Development Core

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The declining numbers of biomedical scientists and a significant lack of diversity in the scientific workforce are a grave problem that severely impacted the kidney, urology and hematology (KUH) workforce, while these fields experienced major scientific advances. The KUH-ART proposes to create a Professional Development Core (PDC) that will provide resources to recruit and nurture highly effective KUH scientists not only by aggregating and curating pre-existing programs within the KUH partner institutions, but by including new programs to expand the horizons of trainees and their mentors. Novel programs will include the “Being a Leader” certificate course that will allow participants to master being a leader, and the effective exercise of leadership as their natural self-expression, in real-time and in any leadership situation. In addition, trainees will have access to the UCLA Anderson School of Management Healthcare Specialization Courses and the Mentorship Training Program. In effect, the PDC will be a well-designed, fully supported, well-executed program to fill the space in the pipeline between early education and academic advancement. We plan to develop individualized, customized curricula in the form of Individualized Trainee/Mentor Development Plans (ITMDP). The plan will focus on honing the skills of both the trainee and the mentor that will directly impact the trainee’s development and will be used for evaluation and feedback. We hypothesize that the KUH-ART PDC will provide the resources needed for pipeline trainees to ensure that they acquire the knowledge and skills to successfully traverse their individual research career paths towards independence. We propose the following specific aims: (1) To develop the infrastructure, and implement KUH-ART trainee-specific programs to ensure successful transition across all stages of professional development; (2) To develop and implement programs to provide common knowledge set and skills to support all stages of professional development; (3) To evaluate, monitor and provide feedback to trainees and mentors to optimize professional development, based on creation of ITMDPs, and (4) to maximally link the Professional Development and Networking cores for optimal success with the TL1 program. We are confident that this integrated, comprehensive set of programs will foster a community of trainees acquiring the necessary knowledge and skills to allow them to successfully navigate their academic KUH career pathway.