Recruiting new RAISE faculty to help address race-related social disparities

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The Ohio State University has announced additional faculty positions to be created under the RAISE (Race, Inclusion and Social Equity) initiative, whose research can help to address racial and social disparities.

In autumn 2022, the university’s Office of Academic Affairs approved 22 additional faculty positions. In total, 47 tenure-track positions have been approved through RAISE in less than a year, nearly matching the goal of 50 faculty members for the program. RAISE faculty will focus on topics such as health outcomes, educational equity, economic opportunity, environment impacts, justice and public safety, as well in the arts.

Proposals were approved in each of the six RAISE research areas. The College of Engineering is involved in two.

Racial Equity by Design

The College of Engineering will recruit new faculty members whose research addresses bias and inequity in engineering design, as manifested in areas such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, human-centric computing, robotics, circuits, electronic devices, feedback control, and technology for social justice. This research will contribute to a culture, in both undergraduate instruction and graduate student mentoring, in which equity is embraced as a foundational component of the design process. Positions involved: 3.

Addressing Social Determinants of Health as a Path to Health Equity

Five Ohio State colleges will recruit an interdisciplinary team of faculty researchers who will seek to address the impact of social determinants of health—such as socioeconomic, environmental, and community factors—on vulnerable and disenfranchised communities. Their research will help inform strategies, screening tools and interventions to address health disparities among patients and communities. Faculty appointments will be in the Colleges of Arts & Sciences (Psychology), Engineering (Computer Science and Engineering), Medicine (Division of Cancer Prevention and Control), Nursing, and Public Health (Division of Health Behavior and Health Promotion). Positions involved: 3.

Other approved proposals include:

  • Advancing Racial Minority Economic and Business Opportunity (Fisher College of Business)
  • Precision Nutrition: Integrated Biomedical Approaches for Mitigating Health Disparities in Underserved Populations (Colleges of Education and Human Ecology and College of Medicine)
  • Global Black Music Studies (College of Arts and Sciences)
  • Race, Economic Equity, and Financial Inclusion Across the Life Course (College of Arts and Sciences, John Glenn College of Public Affairs)
  • Understanding and Addressing the Social Determinants of Environmental Injustices through Community-Based Approaches to Applying Geospatial and Biological Data (Colleges of Arts and Sciences, Public Health and Social Work)

Colleges will begin recruiting prospective faculty for these positions, with the first cohort of RAISE faculty expected to join the university in autumn 2023. For more information about these and previously approved proposals, visit the RAISE webpage.

RAISE is part of a broader university initiative to add 350 tenure-track faculty within a decade, while also enhancing academic and personal resources to support Ohio State scholars, educators and practitioners through all phases of their careers.

The College of Engineering also received funding to hire one tenure-track faculty member in two separate RAISE cohorts announced in January. Recruitment for these positions is in progress.