Examples of NIGMS-Funded NRSA Training Programs with Notable Records of Diversity Recruitment and Retention

Cynthia C. Morton, Ph.D.
617-525-4535
cmorton@partners.org

Carolyn Machamer, Ph.D.
410-955-1809
machamer@jhmi.edu

Dr. Rajini Rao, Ph.D.
410-955-4732
rrao@jhmi.edu

Robert F. Siliciano, M.D., Ph.D.
410-955-2958
rsiliciano@jhmi.edu

James W. Gober, Ph.D.
310-206-9449
gober@chem.ucla.edu

Arthur Gutierrez-Hartmann, M.D.
303-724-4600
MSTP@ucdenver.edu

Willem (Wilfred) van der Donk, Ph.D.
217-244-5360
vdonk@illinois.edu
http://scs.illinois.edu/cbi

Jessica Schwartz, Ph.D.
734-647-2124
jeschwar@umich.edu

Kevin H. Gardner, Ph.D.
214-645-6365
Kevin.Gardner@UTSouthwestern.edu

Marc D. Binder, Ph.D.
206-543-2509
mbdinder@uw.edu

Dr. David Kimelman, Ph.D.
206-543-5730
Kimelman@u.washington.edu

James B. Skeath, Ph.D.
314-362-0535
jskeath@wustl.edu

Olaf S. Andersen, M.D.
212-746-6023
sparre@med.cornell.edu

Susan Marriott, Ph.D.
713-798-4440
susanm@bcm.edu

Alternate Contacts
Alison Bertuch, M.D., Ph.D., co-director
832-824-4579
abertuch@bcm.edu

David L. Nelson, Ph.D., co-director
713-798-4787
nelson@bcm.edu

Fred Pereira, Ph.D., co-director
713-798-6933
fpereira@bcm.edu

Jue Wang, Ph.D., co-director
713-798-8182
jdwang@bcm.edu

Lourdes A. Fernandez, program administrator
713-798-6557
lourdesf@bcm.edu

Over the past 5 years, the number of URM students in our program has more than doubled to a current total of 19. To date, 4 of these 19 students (21 percent) have received competitive fellowships to support their graduate training. In the past 5 years, six URM students have received a Ph.D. from our program. As seen below, the percentage of URM recruits in any given year is quite variable so consistent effort is needed to maintain the overall percentage.

2005:  5 of 12 (42 percent)
2006:  1 of 9 (1 percent)
2007:  2 of 9 (18 percent)
2008:  5 of 10 (50 percent)
2009:  1 of 9 (11 percent)

• Advertise the program in online resources such as Petersons.com.
• Annual social function between CMB students/faculty and participants of the Summer Medical and Research Training (SMART) Program.
• Annual lunch presentation to PREP students and M.D.-Ph.D. students.
• E-mail contact with students in the CAGT database.
• E-mail to contacts obtained from GRE Search.
• Program administrator and/or program director attend the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) and Society for Advancement of Chicanos and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS) conferences every year.
• Efforts to reach and accommodate individuals with disabilities and from disadvantaged backgrounds at the institutional and program level such as Web page compliance with guidelines set under Section 508 of the Disabilities Act.
• Activities and resources provided to URM students by IMSD program, including student-created and run diversity group.
• We focus our URM recruiting efforts on students with strong letters of recommendation and who have demonstrated an aptitude for research through summer programs or research at their home institution. We find that GRE scores are of little value in predicting the success of URM students in our graduate program. We also try to evaluate the quality of the student’s undergraduate academic preparation by considering the quality of their undergraduate institution and the mentors they have worked with.
• To enhance academic success, we offer a summer pre-matriculation review course to bring students up to a level playing field before classes start.

We try to identify talented students as early as possible through contacts developed at the ABRCMS and SACNAS meetings, the CAGT database and programs that bring URM students to BCM for research training experiences, such as the SMART summer program and PREP post-baccalaureate program. We meet and correspond with these students to encourage them to pursue a graduate education. We also develop relationships with the faculty advisors and program directors from undergraduate institutions that train a high percentage of URM students. Other graduate programs at BCM also have a large number of URM students, which has resulted in a supportive environment, and opportunities to interact with a larger population of students with similar backgrounds and experiences. Our success with recruitment and retention of URM students is a result of broad and persistent program efforts coupled with a very strong commitment from the Graduate School to support these goals.

8 of 46 (17 percent)

Matriculated URMs:
2005:  1 of 12 (8 percent)
2006:  1 of 6 (17 percent)
2007:  1 of 11 (9 percent)
2008:  1 of 9 (11 percent)
2009:  4 of 13 (31 percent)

Over the last several years we have seen a consistent increase in the number of URM applicants to our program. 2005 (4), 2006 (6), 2007 (6), 2008 (8), 2009 (11), 2010 (13)

• We actively participate in a summer medical and research training (SMART) program which provides opportunities for up to 70 undergraduate students to take classes and experience laboratory research. Our neuroscience faculty are actively involved in teaching in this program, and two of our URM students (matriculated in 2009) came to our department through the SMART program.
• We run a weekend-long recruitment visit where faculty, students and staff interact closely with all prospective students. The recruitment weekend occurs off-site and consists of poster sessions and talks given by current students. We have two keynote lectures as well, given by nationally-recognized scientists. This event offers a remarkable opportunity for prospective students to interact with faculty and students. We have found this to be an excellent recruiting tool. In 2009, 8/25 (32 percent) of the students invited to our recruitment weekend were URMs. Of these eight, five were offered fellowships. Of these five, four matriculated into our neuroscience program.
• We continue to send representatives of our program to SACNAS and ABRCMS for active recruitment of URM students.
• If needed, we provide tutors from among the senior students for additional academic tutoring. Students meet with their tutors twice a week to complement their regular class instruction.

Cynthia C. Morton, Ph.D.
617-525-4535
cmorton@partners.org

3 of 26 (12 percent)

Over the last 5 years the Harvard Medical School Genetics Training Program has prepared a total of 52 M.D.s and Ph.D.s to sit for the American Board of Medical Genetics (ABMG) certification examinations in clinical genetics, biochemical genetics, molecular genetics and cytogenetics. Six of the ABMG trainees enrolled are URMs; three are currently in the program, two completed training in the last 3 years and one left the program due to family relocation.

