Created by Jonathan Mendez, last modified by Jonathan Mendez 28 Feb 2023, at 12:00 AM
CEC Data Briefs
From the DPC Coordination and Evaluation Center at UCLA
Data briefs on this page include:
Changes in faculty perceptions of climate and institutional commitment to diversity at Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) institutions, 2017 to 2020
Self-reported effects of the climate of racial injustice on student stress levels and engagement in related protests and demonstrations from the 2021 Enhance Diversity Study, Student Annual Follow-Up Survey
Self-reported effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on research activities and access to mentors from the 2021 Enhance Diversity Study, Student Annual Follow-up Survey
Self-reported Impacts of the Climate of Racial Injustice on Faculty Stress Levels and Engagement in Social Protests and Demonstrations from the 2021 Enhance Diversity Study, Faculty Annual Follow-Up Survey
Self-reported Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Faculty Research Productivity, Creativity and Motivation from the 2021 Enhance Diversity Study, Faculty Annual Follow-up Survey
An Early Look at Faculty Perceptions of Climate and Institutional Commitment to Diversity at BUILD Institutions - April 2021
A Comparison of Intended Biomedical Majors Across Sexual and Gender Identity: A First Look from Freshmen at BUILD Sites
Biomedical Faculty Use of Student-Centered Pedagogy at BUILD Institutions - Baseline Findings for Hallmark FAC-17
BUILD Students More Strongly Identify as Scientists than Non-BUILD Students
Trends in Undergraduate Biomedical Graduates at Funded BUILD Sites: Baseline Data for Assessing Institutional Impact
NRMN Online Portal Registrants Report High Levels of Mentoring Experience and Quality
Biomedical Faculty Mentoring Self-Efficacy at BUILD Institutions
Changes in faculty perceptions of climate and institutional commitment to diversity at Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) institutions, 2017 to 2020
Research has shown that institutional climates supportive of diversity and factors that contribute to a sense of belonging contribute to faculty retention and success for women and individuals from racial and ethnic groups underrepresented (URM) in science, technology, engineering, math, and medicine (STEMM) (Hurtado et al., 2012; Jayakumar et al., 2009; Johnson, 2012).
Self-reported effects of the climate of racial injustice on student stress levels and engagement in related protests and demonstrations from the 2021 Enhance Diversity Study, Student Annual Follow-Up Survey
Myriad stressors plague college students today. While environment, level of resources, expectations, and relationships have all been identified as major sources of stress for students (Hurst et al, 2012), academic stress represents a key factor influencing academic outcomes (Debrard et al., 2004; Palmer et al., 2009; Zajacova et al., 2005).
Self-reported effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on research activities and access to mentors from the 2021 Enhance Diversity Study, Student Annual Follow-up Survey
Every spring, the Enhance Diversity Study (EDS) administers surveys to participants who are current or former students at the university campuses that have Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) programs (Norris et al., 2020). The COVID-19 pandemic led to disruptions in every aspect of life worldwide, and university campuses had to drastically alter the way they functioned, with instruction, mentoring, and research activities shifting to virtual spaces or closing campuses altogether (Grineski et al., 2022).
Self-reported Impacts of the Climate of Racial Injustice on Faculty Stress Levels and Engagement in Social Protests and Demonstrations from the 2021 Enhance Diversity Study, Faculty Annual Follow-Up Survey
The changing educational landscape and the rise in multifarious and nontraditional student populations invite campuses to adjust their programs and services to effectively meet student demands and compete with other campuses for top talent. Ensuring students have access to a diverse learning environment, one that includes a diversified pool of faculty is critical to meeting students’ needs.
Self-reported Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Faculty Research Productivity, Creativity and Motivation from the 2021 Enhance Diversity Study, Faculty Annual Follow-up Survey
In the Spring of 2021, the Enhance Diversity Study (EDS) invited professors, lecturers, and instructors from the DPC BUILD institutions to participate in the 2021 Faculty Annual Follow- up Survey (FAFS). Eight items were added to the FAFS 2021 to allow respondents to describe how the COVID-19 pandemic impacted their personal and professional life.
