Program represents six Colleges and advocates for all faculty. The inter-college network of faculty is housed in the Office of the Provost. The group champions faculty development and success while supporting Georgia Tech’s Strategic Plan Foundational Priorities, which include building a sustainable campus climate that bolsters faculty productivity and well-being.

Vision

To foster a workplace that supports faculty achievement, collaboration, professional growth, and an environment where all Georgia Tech community members thrive.

Goals

Promote transparency in all processes including consistency in the hiring, reappointment, tenure, and promotion process through clear documentation and evaluation practices.  
Advocate for policy and practices that strengthen faculty productivity, career advancement, work-life balance, and in turn, Georgia Tech success.
Facilitate collaboration within and across colleges through strategic partnerships with faculty, academic Deans, and Institute leadership.

August 2025 retreat

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Lauren K. Stewart is the Williams Family Associate Professor and Associate Chair for Graduate Programs in the School of Civil & Environmental Engineering. Her research focuses on the design, testing, and analysis of structures subjected to extreme and high-rate loading—including blast, shock, and impact—with recent work on mass timber systems, ultra-high performance concrete, and the residual capacity of structural connections.

Serving as our ADVANCE Professor is a mechanism to strengthen faculty experiences by advancing transparency, equalizing opportunity, and promoting a shared responsibility for faculty success

Lauren Stewart

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History of ADVANCE in College of Engineering

The ADVANCE Professors Program was established in 2001 through a $3.7 million National Science Foundation (NSF) Institutional Transformation award (#0123532). Georgia Tech was one of nine institutions included in the original grant, which ran through 2006. NSF's goal was to facilitate the advancement of women tenure track faculty, particularly within STEM fields.

Georgia Tech's award was led by former College of Engineering Dean and Provost Jean-Lou Chameau. Co-Principal Investigators included Mary Fox, Sue Rosser, April Brown (a former College faculty member), and Mary Lynn Realff (the director of ADVANCE and current faculty member in the School of Materials Science and Engineering).