• We recruit through direct advertising, participation in conferences of interest to minority trainees, participation in formal minority training programs and personal referral.
• Through programs at Harvard Medical School and Brigham and Women’s Hospital, we approach recruitment by fostering training opportunities at all levels of education in an effort to grow the population of URMs pursuing medical research careers. Harvard Medical School’s Division of Medical Sciences conducts a 10-week program called the Summer Honors Undergraduate Research Program (SHURP) (now in its 20th year) primarily for college students belonging to minority groups that are underrepresented in the sciences. SHURP presently has 412 alumni from colleges across the country, over 90 percent of whom are continuing or planning to continue training and careers in the sciences. SHURP is one of the 15 summer research programs participating in the Summer Research Early Identification Program of the Leadership Alliance, a consortium of 32 colleges and universities dedicated to improving the participation of historically underrepresented students in graduate education programs.
• The Office for Multicultural Faculty Careers at Brigham and Women’s Hospital has a summer program titled Summer Training in Academic Research and Scholarship (STARS). The STARS program aims to provide underrepresented minority medical and undergraduate students an opportunity to engage in basic, clinical and translational research projects during the summer at Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School. Students who attend are encouraged to pursue advanced medical and graduate education and training at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.
• The Harvard Catalyst, established through a National Clinical and Translational Science Award, supports the Program for Faculty Development and Diversity, which runs two internship programs. The Visiting Research Internship Program is an 8-week mentored summer internship program for first and second year medical students, while the Summer Clinical and Translational Research Program offers college students (sophomores and above) the opportunity for 10 weeks of mentored research. Both programs match students with laboratories at HMS and the affiliated hospitals.
• Faculty participate as judges for poster sessions of the annual New England Science Symposium at The Joseph B. Martin Conference Center at Harvard Medical School. The aim of the New England Science Symposium, sponsored by the Harvard Medical School ODCP and the Biomedical Science Careers Program, is to encourage postdoctoral fellows; medical, dental and graduate students; postbaccalaureates; college and community college students (particularly African American, Hispanic and American Indian/Alaska Native individuals) involved in biomedical or health-related scientific research to share their work and exchange ideas to further their career development.

Scott A. Waldman, M.D., Ph.D.
215-955-6086
scott.waldma@jefferson.edu

Alternate Contacts
Walter K. Kraft, M.D., associate program director
215-955-9077
walter.kraft@jefferson.edu

Roslynn Tate, administrative assistant
215-955-9081
roslynn.tate@jefferson.edu

6 of 22 (24 percent)

The number of URM applicants has increased approximately four-fold in the period covering 2005-2009 compared to 2001-2004.

• Advertisement for fellowship positions in high impact factor general medical journals has been more effective in increasing the number of high quality applicants than more specialized publications.
• Focused networking with academic, industry and regulatory colleagues involved in drug development science has led to word-of-mouth contacts with qualified applicants.
• Rapid follow-up by a program director or associate program director to inquiries generated by Web site traffic has established an early, personal relationship with potential trainees.
• Educational interactions with physicians-in-training at local clinical residency programs, as well as with members of our K30 Program in Human Investigation has established personal contact with potential trainees.
• Coordination with our university Office of Minority Affairs has been helpful in disseminating our program materials to students at institutions that we otherwise would have difficulty reaching due to distance from our Medical Center.
• Letters are sent on an annual basis to residency directors at clinical training programs associated with traditional minority medical schools in the United States.

Carolyn Machamer, Ph.D.
410-955-1809
machamer@jhmi.edu

23 of 153 (15 percent)

Our URM enrollment has steadily increased from 5 years ago, when our percent of URM students was 8 percent.

Recruitment

• Connections with local URM-serving institutions–we invite undergraduates interested in biomedical graduate programs to visit for a day to learn about our program, and about Johns Hopkins University in general.
• Attendance at ABRCMS and SACNAS by program director, staff and current students–then follow through on contacts made with undergraduates.
• Participation in the Summer Internship Program–director meets with these students every summer for lunch and to answer questions about our graduate program.
• Connections with MARC program directors: academic program manager visits and arranges summer lab experiences for highly qualified students.

Retention

• Careful attention to academic success by arranging tutors as necessary.

For the past 5 years, the percentage of training grant eligible URM students applying to the program has ranged between 10 percent to a high of 20 percent in 2010.

• Annual multi-level (faculty, staff and student) presence at national recruitment meetings (SACNAS, ABRCMS).
• Financial (stipend) support of internal university programs (Summer Internship Program (SIP) and Post Baccalaureate Program).
• Direct involvement (a trainer) in the Campus Conversations on Diversity and Inclusion initiative through the Office of Diversity and Cultural Competence.
• Use of current URM students as program ambassadors during our two recruitment events (pick up applicants at airport/train station, escort applicants on interviews, act as tour guides (facility and city), hosts for dinners and social activities).
• Encourage participation and support student organizations (Biomedical Scholars Association and Graduate Student Peer Mentoring Program).
• Educate and foster current students’ ability to apply for supplemental URM funding (NRSA, DOD etc).

• Continue to influence the pipeline (placing interested high school students in research labs for the summer, inviting high school groups to spend a day on campus).
• Encourage our students to participate in the internal program Dunbar High School/Hopkins Partnership.
• Visit community college career fairs to disseminate program flyers “Why Become a Ph.D.?”
• Finance visits to Alma Maters to recruit for the program.
• Social networking development to field inquiries about program.

Between 2004-2008, the Hopkins MSTP had a total of 16 URM students matriculate. JHUSOM and the Medical Scientist Program have and continue to make diversity recruiting a primary focus, realizing the breadth that these individuals bring to our program and institution.

