Purpose: Within the scope of broadening participation and developing diverse talents in STEM leadership, this paper aims to deliver a research study that explores faculty leaders' caring intelligence as STEM leadership intelligence. STEM leadership intelligence is the knowledge, skills, traits and aptitude essential to effective leadership in STEM education. Design/methodology/approach: A previously developed STEM caring-oriented academic managerial leadership framework (SCAMLF) and a typology of STEM faculty leadership styles were used to thematically analyze the caring intelligence and leadership qualities of STEM faculty leaders. Interview transcripts of 18 STEM faculty leaders at Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), provided by the Center for the Advancement of STEM Leadership (CASL), were used as data in this study. Findings: The empirical evidence gained from this study highlighted important themes, descriptors and narratives for exploring caring intelligence and leadership intelligence of STEM faculty leadership in HBCUs. Research limitations/implications: Although the generalizability of the study is limited because of the sample size, STEM caring was found to be the most common dimension present in the reflections of participating STEM faculty leaders with diverse leadership styles. Implications for future research on STEM leadership intelligence were discussed. Originality/value: Studying caring intelligence as a form of leadership intelligence provides a new and innovative means of assessing STEM leadership intelligence. Caring intelligence can be employed to predict the mindset, performance and behaviors of STEM faculty leaders.