The Center for Scholarship, Research, and Professional Development for Women is essential in helping NASPA to optimally implement its mission and achieve its vision as the leading voice for student affairs administration, policy, and practice. When the National Association for Women in Education (NAWE) existed, its mission or purpose was to address education issues relevant to women in student affairs, women in higher education, and women students. With the dissolution of NAWE there was no organization that filled that niche. Through the NASPA Center for Women, the past purposes of NAWE are honored while moving beyond them to address contemporary educational issues. Women's scholarship, research, and professional development are important service niches for NASPA.

The Center for Women targets the following areas:

• The status of women in higher education.

• How to educate women in higher education.

• How to provide for the unique needs of women in higher education.

• What women bring to higher student affairs/higher education.

• Research about women enrolled in higher education.

• Research about women working in student Affairs/higher education.

• Leadership development for women working in student affairs/higher education.

In addition, the Center:

• Serves as an information, networking, and funding resource to support women in producing scholarship in support of student affairs work broadly defined to embrace the mission of higher education

• Offers a professional home in NASPA for women, including leaders in women's centers

• Partners with other organizations who are looking at various issues that affect the education and advancement of women

• Works with graduate faculty who are witnessing the feminization of the field of student affairs

• Publishes an annual journal for scholarship and research on women

• Provides mentoring possibilities for women from the pre-professional to postretirement through the Panel of Listeners program

• Collaborates with other organizations that focus on professional development for women to provide more alternatives for women in Student Affairs