• Program director/administrator/students continue to attend annual national and regional recruiting conferences. Interested students attending the conferences are encouraged to contact the Hopkins MSTP Office with any questions or concerns regarding the Hopkins application process or to clarify any concerns.
• Hopkins encourages all URM accepted students to attend our annual “Second Look Weekend.” This is an excellent opportunity to meet students currently attending Hopkins medical and graduate schools who can speak candidly about their academic and cultural experiences at Hopkins.
• Current URM students in the Hopkins MSTP are actively involved with the program admissions/recruitment process–assisting as housing hosts, tour guides, attending lunches and dinners with prospective applicants.
• The Hopkins MSTP continues to receive financial and administrative support from the vice dean for education to help recruit and retain students from diverse backgrounds.
• The program director and faculty encourage and support URM students who wish to apply for individual F31 grants. Currently we have four URM students with their own individual F31 grant.
• The program director, administrator, current URM students and dean for graduate student affairs make frequent visits to the University of Maryland Baltimore County to speak with MARC and Meyerhoff students who are interested in the combined degree and offering them the opportunity to visit Hopkins before applying and to speak with current students in the program.
• Hopkins Office of Graduate Student Affairs offers a Summer Internship Program each summer which provides experience in research laboratories to students of diverse backgrounds, including underrepresented minority students and students from economically disadvantaged and underserved backgrounds that have completed two or more years of college. There are 60 positions available and students who attend the national recruiting conferences are given applications at the conferences and are also encouraged to visit the GSA Web site. A stipend and housing is provided to those accepted students.

The enrollment of URM graduate students by the Molecular Biology Department at Princeton improved from an average of only one per year from 2003 through 2007 to seven in 2008 and five in 2009.

URM representation in the Summer Undergraduate Research Program at Princeton University has been increased to 65 percent. Participants receive research experience, mentoring and encouragement to apply to the Molecular Biology Ph.D. program.

• Molecular Biology Department faculty and students have made outreach visits to historically black colleges, and faculty and students from those institutions have been hosted for extended periods during the summer at Princeton. Collaborations involving both research and teaching have resulted from these interactions.
• Departmental faculty and students have attended science-oriented diversity meetings, including SACNAS and ABRCMS.
• Increased emphasis has been placed on applicants' research experience and letters of recommendation. Departmental staff maintains contact with URM applicants throughout the admissions process.
• The Molecular Biology Department has established a director of diversity position staffed by a Ph.D. scientist with an administrative assistant to plan, coordinate and oversee all diversity efforts within the department.

In the last 4 years we have recruited eight URM to the Biotechnology Training Program. In the last 2 years, five URM students graduated with Ph.D. degrees. In the 20 year history of the program we have consistently had between 23-38 percent URM representation.

We personally partner with the Rutgers Graduate School-New Brunswick (GSNB) which leads initiatives to recruit, retain and graduate excellent graduate students from diverse backgrounds. GSNB has an excellent record of success in broadening participation in the STEM disciplines. These initiatives include:

• Exhibit at professional society meetings and national student research conferences.
• Visit feeder schools (NJ colleges, minority-serving institutions nationwide)
• Coordinate network of faculty, graduate student, postdoc ambassadors.
• Participate in consortia dedicated to broadening participation.
• Mine databases to identify prospects and share with graduate program directors.
• Host undergraduate summer research program, RISE (Research In Science and Engineering), http://rise.rutgers.edu.
• Host Winter Forum for prospects from NJ colleges.
• Admissions: Help match recruits with most appropriate program(s), identify external funding for diversity candidates.
• Develop transitional pathways to Ph.D.
• Articulated M.S./Ph.D. Bridge–fund one STEM student/year.
• Develop best practices for mentoring and academic support (e.g. flexible curriculum, peer tutoring).
• Coordinate professional development activities for diverse cohort.

Another very successful approach is our constant contact with the graduate directors of the participating graduate programs. During the recruiting season, we make the graduate directors aware of the open slots in the Biotechnology Training program and challenge them to help fill them with appropriate candidates, especially URM candidates.

Diversity Initiatives:

• NSF Northeast Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, http://www.neagep.org: Partnership of 10 research-intensive institutions that develop mechanisms to recruit, support and mentor underrepresented minority students interested in Ph.D.s and academic careers in the sciences, technology, engineering or math (STEM). The University of Massachusetts-Amherst, as the lead institution, teams with Rutgers and Boston University, MIT, Penn State and the land grant colleges of the New England states. Specified minority-serving institutions serve as potential feeder schools.
• NSF Innovation through Institutional Integration (I3): 5 year grant to strengthen science, technology, engineering and mathematics education. A new Graduate Innovation and Integration Center will assume responsibility for (a) extending curricula and practices developed by IGERT training grants to all STEM graduate programs and (b) preparing undergraduates for advanced training through undergraduate research experiences and graduate school transition programs.
• The National Name Exchange, http://www.grad.washington.edu/nne: Consortium of 30 nationally recognized research institutions which collect and exchange the names of their underrepresented minority undergraduates planning graduate study. Along with Rutgers, participating institutions include Harvard, MIT, Princeton, Stanford, Cal Tech, a number of campuses in the UC system and several other universities. GSNB mines the data and compiles a discipline-specific list for each graduate program.
• The National Physical Sciences Consortium (NPSC), http://www.npsc.org: Ph.D.-track fellowship program in the physical sciences and engineering. Rutgers has access to a database of nominees, sorted by disciplinary area.
• Graduate Education for Minorities (GEM), http://www.gemfellowship.org/home: Network of universities and companies that partner to provide opportunities for URM students to earn fellowships for M.S. and Ph.D. programs in the sciences and engineering. GSNB mines the data and compiles a discipline-specific list for each graduate program.
• McNair Program, http://mcnairscholars.com: Facilitates access to higher education for low income, first-generation college students and students with disabilities. GSNB attends the National McNair conference, mines the data from the national McNair clearinghouse and shares with graduate programs, and partners with our own Rutgers McNair program.
• Student research conferences and professional society meetings: Examples include the ABRCMS, National Society of Black Physicists/Hispanic Physicists, SACNAS, Historically Black College and Universities Undergraduate Programs, California Forums for Diversity, national McNair conference and the National Organization of Black Chemists and Chemical Engineers. The Graduate School also facilitates recruitment at student poster session components of professional society meetings; some such societies have Minority Affairs Committees.

3 of 22 (14 percent) for the overall Ph.D. program

Since the Genetics and Cell Biology training program began in 2004, the percentage of URM students participating in the training program has always been at least 25 percent.

