Marie Fielder Center

Externally Funded Projects

The Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL) is a research center designed to explore and codify findings on the academic leadership styles and strategies that have resulted in significant successes by Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in broadening participation in the STEM fields.


Orlando Taylor

The Marie Fielder Center seeks to advance its mission through the development and funding of projects that advance democracy, leadership, and education.  To date, the Center has hosted projects funded by both public and private agencies.

Several major projects have been funded by the National Science Foundation (2016 – present):

Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL)

The Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL) is a research center designed to explore and codify findings on the academic leadership styles and strategies that have resulted in significant successes by Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) in broadening participation in the STEM fields.  Fielding’s participation in this initiative is further described here and on the project’s website (http://www.advancingstemleadership.net).

Conclave Leadership Academy

The Conclave Leadership Academy program is a collaboration with the Society of STEM Women of Color, which brings leadership development opportunities to the annual assembly of STEM faculty women of color convened by the Society.  Fielding’s participation in this initiative is further described here.

OURS (Opportunities for Underrepresented Scholars)

Now complete, the OURS (Opportunities for Underrepresented Scholars) project provided an academic leadership graduate certificate to STEM women faculty at Tribal Colleges and Universities.  (This project continued an earlier project funded at another institution that also served HBCU women.)  Fielding’s participation in this initiative is further described here.

Privately funded projects include the following grants:

The Kettering Foundation in 2016 funded a project to produce an extensive essay on the genesis of current racial and ethnic tensions in the U.S. through various theoretical and media lenses and to propose new approaches for communities to consider to mitigate them.  This project involved Fielding faculty from several programs as well as Fielder Graduate Fellow Susan Eddington as a research assistant.  You can read the report produced by this project here.

MEMO on Racial and Ethnic Tensions

Marie Fielder Center for Democracy, Leadership, and Education

View Document
Memo on Racial Tension

About Dr. Marie Fielder

Dr. Marie Fielder was one of the most influential women in the history of California education.

Dr. Marie Fielder was one of the most influential women in the history of California education. Through her vision and commitment to justice throughout her lifetime and 60-year career, Dr. Fielder inspired many and left an indelible mark on the entire nation.
She was the first African American woman with a doctorate to teach in the San Francisco Bay Area and one of the first researchers who documented cultural bias in IQ tests. She helped the Berkeley public schools become the first in the nation to desegregate through two-way busing—one of her proudest accomplishments. She was also a member of the Founding Board of Trustees at Fielding.

In the 1960s and 1970s, Dr. Fielder contributed to the work of such civil rights leaders as Martin Luther King Jr. and Whitney Young. She also advised numerous government and civil-rights organizations.

Marie Fielder

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