The American Association of University Women (AAUW) is committed to advancing diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) through all aspects of its Fellowships and Grants programs. As part of this commitment, AAUW seeks to strengthen both the consistency and equity of its application review process. To support this effort, AAUW is seeking a consultant to design and deliver tailored implicit bias and equitable review training for both application reviewers and panelists, while also reviewing and strengthening the evaluation rubrics that guide funding decisions. This work will address how bias can influence decision-making at multiple stages of review and ensure that evaluation criteria and scoring practices promote fairness, transparency, and consistency. In addition to training delivery, this engagement is intended to build AAUW staff capacity to develop, assess, and refine evaluation rubrics using equity-centered frameworks over time. The consultant will ground all work in AAUW’s specific processes, materials, and observed challenges to ensure relevance, practical application and long-term impact.
Note on terms: “Application reviewers” refer to reviewers who conduct a first round of eligibility checks for applications.
“Panelists” or “Panel reviewers” refer to reviewers who conduct a technical scoring of an application based on merit and make recommendations to AAUW on which applications to fund.