Recruitment:

• Annual attendance at research conferences for minority students, including the SACNAS and ABRCMS meetings.
• Making targeted visits to colleges and universities with high minority enrollment (including Morehouse College, the University of Maryland-Baltimore County, Tulane University, the University of Puerto Rico at Mayaguez and Rio Piedras, and Xavier University).
• Recruiting URM students into our summer undergraduate research programs.
• Building connections with local minority groups, including The New York City Minority Graduate Student Network.

Retention:

• We aid the transition from undergraduate to graduate school by offering a flexible arrangement of courses. Other than the required first year courses, students may opt to take a reduced course load in the first year. Additionally, if a student requires additional undergraduate level course work in basic biology, chemistry or math, Rockefeller will pay the tuition for the student to take a course at a neighboring New York City institution. The student will not receive graduate credit for these courses, but these refresher courses ease the transition into graduate level coursework.
• The program director provides careful mentoring of trainees. The program director meets with trainees monthly to discuss both academic and non-academic matters. This allows us to provide individualized guidance and to identify and address potential problems early.
• Care is taken to introduce minority trainees to other minority students at the university and elsewhere. One venue for this is the New York City Minority Graduate Student Network–a group composed of minority biomedical graduate students. This group provides social, scientific and networking events for minority graduate students, and we host events at Rockefeller annually. All of our minority trainees are invited to participate in these activities.

James W. Gober, Ph.D.
310-206-9449
gober@chem.ucla.edu

3 of 14 (21 percent)

7 of 31 (23 percent)

Composition of entering class:
2005:  7 of 52 (13 percent)
2006:  3 of 42 (7 percent)
2007:  11 of 54 (20 percent)
2008:  6 of 56 (11 percent)
2009:  7 of 31 (23 percent)

• Active involvement by faculty in a number of outreach programs for undergraduates such as (1) the NIH-funded BRIDGE program which brings outstanding minority students from nearby community colleges to work in UCLA research laboratories for a summer, with the goal of recruiting these students to UCLA for completion of their degrees, (2) HHMI-UCLA-BEI which coordinates training and research opportunities for advanced honors students who have chosen a biomedical career, with an emphasis on minority students and (3) A Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) program funded by NIH that provides substantial guidance and considerable financial support of minority undergraduates who demonstrate a clear interest in graduate school.
• Attending meetings or symposia aimed at minority outreach and recruitment such as: AMPHS, ABRCMS, SACNAS and CMC. At these venues, discussions are held about our graduate programs.
• University-wide minority recruitment efforts are sponsored by the National Science Foundation grant, UCLA Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), which is part of a University of California system-wide effort to increase the number of underrepresented minority students who are in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) Ph.D. programs and who are interested in academic and research careers. UCLA AGEP provides support services to assist eligible undergraduates to successfully apply to graduate school, transition to graduate life and become leaders in their fields. UCLA AGEP seeks to enhance the diversity of STEM fields by working with students, faculty and staff to increase the successful application, admission and matriculation of students, and then transition them to postdoctoral and professional positions.
  

Additional successful strategies used to admit and recruit during the admissions process are:

• The use of multiple criteria for admission (e.g. undergraduate GPA, letters of recommendation, personal statement, samples of academic work and professional experience), thus de-emphasizing potentially biased criteria such as GRE scores.
• Having recruits meet with advanced URM students and connect with the Graduate Division’s Office of Outreach, Diversity and Fellowships.
• Providing information on URM graduate student organizations such as STEM-PLEDGE, SACNAS UCLA, etc.
• Addressing funding issues by offering highly competitive fellowships (i.e. Cota Robles), addressing housing concerns and NSF AGEP Competitive Edge.
• Active recruiting by faculty, such as follow up phone calls, and being available and responsive to questions.
• Graduate Division involvement in providing contact information of current URM graduate students, funding opportunities and institutional data.

The URM recruitment has steadily increased over the past 5 years, due to the implementation of energetic recruitment and retention plans. These efforts have resulted in high URM matriculation rates.

• Program-specific recruitment trips by MSTP directors, training faculty and URM students to URM-specific research meetings, such as SACNAS and ABRCMS.
• We bring a current URM students to these conferences to help recruit potential students. Current students are the best recruiters.
• We started a Women in Medical Science Seminar (the current women students organize these events and they are very popular).
• We specifically target schools with NIGMS MARC/MBRS programs, focusing in the Southwest, such that recruited students will be relatively close to family.
• Active, program-specific recruitment trips by MSTP directors, training faculty and URM students to colleges and universities.
• Partnering with undergraduate pre-medical advisors who have previously sent us URM students.
• Identification of URM applicants to medical school who have research experience and recruitment of URM students currently in first 2 years of medical school.
• Identification and nurturing of URM students at early stages of their undergraduate career by mentoring URM students in various local URM summer research programs, such as McNair Scholars at CSU, SMART students at CU-Boulder, and ARCS and GEMS students at UC Denver.

Willem (Wilfred) van der Donk, Ph.D.
217-244-5360
vdonk@illinois.edu
http://scs.illinois.edu/cbi

Alternate Contact
Martha Freeland, CBI program coordinator
217-244-5450
mfreelnd@illinois.edu

2005: 0 percent (first year of program)
2006: 20 percent
2007: 17 percent
2008: 33 percent
2009: 50 percent

Applications to the program have increased upon stepwise implementation of the recruitment activities described below.

• Institutional financial commitment that allows sponsoring of some of the activities below by the CBI program.
• Regular attendance of CBI faculty and URM trainees at SACNAS/ABRCMS. The program sponsored on average ~6 people (faculty, undergraduate students, graduate students) to travel to these meetings each year; other students attended on travel fellowships.
• CBI program director is the faculty advisor for local SACNAS chapter, which is made up predominantly of graduate students. The chapter fulfills an important role in community building.
• Senior trainees are sponsored to travel back to their alma maters to present their research and share their experiences.
• Program established links with two MARC programs and one Bridges program. Students from these programs are invited to visit UIUC for summer research.
• Summer research fellowships for URM undergraduate students (both local and from other institutions); some are campus sponsored (e.g. SROP) others are CBI sponsored (CBI summer research fellowships).
• Program recruits both at the admissions stage and also by a competition for second or third year students. This mechanism offers opportunities for students who blossom in research after arrival and coursework.
• Summer research opportunities for matriculating graduate students allow them to become comfortable with their new environment before the semester starts.
• CBI faculty members participate in activities of local URM-oriented organizations (e.g., NOBChE, SACNAS).
• Participation in MERGE, the Minority Engineering Recruitment for Graduate Education program in the College of Engineering. Each fall up to 70 minority science and engineering students are offered an all-expense-paid visit to UIUC to meet with faculty and learn about the university’s cultural programs and facilities. Student visitors are offered the opportunity to initiate an online application to a UIUC graduate program before returning home.

