Dr. Heather Metcalf

Dr. Heather Metcalf is director of Research and Analysis for the Association for Women in Science (AWIS) where she leads empirical work on gender and the STEM workforce. Her research contributes to the AWIS vision of positive system transformation in STEM.

Heather has undergraduate degrees in applied mathematics and computer science (Clarion University of Pennsylvania, 2003) and holds master’s degrees in computer science (The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, 2005) and gender studies (University of Arizona, 2007). She earned her doctorate from the University of Arizona’s Center for the Study of Higher Education (2011), where she studied higher education science and technology policy.

She utilizes her unique interdisciplinary background to conduct applied research on diversity and equity issues in STEM fields from an intersectionality perspective. Heather holds a patent on unconscious bias training materials for search committees. Throughout her career, her work has influenced change in academic, industry, and public policy spaces and has trained researchers and practitioners on building equity into their daily thought and work. Dr. Metcalf has research, policy, and programmatic expertise on myriad topics in STEM, such as bias; educational and workplace cultures; harassment and discrimination; innovation and entrepreneurship; pathways; workforce development; organizational and systemic change; recruitment and retention; equity across fields, sectors and ranks; mentoring; sense of fit; self-efficacy; federal funding; institutional and federal policy; structural and cultural barriers; and work-life integration.

Among other media outlets and speaking engagements, Heather has appeared on: Public Radio International and The Atlantic to discuss sexism in science; National Public Radio, The Huffington Post, and The Chronicle of Higher Education to provide expertise on harassment in STEM; Forbes to share research on inclusion in STEM entrepreneurship; and Scientific American to offer insights on the policy implications of the GAO’s investigations of gender bias in federal research funding.