An Early Look at Faculty Perceptions of Climate and Institutional Commitment to Diversity at BUILD Institutions - April 2021
Summary
The 10 NIH-funded BUILD programs are experiments at the student, faculty and institutional levels with the goal of creating a knowledge base to enhance diversity in the biomedical sciences. Two desired outcomes (also known as Hallmarks of Success) are specifically related to institutional climate: 1) commitment to efforts that create, enhance, and/or maintain diversity and inclusion at all levels of the institution (INST-1), and 2) evidence of creating, enhancing, and/or maintaining diverse, inclusive, and culturally appropriate research and research training environments (INST-2). BUILD faculty members at BUILD institutions are in a key position to assess institutional climate, diversity and inclusion efforts, and institutional commitment to diversity. This analysis found few differences in perceptions of institutional climate and commitment among the faculty by their BUILD involvement in the early phase of the BUILD programs. This brief documents these differences in order to provide a baseline of faculty perceptions of institutional climate and commitment for future analyses of institutional change over time.
Biomedical Faculty Use of Student-Centered Pedagogy at BUILD Institutions - Baseline Findings for Hallmark FAC-17
Summary
The use of student-centered pedagogy (SCP) is an approach that engages students as active participants in the learning process. Faculty use of evidence-based practices in teaching and mentoring is hallmark (FAC-17) of the NIH Diversity Program Consortium (DPC). Data from the 2016 Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) survey of faculty found that faculty at BUILD institutions who were BUILD-affiliated did not differ from other faculty at those institutions in their use of evidence-based SCP methods, but utilization of SCP does vary by academic rank, gender, and discipline. This baseline data on BUILD faculty shows that their use of SCP at the beginning of this program was similar to national averages.
A Comparison of Intended Biomedical Majors Across Sexual and Gender Identity: A First Look from Freshmen at BUILD Sites
Summary
There is limited information on the educational experiences of sexual and gender minority students (SGM, i.e., those who identify as part of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, queer [LGBQ] or transgender communities) in STEM. Data from the HERI 2016 Freshman Survey (TFS) at BUILD institutions indicate that among students intending to pursue biomedical majors, a smaller proportion of SGM students intend to pursue degrees in natural science and engineering (NSE) disciplines and a higher percentage intend to enter biomedical behavioral/ social science (BSS) disciplines relative to heterosexual and cisgender (HCG) students. Given the need to develop and expand the biomedical workforce, and considering that SGM status can be another dimension of diversity and inclusion, the experiences of SGM students aspiring to major in biomedical fields warrant further examination.
BUILD Students More Strongly Identify as Scientists than Non-BUILD Students - September 2018
Summary
Science identity represents the extent to which students conceive of themselves as scientists and is one of the hallmarks of the NIH Diversity Program Consortium (DPC).a Data from the 2017 Student Annual Follow-up Survey (SAFS) indicates that BUILD students in biomedical majors have a higher average science identity score than non-BUILD biomedical students at the same institutions. The higher science identity among BUILD students occurs for most racial/ethnic groups and for all items in the science identity scale. Given the importance of science identity to continuing on the biomedical career pathway, these results suggest that BUILD students are more likely to persist in science majors and careers than other biomedical science students at their institutions.
Trends in Undergraduate Biomedical Graduates at Funded BUILD Sites: Baseline Data for Assessing Institutional Impact - October 2018
Summary
A major NIH initiative is underway to determine the most effective ways to engage students from diverse backgrounds in biomedical research, and to prepare students to become potential future contributors to the NIH-funded research enterprise. The 10 grantees vary widely, from Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs), where most biomedical graduates are from underrepresented groups, to large public schools with moderate representation of underrepresented groups among their biomedical graduates. Graduation data from four years pregrant and two early years of the BUILD program show a general trend of constant proportions of underrepresented minority (URM) students graduating in biomedical majors, with a few institutions showing a rapid growth in the numbers that reflects overall increases in their number of students graduating with biomedical degrees over that time. Since few graduating students would have been involved in the new programs in the period shown, these trend data are best considered baseline or preintervention information that can be used in future years to help assess the institutional impact of the BUILD grants.
NRMN Online Portal Registrants Report High Levels of Mentoring Experience and Quality - October 2018
Summary
The National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) provides researchers across all career stages with mentorship and professional development programming that emphasizes the benefits and challenges of diversity, inclusivity and culture (https://nrmnet.net). Individuals register on the NRMN online portal to use virtual mentoring, access online resources, or sign up for a wide variety of training events. When enrolling through the online portal, all registrants are required to identify as a mentor or mentee, regardless of how they use NRMN.
