Catalyzing Systemic Change at Drexel University to Support Diverse Faculty in Health Disparities Research

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PROJECT SUMMARY In response to the NIH U54 Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program (RFA-RM-20-022), Drexel University proposes to establish a robust, transformative and sustainable program to support diverse early career scientists engaged in health disparities research spanning population science to intervention research. This proposal, a collaboration across Drexel University led by Drexel’s Dornsife School of Public Health and College of Nursing and Health Professions, leverages our nationally and internationally recognized NIH and other extramurally supported research, our community-based clinical practices serving diverse, underserved communities, and our shared core values of social justice and health equity guiding our pedagogy, research and hiring practices. Our proposal also strongly reflects Drexel University’s unwavering commitment and newly instituted strategic goals to promote inclusive excellence and ensure diversity, equity, retention, and promotion across for diverse faculty across their career pathways. Our proposed program will create a collaborative structure involving multi-level inputs from University leaders, academic units and faculty to catalyze sustainable institutional change that supports scientific and inclusive excellence in the conduct of health disparities research. With support from the FIRST program, we will hire and mentor a diverse (gender, race, ethnicity) group of 10 early-stage faculty in three clusters who are competitive for tenure-track research positions with joint or secondary appointments across relevant departments, programs, or colleges, Using evidence-based, multi-level mentorship strategies at the individual, department, college and university levels, we will form a scientifically rigorous and supportive learning community in which FIRST faculty will engage in individual and group activities leading to submissions of competitive NIH R01 research proposals. FIRST faculty will be hired who are committed to diversity and whose research addresses one of 3 pillars of health disparities research: detecting (defining/measuring health disparities), understanding (identifying determinants of disparities), and/or reducing (intervene, evaluate, translate, scale, policy) health inequities in cross-cutting thematic areas (aging, chronic disease, and/or environmental determinants). Developing and supporting a cadre of diverse researchers has been identified as an evidence-based strategy for advancing new methodologies, measures, and novel multi-level/multi-modal interventions that address inequities and improve individual and population health outcomes. We will deploy a multi-level and multi-methods evaluative approach guided by critical and intersectionality theories to evaluate nuanced experiences of bias and structural discriminatory practices as well as program successes at the individual, department, mentor, college and University levels of achieving inclusive excellence. Our FIRST Program is co-led by nationally/internationally recognized leaders in population health, intervention science, mentorship of racially/ethnically diverse faculty and evaluation of programs seeking inclusivity.