Jessica Schwartz, Ph.D.
734-647-2124
jeschwar@umich.edu

Alternate Contacts
Catherine Mitchell, program administrator
734-764-5428
cmbgrad@umich.edu

Ruthann Nichols, Ph.D., faculty member on CMB Diversity Committee
734-764-4467
nicholsr@umich.edu

Juanita Merchant, M.D., Ph.D., faculty member on CMB Diversity Committee
734-647-2944
merchanj@umich.edu

12 of 80 (15 percent)

5 of 29 (17 percent)

We have had a steady presence of URM students in the CMB Program over the past 5 years (avg. 12.5 percent). In the past year, URM students comprised 17 percent of the incoming CMB class, in the context of the largest class we have ever had. In recent years, URM students have comprised 27 percent of the graduates from the CMB Program.

Recruitment:

• URM applicants are hosted by current URM students and meet faculty of similar social and ethnic background.
• The active presence of faculty from different cultural backgrounds and their interactions with students and other faculty lets applicants know that cultural differences do not present barriers at the University of Michigan.
• Strong involvement of current URM students in recruitment activities, including serving as hosts, and attending meals and social events, allows visiting students to bond with current students. URM students also have active presence during recruitment in general, assisting as speakers and tour guides, and presenting posters, which demonstrates integration of diversity in the student experience.
• Host students and faculty stay in contact with URM students after applicants visit campus, providing more information, and answering questions.
• CMB students are strongly involved in several organizations for URM students including Association of Multicultural Scientists (AMS), the Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate (AGEP), Society of Minority Engineers and Scientists-Graduate (SMES-G), Women in Science and Engineering (WISE), and the Movement of Underrepresented Sisters in Engineering and Science (MUSES), which disseminate program material to URM students and showcase diversity on campus. The University of Michigan provides support to these organizations.
• CMB students in the Association of Multicultural Scientists (AMS) sponsor a reception specifically for URM students during interview weekends. This allows students to meet and learn about social, support and outreach activities that foster success of URM students in the biomedical sciences during graduate training and beyond.
• CMB faculty and students participate in PREVIEW, which brings URM students to campus in the fall before applications are due, to learn about graduate school and research opportunities.
• Summer undergraduate research programs such as the University of Michigan Summer Research Opportunity Program (SROP), which attracts URM students on a national scale, allows interaction and mentoring of the students who come to campus. CMB faculty members routinely serve as lab mentors for this program. During the regional Committee on Institutional Cooperation SROP Conference which University of Michigan hosted for the CIC’s 12 participating institutions, CMB faculty and students were heavily involved in hosting and mentoring students (nearly 450 undergraduate students attended, 80 percent were URMs). The University of Michigan Pre-MSTP Summer Research Program selects URM students considering dual degree (M.D.-Ph.D.) programs; CMB faculty members are among those coordinating the Program and hosting these students in their labs.
• CMB faculty and students participate in Michigan PREP, the UM NIH-Funded Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program. Michigan PREP provides individuals from underrepresented groups who have recently obtained their baccalaureate degrees with a year of additional extensive academic enhancements and research experiences to prepare for graduate admission and training. PREP directors are members of the CMB faculty. CMB faculty and students have served as lab and peer mentors for selected scholars.
• CMB faculty participated actively in a Program in Biomedical Sciences event hosting advisors from traditionally URM schools and targeted research programs (such as MARC, MBRS, LSAMP and McNair) to inform them of opportunities for their students in our graduate programs.
• Faculty and current students are active in targeted recruitment locally and nationally at individual campuses with high minority enrollment, e.g. SFSU.
• Offers of admission are based on personal interviews with faculty and students, with strong emphasis on research background, research interest, personal statement and letters of recommendation from research advisors, with less focus on standardized tests.
   

Retention:

• Individualized curriculum, availability of tutoring and regularly scheduled personalized academic advising throughout the program.
• Many URM students participate in a Summer Institute the summer before entering graduate school to develop tools and prepare for the transition to graduate school.
• A critical mass of active, current URM students involved in AMS, AGEP, SMES-G, MUSES and WISE on campus provides a support system during graduate school through personal and professional resources.
• CMB invites AMS students in all of the PIBS graduate programs to attend CMB program events. CMB so-sponsors the keynote speaker invited by AMS to campus each year.
• Institutional funding allows flexibility in the early years of graduate training.
• Faculty mentor and work with students to apply for URM-related fellowships and encourage students to apply for individual F31 fellowships.
• Interactions with students and faculty through oral, written and poster presentations.
• Planned professional and social activities promote friendly, interactive and supportive atmosphere such as research seminar series, evening gatherings, weekend retreats.

CMB recruits students through PIBS. CMB faculty and students are active in recruiting activities organized by PIBS and the Graduate School that target URM students.

