CREW Representative Highlight | Late Fall 2020

The Council for the Representation & Engagement of Women Faculty (CREW) serves as an advisory council to the AdvanceRIT in support of the career success of women faculty at the Rochester Institute of Technology.

The Mission of the Council for the Representation & Engagement of Women is to support, retain and promote career success of women faculty at RIT. To achieve its mission, the team will:

• Identify and support effective strategies and activities that promote career success of women faculty
• Assist women faculty in finding and developing networks
• Promote leadership development and mentoring activities for women faculty
• Provide support needed for women faculty to be successful through tenure and promotion
• Communicate and collaborate with other groups concerned with gender and diversity
• Identify the issues that women faculty face and develop actions to address these issues
• Facilitate awareness among administration and the university regarding these issues
• Make recommendations to leadership on studies or actions needed to address particular issues needed to create an academic environment that fosters the academic success of women faculty at RIT

We would like to feature two of the longest members of CREW: 

Makini Beck is an Assistant Professor in the School of Individualized Study. Her interests include narrative inquiry, teaching diverse learners, mentoring women of color in academic, and spirituality as a pedagogical practice. She has been at RIT since 2013 and has mentorship experience in navigating the RIT academic landscape. She aspires to one day be tenured faculty and to own her own school. One of her favorite words of wisdom comes from Winston Churchill “Never, never, never give up!” 

Heidi Nickisher is a Principal Lecturer in the School of Art. Her interests lie in 18/19th century European Art, Latin American Art, history of ceramics, and the intersection of women and gender studies with artistic production. Heidi has been at RIT since 1996 and finds the Eastman Quad as one of the best places on campus. Her mentorship areas include preparing for promotion and supporting intersectional groups such as LGBTQIA, women of color, and deaf/HOH women. She hopes to one day publish a book on Latin American Art and her words of wisdom are “the more things change, the more they remain the same”.