Sage and the Academic Pipeline Project

By Curtis D. Byrd, cofounder of the Academic Pipeline Project 

The Academic Pipeline Project (APP) is small business cofounded by Curtis D. Byrd and Rihana S. Mason. Sage has partnered with APP for the last two years to provide its external and internal community with professional development webinars and networking opportunities. Here are some things we accomplished:  

• Sage sponsored a series of three impactful webinars to promote our Lever Press book Academic Pipeline Programs: Diversifying the Bachelors to the Professoriate and educate audiences on how to build successful academic pathway programs (archived on Social Science Space). 

• Social Science Space was also used to draw a connection between APP and other organizations with a similar mission.  

• Sage collaborated with APP cofounders to facilitate a set of webinars benefiting the Georgia State University, Social Science and STEM Organizations (WMPD day), and Library communities (Choice Authority File Podcast Series: Preparing Diverse Students for Success in the Academic and Private Sectors).  

• Webinars cocreated for the Georgia State Community included the following titles: Demystifying Academic Processes: From Publishing Your Research to Promoting It and Decolonizing and Decisnormatizing Curricula. 

• The Choice Authority File Podcast series unfolded across four episodes. Discussion topics were: “The PhD Project and GSUs DEI Database,” “The ‘Problem’ of the Leaky Pipeline,” “Fostering DEI in Publishing and Beyond” and “Updating Structures of the Scholarly Ecosystem.”  

• APP worked with Sage to provide internal professional development to its staff. Topics included an overview of the relevance of the Lever Press book and innovative approaches to bring DEI efforts.  

We look forward to continuing to partner with Sage to expand their footprint toward diverse, equitable, inclusive, and sustainable efforts within the academic publishing industry.