Kevin H. Gardner, Ph.D.
214-645-6365
Kevin.Gardner@UTSouthwestern.edu

1 of 4 (25 percent)

2010: 3 of 35 (8.5 percent)

URM in Molecular Biophysics Graduate Program:

2006: 4 of 42 (10 percent)
2007: 5 of 35 (14 percent)
2008: 4 of 31 (13 percent)
2009: 5 of 34 (15 percent)
2010: 3 of 35 (8.5 percent)

URM in Division of Basic Sciences:

2005: 7 of 52 (13 percent)
2006: 16 of 59 (27 percent)
2007: 12 of 42 (29 percent)
2008: 12 of 49 (24 percent)
2009: 14 of 63 (22 percent)

At UT Southwestern, graduate student recruitment, admissions and much of the first year curriculum are administered through an umbrella program (Division of Basic Sciences, DBS). Near the end of their first year on campus, students select one of thirteen programs or tracks that will oversee their training through the remainder of their graduate careers. Students in two of these, Molecular Biophysics and Quantitative Biology, provide the pool of applicants for support from this training grant. As such, our strategy has been to integrate biophysics/quantitative biology faculty and content with ongoing efforts at the umbrella level for URM student recruiting and retention. In particular, this includes:

• Coordinated outreach to universities, programs and meetings with significant numbers of URM students: DBS staff (Associate Dean and Diversity Officer Nancy Street, Assistant Dean Stuart Ravnik, Recruiter Lisa Gardner) have helped facilitate visits by biophysics faculty to universities, training programs and national meetings with significant participation of URM students. These have included participation as poster judges and presenters at national meetings such as ABRCMS, SACNAS, Protein Society, Biophysical Society and American Physical Society. Training grant faculty have also visited undergraduate T34/MARC and McNair Scholar programs, and met with groups of URM students organized at universities as part of research seminar visits.
• Participation in summer training opportunities: DBS accepts a high proportion of minority students into the Summer Undergraduate Research Fellowship (SURF) and Quantitative and Physical Sciences-SURF (QP-SURF) programs. Both programs offer 10-week long opportunities for undergraduate students to join a UT Southwestern research lab, including those of many faculty members of this training grant. Approximately 42 percent of the offers to participate in the SURF program in 2008 were made to minority students and 31 percent of the SURF 2008 participants were from underrepresented groups. In QP-SURF, 20 percent of the 2008 QP-SURF participants were minority students. Minority students are heavily recruited by many institutions as summer fellows and, in the past 5 years, informal agreements with mentors from nine minority universities have evolved to guarantee spots in SURF and QP-SURF for their best and brightest minority students.
• Involvement with local area high-school teacher/student training: The Science Teachers Access to Resources at Southwestern program (STARS) plays a central role in UT Southwestern’s outreach to students and teachers at local high schools, many of which have high proportions of minority student enrollment. Training grant faculty members have participated in all aspects of the STARS program, ranging from hosting high school students in labs for the summer to presenting talks at teacher symposia to hosting tours of laboratories and core facilities.
• Opportunities for enhanced orientation and tutoring: Training grant faculty members are involved in the teaching and mentoring of URM students throughout the first-year and advanced courses. UT Southwestern also offers additional support both before the first semester (via an enhanced orientation program) and through the first year (with a tutoring program), both of which have aided in student retention.

Marc D. Binder, Ph.D.
206-543-2509
mbdinder@uw.edu

3 of 11 (27 percent)

2 of 7 (29 percent)

Matriculated URMs:
Number of URM trainees has fluctuated between 2 of 12 (17 percent) and 4 of 11 (36 percent).
Number of URM in entering class has increased from 0 to 29 percent.

• The Graduate Program in Neurobiology & Behavior actively participates in the University of Washington Biomedical Research Minority Outreach Task Force (includes other UW biomedical Ph.D. programs) events and outreach materials (see BMR brochure, http://depts.washington.edu/biophd). The BMR Task Force meets at least quarterly to share best practices and to plan events. Representatives from the Neurobiology & Behavior Program attend the SACNAS and ABRCMS conferences every year. We also attend outreach activities via UW’s Office of Multi-Cultural Affairs during the summer and regular academic year, and other outreach activities on the UW campus.
• As part of our annual recruitment process, we hold a special dinner for URM applicants at the home of a URM training grant faculty member. In addition to the applicants, the dinner is attended by the program directors, all URM faculty and our of our URM current students. This dinner provides an opportunity for our URM applicants to discuss any concerns they may have about UW and Seattle with respect to diversity issues. By holding this gathering at a faculty member’s home, we provide a more comfortable and informal setting than that in which the more formal interviews are held. Following the students’ visit to campus, at least one of the faculty members attending the URM recruitment dinner makes follow-up personal contact with each applicant. The Office of Research & Graduate Education in the School Medicine provides funding for additional interactions (i.e., special breakfasts) for URM students during their visit to Seattle. All travel costs and hotel accommodations for URM applicants are covered by the Graduate Program in Neurobiology & Behavior.
• The program directors of the 12 NIH training grants with predoctoral students at the University of Washington have recently formed a cooperative to coordinate their URM recruitment efforts. The cornerstone of the collaboration entails using institutional funds to bring faculty members charged with advising undergraduate science students at institutions with large numbers of URM students for visits to the University of Washington. We arrange for these individuals to meet with the training grant directors and URM students enrolled in the different programs. These visits provide us with the opportunity to describe our training programs and learn about the URM students at the visitors' institutions. Those visitors engaged in biomedical research are also invited to give research talks and meet with UW faculty, students and postdocs in their respective fields.

Dr. David Kimelman, Ph.D.
206-543-5730
Kimelman@u.washington.edu

7 of 32 (22 percent)

3 of 16 (19 percent) for 2010

There has been a steady increase in the number of first-year URMs in the MCB Program over the past 5 years, particularly during the last few years with an increase in effort across the biomedical sciences. Of particular note was the 2008 entering class where seven of the incoming 25 students were URMs (28 percent). Retention rates have been good with only the occasional departure of a URM in the first year.