Biomedical Faculty Mentoring Self-Efficacy at BUILD Institutions - Preliminary Results - July 2019
Summary
Within the biomedical disciplines, faculty-student mentorship is a key component for success. Mentors provide support, motivation, and advice to students that increase their social capital in research, as well as their skills and identities as scientists. Increasing mentoring self-efficacy is one of the hallmarks (FAC-3) that serves as an intermediate outcome for the NIH Diversity Program Consortium (DPC).1 Data from the 2016-2017 HERI Faculty Survey2 finds that biomedical faculty respondents at the 10 BUILD sites report having higher mentoring self-efficacy scores if they are involved with the BUILD program than if they are not. This suggests that BUILD students are likely to have access to higher quality mentoring than other biomedical students.
The Diversity Program Consortium is updating its current website to better serve the community by increasing its dissemination reach and making it more functional.
The new site includes the story of the DPC, its members and how the consortium has been working to enhance diversity.
In the coming months, additional features to provide access to publications and tools, media resources and press kits, and student features will be added.
The Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) started with evidence about NIH funding patterns that sparked an idea. A group of seven researchers wanted to know more about who applied for and received funding from the NIH (Ginther et al., 2011) [link listed below, too]. The researchers found that many Black/African American scientists were applying for NIH funding, but their applications were 10% less likely to be funded than applications from other groups. This wake-up call spurred the NIH to action.
Created by Jonathan Mendez, last modified by Jonathan Mendez 24 Oct 2022, at 12:00 AM
CEC Technical Reports
From the DPC Coordination and Evaluation Center at UCLA
CEC technical reports on this page include:
Enhance Diversity Study: Power Calculations for Student Outcome Analyses
Evaluation of Post-secondary Student Outcomes: Underrepresented (URG) and Well-Represented (WRG) Group Variable Construction in the Enhance Diversity Study using the November 2019 NIH Guidelines
Short-Form of the Mentoring Competency Assessment (MCA-short)
BUILD Program Evaluation: Case Study Analysis
BUILD Program Evaluation: Identification of Comparator Institutions
Enhance Diversity Study: Power Calculations for Student Outcome Analyses
In this technical report, we report results of power calculations conducted to determine the smallest differences in outcomes between BUILD-exposed students and students not involved in BUILD that can be detected with 80% power, given the sample sizes of students at BUILD institutions that are expected to be available for longitudinal analysis.
Evaluation of Post-secondary Student Outcomes: Underrepresented (URG) and Well-Represented (WRG) Group Variable Construction in the Enhance Diversity Study using the November 2019 NIH Guidelines
This technical report details coding recommendations for well-represented groups (WRG) and under-represented groups (URG) that are consistent with groups that the National Institutes of Health (NIH) have identified as underrepresented in the biomedical research enterprise. Specifically, the report describes the coding of WRG and URG being implemented in the consortium-wide survey data that is being used in the DPC-wide evaluation.
Short-Form of the Mentoring Competency Assessment (MCA-short)
The original Mentor Competency Assessment (MCA) scale was published as "The mentoring competency assessment: validation of a new instrument to evaluate skills of research mentors" in 2013 by Fleming et al. in Academic Medicine, a Journal of the Association of American Medical Colleges. The 26-item scale measured six sub-domains of mentor competency: maintaining effective communication, aligning expectations, assessing understanding, addressing diversity, fostering independence, and promoting professional development. The original MCA was used in the national longitudinal Enhance Diversity Study (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Faculty Annual Follow-up Survey 2017-2108 and 2019; National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) Annual Follow-up Survey 2016-2017, 2017-2018, and 2019) as part of the evaluation of the Diversity Program Consortium, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH U54GM119024).
Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) features a set of 10 linked awards granted to undergraduate institutions, each of which developed approaches intended to determine the most effective ways to engage students from diverse backgrounds in biomedical research. These awards also intend to prepare students to become potential future contributors to the NIH-funded research enterprise. The Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC) at UCLA has been charged with conducting a longitudinal, multi-method evaluation of the BUILD programmatic interventions designed to diversify the biomedical workforce (Davidson, Maccalla, Afifi, et al., 2017). This technical report documents the methodology for the qualitative analysis employed by the CEC case study evaluation team. See our other white paper for details on the protocols and data collection process.
