CWD's History

CWD was originally WISE, Women in Science and Engineering, an organization devoted to increasing the success of women in the STEM fields. WiSE examined the impact of mentoring on female students' retention, which revealed that students participating in the professional mentoring program is 97%, in contrast to the average national retention rate of 55%.

The research in this area led to funding from the National Science Foundation and the Department of Education, FIPSE, for the development, pilot-testing and evaluation of a curriculum for training mentors and mentees. Over 350 institutions in the United States and several around the world have now adopted this curriculum.

WISE received the prestigious White House 1998 Presidential Award of Excellence in Science, Engineering and Mathematics Mentoring and the 1998 WEPAN National Women in Engineering Program Award.

In 1999, CWD branched out of WISE to focus on research related to issues of diversity in STEM. In 2005, CWD became a completely separate, independent administrative entity.