• We established 2 years ago a pan-departmental URM student recruitment committee, co-chaired by the PI, David Kimelman, and the director of the MCB program (the major interdisciplinary graduate program), David Raible, which brings together faculty from 14 departments in the biomedical sciences. The committee works to coordinate efforts at recruitment, and works to get faculty to recruit on behalf of all the departments and programs, not just their own.
• We established a Biomedical Recruitment Minority (BMR) task force that brings together the staff of the different biomedical departments involved in graduate admissions to ensure that the staff is working together in recruiting URM students to the UW, rather than just focusing their efforts on their own department.
• We collaborate with affiliated institutions both in recruitment and retention.  The MCB program is affiliated with the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, the Institute for Systems Biology and the Seattle Biomedical Research Institute, all located in different parts of Seattle. Each of these institutions engages in minority recruitment and retention, and the staff work to synergize effort.
• We maintain a consistent annual appearance at a select number of URM biomedical research conferences. Twelve of the biomedical departments have committed to fund one faculty member every other year to one of the national meetings (ABRCMS, AISES, SACNAS, HBCU-UP), which is coordinated by the faculty committee mentioned above. In addition, the MCB program cooperates with approximately 10 other UW biomedical departments to ensure staff attendance at all meetings. The MCB program, as well as the departments, provides funding to ensure that there is also graduate student representation at the meetings.
• This training grant created a brochure that showcases each of departments and interdisciplinary programs in biomedicine at the UW (and affiliated institutions) to demonstrate to URM students the breadth of opportunities, and to help them find the right department or program that meets their interests.
• We take advantage of any outreach activities on the main UW campus and in the surrounding area. Examples of this type include the Health Graduate and Professional School Fair and the McNair Scholars program, which hosts an annual conference on campus in the spring. In addition, the BMR task force invites science students from the local community colleges for a half-day event including a tour of campus, a forum on student experiences transferring from a community college to a large university, a lab demonstration and concluding with information tables set up by different biomedical programs.
• We take advantage of any institutional incentives available to increase URM acceptance of admission offers. For example, UW ARCS (Achievement Awards for College Scientists) offers competitive fellowships to enhance an offer of admission to URM applicants. These fellowships have proved very useful in garnering new minority admissions. UW GO-MAP (Graduate Opportunities and Minority Achievement Program) also offers other fellowships for incoming and current URM graduate students that help in recruitment and retention.
• We have a very active student SACNAS chapter that not only ensures that many graduate students attend the national SACNAS meetings, but helps in recruitment by meeting visiting students, and helps in retention by providing the students with an enthusiastic support group.
• We provide regular mentor and peer interactions for URM students. MCB students as a whole are guaranteed regular mentor counseling from the first day they enter this program. These informal interactions assist in identifying problems early and allow the mentors sufficient time to help resolve problems. GO-MAP also offers a series of events for URM graduate students to meet and socialize--such as the quarterly “Staying Connected” social hour. Also on campus there exists the Ethnic Cultural Center which hosts events geared toward both undergraduate and graduate students across campus. URM students are informed about the availability of these services.

Brian G. Fox, Ph.D.
608-262-6753
bgfox@biochem.wisc.edu or biotech@bact.wisc.edu

9 of 32 (28 percent) for 2009-2010

2 of 9 (22 percent) for fall 2010

2009-2010: 5 of 33 (15 percent)
2008-2009: 7 of 34 (21 percent)

BTP strategies for minority recruiting to T32 programs:

• New for 2010, financial support and participation in early recruiting weekends in fall semester to give additional impressions of the campus.
• Visits to our campus by high school and undergraduate feeder programs to establish pipeline connections.
• Faculty and trainees attend annual minority research symposia to promote the campus, training program, degree opportunities and make personal contacts.
• Faculty and alumni trainees visit minority institutions to make new contacts or reconnect with past mentors.
• In evaluating trainee candidates as prospective students, do not be overly concerned with GPA and/or GRE scores if other indicators are positive. Take some risks, even if it requires admitting the student under academic probation.
• Be committed to help ALL students (minority and majority) succeed.
• Maximize direct contact between candidates and program faculty during recruiting and all stages of the graduate career. Minority candidates can require more intensive advising for course selection, thesis lab choice, tutoring (especially if English is not familiar).
• Maximize contact between minority candidates and current minority trainees/students during recruiting and early stages of the graduate career. This helps establish social and professional networks.
• Plan activities that promote a friendly, interactive and supportive atmosphere in the training program, such as a social gathering in conjunction with a weekly seminar series.
• Link training grant programmatic and recruiting activities as a way to have prospective students interact with current trainees (biotechnology banquet, retreat, faculty contacts).
• Invite faculty from minority institutions to be visiting professors (e.g., for summer research, sabbatical leaves) as a way to network with mentors of future trainees. Visiting professorships for minority faculty can be funded by minority supplements to existing NIH R01 grants.
• Show a commitment to trainees by offering long-term support packages to incoming students; if possible couple T32 positions with campus support programs for URMs.
• Maintain strong collegial and professional ties with alumni who are now faculty at colleges with high URM enrollment.
• Look at strategies of others for ideas, but only adopt those which you think will work in the culture of your institution or program.
• Be prepared for a bumpy ride, some years are better than others despite all your best efforts!
• Be prepared to evaluate and modify your plan on a periodic or regular basis; this landscape is constantly changing. 
   

Practices for enhancing minority progress in programs and retention:

• Access to tutors (supported by campus/participating Ph.D. programs)
• Partners for success (campus/ participating Ph.D. programs)
• Participation in Graduate Research Scholars program
• Progress tracking (training grant/participating Ph.D. programs)
• Weekly or periodic trainee or URM gatherings (training grant/campus)

James B. Skeath, Ph.D.
314-362-0535
jskeath@wustl.edu

Alternate Contacts
Rochelle D. Smith, manager, diversity affairs and community outreach
314-362-7963
rsmith@wustl.edu

Andrew Richards, director, DBBS information systems and recruitment
314-362-7743
richardsa@wustl.edu

20 of 139 (15 percent) training grant-eligible students in the CMB umbrella program

5 of 22 (23 percent) trainees presently supported by the CMB training grant

2 of 24 (9 percent) for CMB umbrella program in 2009
7 of 48 (15 percent) for all DBBS graduate programs in 2009

Over the past 5 years the percent of URM students who have applied and matriculated into our program stands at 12.3 percent and 13.0 percent, respectively. These numbers represent 41 percent and 25 percent increases in their respective categories relative to the prior 5-year period.

