Created in April 2019 by 28 Founding Member Organizations, the Action Collaborative grew out of a desire among higher education institutions to collaborate and learn from each other as they worked to act on the findings and recommendations from the National Academies’ 2018 Sexual Harassment of Women report. The Collaborative quickly grew to over 55 member organizations and in 2020 it further expanded with the creation of a Partner Network that allows organizations beyond higher education institutions to share with and learn from the Action Collaborative Members. In the first four years of the Action Collaborative, it has informed significant policy changes, released a series of publications, developed a first of its kind resource repository, and held bi-annual meetings that draw hundreds from across the landscape of higher education.

In consultation with interested higher education institutions, the Collaborative was created to address sexual harassment across many sectors within higher education. This includes various disciplines and fields (not just STEM); the overlapping settings or communities (e.g. classroom, lab, office, department, school, and university-wide); and the multiple populations within campus hierarchies (e.g. undergraduate student, graduate student, teaching assistant, research assistant, post-doctoral fellow, interns, residents, junior faculty, senior faculty, staff, senior administrator, etc.). In addition, the Action Collaborative takes into account research showing that some groups of people experience more sexual harassment than others and some groups experience sexual harassment compounded with other forms of illegal harassment, such as race-based harassment (NASEM 2018). Based on the feedback and consultation with higher education institutions, the Action Collaborative has the following structure:

Member Organizations: Between 50 and 60 Member Organizations provide financial support for the Collaborative, share about the individual work they are doing, and work together through four working groups to gather information and develop resources for the broader higher education community. View participants below.

Partner Network Organizations: To capture and integrate the knowledge from more stakeholders, and to share innovative ideas and promising practices across the higher education ecosystem, a Partner Network allows higher education-focused organizations to contribute to the goals of the Collaborative and to share about their individual efforts, but without the financial commitment or collaborative opportunities that Members Organizations have. View participants below.

Convening Events: To collaborate and share, the Action Collaborative meets twice a year. In the spring the member organizations convene for a Members Meeting. In the fall the Collaborative holds a large Public Summit. View events.

Leadership Committee: To ensure that the work of the Collaborative reaches senior leaders at the member organizations and reflects the realities of making organizational change in higher education, the Collaborative is guided and overseen by a Leadership Committee of appointed leaders from higher education. View leadership committee members below.

Advisory Committee: To ensure the work of the Collaborative aligns with current research, is reflective of the experiences of survivors, and is consistent with the National Academies 2018 Sexual Harassment of Women report, the Collaborative includes an Advisory Committee that provides advice and information to National Academies staff. The committee consists of appointed individuals who are researchers, experts, advocates for survivors, and non-profit leaders. View advisory committee members below.

Beyond those formally involved in the Action Collaborative, we also work to engage and provide space for those with experiences of sexual harassment, other stakeholders, other higher education institutions and organizations, and policymakers to contribute to, influence, inform, and learn from the work of the Action Collaborative. To learn more about this see our Statement on Participants in the Action Collaborative.

Action Collaborative member organizations participate in projects within one of four Working Groups focused on Prevention, Response, Remediation, and Evaluation. Individuals in the Working Group projects generally meet virtually once a month to:

• Identify promising practices within and beyond their institutions, and across different types of academic institutions

• Engage and learn from research experts and practitioners

• Identify on-the-ground barriers, unintended consequences, and challenges that arise with changes to practices

• Call out areas in need of research

 As they do this work and gather information about research and practices, they take into account: applicable federal and state level laws and regulations; the role of power dynamics between individuals and stakeholder groups within higher education; how  different groups of people experience more sexual harassment or multiple forms of harassment (NASEM 2018); and the differences across types of academic institutions (e.g. community colleges, technical colleges, large public and private universities, research universities, and liberal arts colleges).

• Prevention Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment

• Response Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment

• Remediation Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment

• Evaluation Working Group of the Action Collaborative on Preventing Sexual Harassment