BUILD Program Evaluation: Identification of Comparator Institutions
Funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH), BUILD (BUilding Infrastructure Leading to Diversity) is a set of experimental training awards designed to learn how to attract students from diverse backgrounds into the biomedical research workforce and encourage them to become future contributors to the NIH-funded research enterprise. There are 10 primary BUILD grantees that include 11 institutions. This technical report describes the procedures used to identify comparator institutions for each of the BUILD institutions and reports the number and characteristics of the matched institutions. In particular, we describe (1) the formation of the candidate pool of potential comparator institutions; (2) the institutional characteristics used as matching variables; (3) the use of a matching procedure called coarsened exact matching to identify potential comparator institutions matched to BUILD schools; (4) refinement of the comparator list based on qualitative review; and (5) the final list of BUILD and comparator institutions. Due to confidentiality concerns, names or other identifying information of the comparator institutions are not provided.
The Diversity Program Consortium Logo
This logo should be adopted by sites to be included on posters, presentations, reports, manuscripts, white papers, marketing materials, programs, letters, websites, social media graphics (when applicable), videos and other Consortium-funded products. This is our logo to ensure we "stamp" all this Initiative's supported materials. The logo should not be used on any non-DPC related products.
Logo placement
Reports, papers and flyers: Unless prominently featured, the logo should be placed on the bottom right corner when possible. If a university logo is included to brand a product, the logo may be placed on the bottom left corner. Videos: The logo must be included at the beginning or end of any videos produced by DPC-funded initiatives or programs.
What's "DPC", again?
DPC stands for Diversity Program Consortium, of course!
.PNG Files for download
These files are available in small, medium, and high resolution, and have a transparent background.
Coordination & Evaluation Center Logo
Developed during phase II, this logo is for CEC use only. It should be included on all posters, presentations, reports, manuscripts, white papers, marketing materials, programs, letters, website and social media graphics (when applicable), videos and other CEC-produced products. The DPC logo should also accompany the CEC logo when possible.
Logo placement
Reports, papers and flyers: Unless prominently featured, the logo should be placed on the bottom right corner when possible. If a university logo is included to brand a product, the logo may be placed on the bottom left corner. Videos: The logo must be included at the beginning or end of any videos produced by DPC-funded initiatives or programs.
This guide is divided into topic areas that should be considered when writing a document or giving a presentation regarding the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) that will be available to the broader community. Each topic area may have Background, Sample Text and suggestions for what information to include or exclude (DPC Do's and Dont's).
Created by Jonathan Mendez, last modified by Jonathan Mendez 31 Aug 2022, at 12:00 AM
CEC Publications
From the DPC Coordination and Evaluation Center at UCLA
CEC publications on this page include:
Special Issue: Evaluating a National Biomedical Diversity Initiative
“Moving the Science Forward”: Faculty Perceptions of Culturally Diverse Mentor Training Benefits, Challenges, and Support
Mentoring Experiences and Publication Productivity Among Early Career Biomedical Investigators and Trainees
A Cross-Case Analysis of Developing Program Sustainability and Institutionalization in Early Stages of a Multisite Biomedical Student Diversity Initiative
Examining the Impact of the BUilding Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative on Academic and Researcher Self-Efficacy among First Year Students
Interventions to Optimize Mentoring Relationships for Diverse Biomedical Researchers
Development of the Self-Efficacy as Faculty Change Agent for Diversity (SE-FCA-D) Scale
A Participatory Approach to Evaluating a National Training and Institutional Change Initiative: The BUILD Longitudinal Evaluation
Advancing Inclusive Science and Systemic Change: The Convergence of National Aims and Institutional Goals in Implementing and Assessing Biomedical Science Training
Baseline Characteristics of the 2015-2019 First Year Student Cohorts of the NIH Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Program in Ethnicity & Disease *NEW*
Evaluating Efforts to Diversify the Biomedical Workforce: The Role and Function of the Coordination and Evaluation Center of the Diversity Program Consortium
Using Collaborative Approaches with a Multi-method, Multi-site, Multi-target Intervention: Evaluating the National Research Mentoring Network
Special Issue: Evaluating a National Biomedical Diversity Initiative
Summary
Editors’ notes by Lourdes Guerrero, Christina Christie
