Leading the way

PULSE assists life sciences departments at all institutions of higher education align with national education reform initiatives.

The PULSE Vision is an educated citizenry that routinely applies scientific knowledge, reasoning, and creative insight to address real-world challenges.

PULSE originated in October 2012 as an initiative launched by the National Science Foundation (NSF), the Howard Hughes Medical Institute (HHMI), and the National Institute for General Medical Sciences (NIGMS/NIH). Forty Vision and Change Leadership Fellows were selected from a pool of applicants that had demonstrated leadership experience and experience as change agents in STEM education at Associate’s, Baccalaureate, Master’s and Doctoral/research universities. The Fellows developed programs that currently serve institutions of higher education across the United States.

We transitioned to a tax-exempt, educational non-profit in 2016. Since our founding in 2012, we have recruited two rounds of new Fellows, and have engaged more than 300 departments/institutions in our programs. Our programs were initiated with grant funding, and we continue to have limited support from several different educational funding programs. These programs are now supported by charging fees to participant institutions. We seek to offer our programs to any institution regardless of ability to pay, so continue to seek financial support from public and private sources, including individual donations.

Learn more here

Transform your department

The Ambassadors Program facilitates discussions in biology and life science departments that aids them in implementing the recommendations of Vision and Change.

Get Your Program Recognized

The PULSE Recognition Program honors participating departments for their achievements using a progression-level model similar to LEED recognition.

Find Your Community

Regional communities of practice and workshops are run by PULSE networks throughout the United States, allowing communities of practice and work together.

The PULSE Ambassadors Program is currently supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) RCN-UBE award 1624182, with previous support under EAGER award 1355771.

Any opinions, findings, conclusions, or recommendations contained within pulseambassadors.org are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of NSF.