IMSD@Brown

Project Summary/Abstract This program will address shortages in science of individuals from underrepresented (UR) groups, including those from UR racial, gender, gender identity, ability groups and educationally disadvantaged background, by strengthening Brown’s capacity to train more diverse Ph.D. cohorts. Using our IMSD Program as the primary vehicle for change we will: a) Increase the numbers of UR students completing a Ph.D.degree and pursuing careers in the biological, biomedical, & public health sciences and interdisciplinary fields to levels proportional to their representation in the U.S. population. This will be achieved by strengthening and expanding our successful BioMed IMSD program to other Ph.D. programs where biological training occurs. This updated program, IMSD@Brown, will implement and establish practices that promote, improve and sustain STEM student Ph.D. training and post-training success. It will drive increases in student compositional diversity, institutional culture & climate, student retention & degree attainment. IMSD@Brown will operate as the central integration hub that aligns graduate level diversity and inclusion training practices across all programs and will institutionalize best practices by leveraging them to the benefit of the larger Ph.D. student population across all STEM programs. The program’s practices include: 1) developing inter-institutional relationships that serve UR students and our goals for excellence; 2) equipping graduate programs with IMSD resources and tools that complement locally provided disciplinary-specific training and coursework. These include training support for didactic, research, mentoring, and advising support, training through IMSD skills-based modules, and IMSD community-building programming to foster a sense of belonging for all students; and 3) Investing in processes that make permanent a culture that values and promotes diversity and inclusion. IMSD Program faculty will be drawn from 21 STEM Ph.D. programs – all of which engage in biologically & biomedically related work- to support 15 UR Ph.D. students appointed yearly for 12 months as IMSD trainees. We will meet our, and the goal of NIH, by a) building relationships which support UR students and enable their graduate and post-training career success, and b) improve program outcomes by collaborating with faculty, partner institutions and the extended alumnae network which our trainees can ‘tap’ into and c) lay the groundwork for broader change across Brown by embedding best practices in all Ph.D. training programs.