Understanding the context and appreciating the complexity of evaluating the Diversity Program Consortium by Lourdes R. Guerrero, Teresa Seeman, Heather McCreath, Nicole M.G. Maccalla, Keith C. Norris
Implementing case study design to evaluate diverse institutions and STEM education contexts: Lessons and key areas for systematic study by Krystle P. Cobian, Damani Khary White-Lewis, Sylvia Hurtado, Hector V. Ramos
Describing engagement practices for the Enhance Diversity Study using principles of Tailored Panel Management by Karina D. Ramirez, Cynthia J. Joseph, Hansook Oh
A meta-analysis approach for evaluating the effectiveness of complex multisite programs by Catherine M. Crespi, Krystle P. Cobian
Gauging treatment impact: The development of exposure variables in a large-scale evaluation study by Nicole M. G. Maccalla, Dawn Purnell, Heather E. McCreath, Robert A. Dennis, Teresa Seeman
Theoretical and conceptual frameworks across local evaluation efforts in a nationwide consortium by Christina A. Christie, Carmel R. Wright
Advice from local/site evaluators: How to manage “up” within a large-scale initiative by Melanie Hwalek, Matt Honoré, Shavonnea Brown
Large-scale evaluation efforts and their implications for the field by Tarek Azzam
The funders’ perspective: Lessons learned from the National Institutes of Health Diversity Program Consortium evaluation by Kenneth D. Gibbs Jr., Christa Reynolds, Sabrina Epou, Alison Gammie
“Moving the Science Forward”: Faculty Perceptions of Culturally Diverse Mentor Training Benefits, Challenges, and Support
Summary
There is a pressing need for deeper cultural awareness among postsecondary faculty, yet few studies focus on institutions with developing research infrastructure, which enroll large proportions of racially minoritized students. Using social exchange theory, we inves- tigate faculty members’ perceptions of “culturally diverse mentor training,” which includes culturally aware mentor (CAM) training, Entering Mentoring, and self-designed mentor training initiatives.
Mentoring Experiences and Publication Productivity Among Early Career Biomedical Investigators and Trainees
Summary
Underrepresented racial and eth- nic minorities (URMs) are less likely to graduate from high school, attend college and major in biomedical sci- ences, and obtain doctoral degrees than non-Hispanic Whites. Persis- tent educational disparities occur across the lifecourse and extend be- yond academic preparation pathways and into career trajectories. African Americans/Blacks, Latinos/Latinas, American Indians or Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and other Pacific Islanders are URMs in the biomedical sciences, while non-Hispanic Whites and Asians are well-represented groups (WRGs) in the biomedical sciences.
A Cross-Case Analysis of Developing Program Sustainability and Institutionalization in Early Stages of a Multisite Biomedical Student Diversity Initiative
Summary
Grant funding often drives innovative programming in efforts to enhance diversity in biomedical fields, yet strategies for sustainability of grant-funded biomedical intervention are not well understood. Additionally, as funding agencies shift toward supporting institutional change to biomedical training, less is known about the extent to which sustainability strategies can support long-term institutionalization of the original goals of the grant- funded initiative. The purpose of this study is twofold: to identify strategies used by grant-funded programs for promoting sustainability, and to examine the interrelations between the concepts of sustainability and institutionalization during early stages of grant-funded biomedical career training efforts.
Examining the Impact of the BUilding Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Initiative on Academic and Researcher Self-Efficacy among First Year Students
Summary
Stemming from Albert Bandura’s work on self-efficacy (1977) and later work on social cognitive theory (Bandura, 1991), self-efficacy was developed to explain how people think, motivate themselves, and ultimately how they behave - including how long they will persist in the face of obstacles or challenging situations (Bandura & Adams, 1977).
Interventions to Optimize Mentoring Relationships for Diverse Biomedical Researchers
Summary
The articles in this special issue provide insights from a variety of mentoring interventions that were implemented across the NIH Diversity Program Consortium (DPC). Many of the articles highlight examples of how the Entering Mentoring and Entering Research curricular materials, available through the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN), were adapted and implemented for research mentors and research trainees at Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) institutions.
Development of the Self-Efficacy as Faculty Change Agent for Diversity (SE-FCA-D) Scale
Summary
This publication provides an overview of the development of the Self-Efficacy as Faculty Change Agent for Diversity (SE-FCA-D) scale. The 5-item scale recently appeared as an additional module on the Higher Education and Research Institute (HERI) Faculty Survey 2019-2020 for the 10 BUILD programs within the Diversity Program Consortium that are participating in the Enhance Diversity Study, supported by the National Institutes of Health (NIH U54GM119024).