• Strong institutional commitment to enhancing diversity: A Diversity Steering Committee and a full-time position, manager of diversity programs, were created in order to help devise, implement and assess creative and effective ways to recruit, to retain and to graduate students from minority and disadvantaged backgrounds.
• Undergraduate summer research training opportunities: Minority-focused undergraduate summer research programs (BioMedRap/CD-BioRAP and the Opportunities in Genomic Research Scholars Program) that introduce prospective graduate and M.D./Ph.D. students to the students, faculty and available research opportunities at Washington University.
• Student-led outreach to city high schools: The Young Scientist Program exposes hundreds of high school students and teachers from the St. Louis City Public Schools to hypothesis-driven research via hands-on research activities. This program is run entirely by Ph.D., M.D., and M.D./Ph.D. students.
• Establishment of partnerships with historically black colleges: We have hosted educational visits for students, faculty and administrators from Spelman College as well as from Morehouse College during the academic year. These visits have led to multiple opportunities for faculty members and students from these institutions to conduct research over the summer at individual labs at Washington University; they have also lead to a commitment for regular visits by our faculty and administrators to these institutions for scientific, educational and recruiting purposes.
• Attendance at national minority research conferences: Regular attendance of faculty members and students at ABRCMS and the SACNAS.
• De-emphasis of standardized test scores in graduate admissions process
• Strong involvement of current students in the graduate recruiting process
• Revisit weekend for accepted URM and disadvantaged students: The Diversity Revisit Weekend provides accepted URM and disadvantaged students the opportunity to return to Washington University to explore in more depth and in a more relaxed environment all available educational and research programs.
• Enhanced opportunities for student orientation, advising and tutoring:
  • A pre-orientation program provides incoming graduate students with a jump-start on graduate school by helping them establish support networks and by raising awareness of and providing tips on how to overcome the key problems with which students struggle during graduate school.
  • Regular and individualized student-advising sessions with program directors and coordinators help establish personal contacts with students, which facilitate more rapid identification and resolution of problems that arise during graduate school.
  • A personalized mentoring program enables talented students to overcome difficulties in defined academic areas (e.g. classical genetics or public speaking) through one-on-one mentoring by faculty members.
• Raise awareness of disability resources for graduate students: During orientation the director of the Disability Resources Center (Cornerstone) presents an overview of the services provided by the center to all incoming graduate students. The talk includes details on identification and assessment of learning styles and learning disabilities, and on the mechanisms for the accommodation of students with disabilities.

The Cell and Molecular Biology umbrella program consists of four individual graduate programs: Developmental Biology, Molecular Cell Biology, Molecular Genetics and Genomics, and Molecular Microbiology and Microbial Pathogenesis. The CMB Programs are all contained within the Division of Biological and Biomedical Sciences (DBBS), which consists of 12 graduate programs that together encompass all areas of biological/biomedical research.

Weill Cornell/Rockefeller/Sloan-Kettering Tri-Institutional M.D.-Ph.D. Program (MSTP)

Olaf S. Andersen, M.D.
212-746-6023
sparre@med.cornell.edu

31 of 108 (31 percent)

In 1996, only 10 percent of the student body in the Tri-Institutional M.D.-Ph.D. program was made up of URM students. Within 5 years, we saw a 50 percent increase in the number of URM students in our program; the major reason for this increase was the Gateways to the Laboratory Program described below. Over the last 5 years, more than 25 percent of the M.D.-Ph.D. program’s students have been URMs. This is about three times the national average.

Over the last 5 years, the number of qualified URM applicants who applied to our M.D.-Ph.D. Program has continued to increase. The rate of increase is slowing down, however, raising concerns about the size of the national pool of applicants (see also below). Our incoming M.D.-Ph.D. classes have seen students from underrepresented backgrounds make up anywhere from 14 percent to 36 percent of their individual M.D.-Ph.D. class.

The most important trend is that URM students now constitute about 25 percent of the graduating classes, and we have an increasing number of URM graduates on the faculty in medical schools across the country. Over the last 10 years, no URM student has withdrawn from the M.D.-Ph.D. program.

As noted above, one should be concerned about the pipeline of qualified URM applicants to M.D.-Ph.D. programs. The most notable aspect of our recruitment over the years is that we have created our own pipeline. The Gateways to the Laboratory Program is an intense 10-week summer program run by the M.D.-Ph.D. program. Its goal is to train promising freshman and sophomore college students to become competitive applicants to M.D.-Ph.D. programs. We have seen enormous success, as about half of the Gateways graduates go on M.D.-Ph.D. and Ph.D. training. Nine of our Gateways alumnae/i have enrolled in our own M.D.-Ph.D. program, and the first Gateways alumna will graduate from the M.D.-Ph.D. Program in 2011. Gateways alumnae/i also are enrolled in, and have graduated from, many other top M.D.-Ph.D. programs in the country.

The distinguishing features of the Gateways Program are:

• Designed to train and inform students interested in dual degree, M.D.-Ph.D., programs.
• Students present in weekly journal clubs.
• Participate in hands-on tour of gross anatomy lab.
• Participate in a lab techniques workshop and clinical skills workshop.
• Sit for a mock MCAT exam.
• Participate in career development workshops.
• Scrub into surgeries at New York-Presbyterian Hospital.
• Present an oral, written and poster presentation in front of family, friends and colleagues. (The program will fly one family member to NYC for this final presentation and provide accommodations at a hotel in New York City.)
• Each student has an ongoing mentorship with a “Big Sib,” who is a current MSTP student and weekly meetings with the program’s leadership.
• The program pays each student $4,300 as well as travel expenses and houses the students in local dorms.
• Long-term follow-up and continued career advice after the Gateways students “graduate” from the program.

We also recruit heavily at national conferences including SACNAS, ABRCMS and Leadership Alliance, as well as individual colleges and universities. At these events we educate students and undergraduate health advisors about careers as physician-scientists, what it takes to become a successful applicant to M.D.-Ph.D. programs, and (for the health advisors) the importance of encouraging URMs to apply to M.D.-Ph.D. programs. It also is important that we now have a critical mass of URM students in the M.D.-Ph.D. program, which helps with the recruitment.

In terms of retention, we invest considerable resources into the mentoring of URM students in the M.D.-Ph.D. program, to help them cope with the difficulties they encounter during their training. We also emphasize the importance of having obtained competitive external funding when applying for the most desirable post-graduate training positions. Currently 10 URM students have, or have had, such external awards. The mentoring is an effort that involves all three institutions, as the program leadership is alerted whenever a student (majority or minority) is deemed to perform sub optimally. It is in this context important that we have a critical mass of M.D.-Ph.D. students, who provide mutual support, and that Weill Cornell Medical College has an active chapter of the Student National Medical Association. It also is important that the students are aware of the program’s commitment to the training of URM physician-scientists, as evidenced by the Gateways to the Laboratory Program.