Bridging The Gap: Promoting Faculty Diversity to Align With Student Demographics

In many kinesiology and health care science departments in the United States, there is a mismatch between the demographic composition of the student population and the faculty cohort. That is, although student populations are more diverse, the faculty cohort does not reflect this same diversity. The purpose of this paper is threefold: (a) Provide background information on the faculty–student mismatch, (b) discuss reactive strategies to increase diversity among a faculty cohort, and (c) discuss proactive strategies to increase diversity among a faculty cohort. Our approach is pragmatic and concise, which will give the reader various strategies they can incorporate to increase diversity in their faculty cohort.