A Participatory Approach to Evaluating a National Training and Institutional Change Initiative: The BUILD Longitudinal Evaluation
Summary
The National Institutes of Health (NIH) funds training programs to increase the numbers and skills of scientists who obtain NIH research grants, but few programs have been rigorously evaluated. The sizeable recent NIH investment in developing programs to increase the diversity of the NIH-funded workforce, implemented through the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), is unusual in that it also funds a Consortium-wide evaluation plan, which spans the activities of the 10 BUilding Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) awardees and the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN). The purpose of this article is to describe the evaluation design and innovations of the BUILD Program on students, faculty, and institutions of the 10 primarily undergraduate BUILD sites.
Advancing Inclusive Science and Systemic Change: The Convergence of National Aims and Institutional Goals in Implementing and Assessing Biomedical Science Training
Summary
National reports call for improving America?s leadership in scientific research, accelerating degree attainments, and diversifying the scientific workforce to foster innovation. However, slow progress and persistent disparities across growing U.S. populations are evident on key science workforce indicators, from degree attainment to career achievements. The purpose of this article is to provide a conceptual basis and overview of a national effort funded by the National Institutes of Health (NIH) that advances inclusive science practice and systemic change. We introduce the context, features, and rationale that drive practice and evaluation in the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) approach, which is an experimental program to implement and evaluate evidence-based and novel practices to expand and diversify the biomedical workforce.
Baseline Characteristics of the 2015-2019 First Year Student Cohorts of the NIH Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Program in Ethnicity & Disease
Summary
The biomedical/behavioral sciences lag in the recruitment and advancement of students from historically underrepresented backgrounds. In 2014 the NIH created the Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), a prospective, multi-site study comprising 10 Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) institutional grantees, the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and a Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC). This article describes baseline characteristics of four incoming, first-year student cohorts at the primary BUILD institutions who completed the Higher Education Research Institute, The Freshmen Survey between 2015-2019. These freshmen are the primary student cohorts for longitudinal analyses comparing outcomes of BUILD program participants and non-participants.
Evaluating Efforts to Diversify the Biomedical Workforce: The Role and Function of the Coordination and Evaluation Center of the Diversity Program Consortium
Summary
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) includes a Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC) to conduct a longitudinal evaluation of the two signature, national NIH initiatives - the Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) and the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) programs - designed to promote diversity in the NIH-funded biomedical, behavioral, clinical, and social sciences research workforce. Evaluation is central to understanding the impact of the consortium activities. This article reviews the role and function of the CEC and the collaborative processes and achievements critical to establishing empirical evidence regarding the efficacy of federally-funded, quasi-experimental interventions across multiple sites. The integrated DPC evaluation is particularly significant because it is a collaboratively developed Consortium Wide Evaluation Plan and the first hypothesis-driven, large-scale systemic national longitudinal evaluation of training programs in the history of NIH/National Institute of General Medical Sciences.
Using Collaborative Approaches with a Multi-Method, Multi-Site, Multi-Target Intervention: Evaluating the National Research Mentoring Network
Summary
The NIH-funded National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) aims to increase the representation and success of underrepresented groups (URGs) in biomedical research by enhancing the training and career development of individuals from diverse backgrounds, communities, and cultures. The national scope of NRMN, its wide array of innovative programs in mentor and mentee matching and training across the career spectrum, requires a collaborative evaluation strategy that addresses both internal and external evaluation needs. Due to the variety of programs implemented for each target group, the NRMN program is responsible for its own process and short-term outcome evaluations and the national Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC) is responsible for assessing the medium and long-term effectiveness of the implemented strategies and program sustainability. Using a collaborative, utilization-focused evaluation framework, both internal NRMN evaluators and the CEC are working to translate findings into information that can be used to make both short term and long-term decisions about the efficacy and reach of the NRMN model. This important information can then inform efforts to institutionalize the current programs and potentially replicate them elsewhere.
The Diversity Program Consortium is updating its current website to better serve the community by increasing its dissemination reach and making it more functional.
The new site includes the story of the DPC, its members and how the consortium has been working to enhance diversity.
In the coming months, additional features to provide access to publications and tools, media resources and press kits, and student features will be added.
For Events & Opportunities
We the DPC
The Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) started with evidence about NIH funding patterns that sparked an idea. A group of seven researchers wanted to know more about who applied for and received funding from the NIH (Ginther et al., 2011) [link listed below, too]. The researchers found that many Black/African American scientists were applying for NIH funding, but their applications were 10% less likely to be funded than applications from other groups. This wake-up call spurred the NIH to action.
