Aspire Regional Collaboratives: A Flexible Model for Cultivating a Diverse and Inclusive STEM Faculty at Community Colleges

The Aspire Regional Collaborative (RC) initiative fosters community college and university partnerships that strengthen pathways to STEM faculty positions in community colleges. In this study, we draw from the designing educational innovation for sustained adoption (DEISA) framework to document the progress of the RC initiative. We examine movement across regional collaboratives from “original” to “desired” states across multiple facets, using a mixed‐methods multiple‐case study approach and data from our embedded evaluation team. Our national coalition of RCs also serves as a community of practice working across multiple crucial intersections—organizational change, cross‐institutional partnerships, the professional development of graduate students, and efforts to build a diverse and inclusive STEM faculty. Model adaptation in a region occurs based on the positionalities of RC co‐leads and specific place‐based affordances and constraints. We intend for this manuscript to support stakeholders committed to building a diverse and inclusive STEM faculty, enabling them to adapt the RC model flexibly to their context.