Vanderbilt FIRST - Elevating Excellence and Transforming Institutional Culture

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Scientific workforce diversity has been a longstanding challenge, and lack of progress negatively impacts innovation, scientific discovery, and ultimately public health. Despite ongoing efforts, racial diversity among the nation’s scientific research faculty remains low. Vanderbilt is well poised to build on this experience and achieve more racial and ethnic diversity among our scientific research faculty. The Vanderbilt Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation Program (V-FIRST) will leverage substantial new institutional commitments to diversity and inclusion, and will build on prior success, recruiting women faculty and Black and Latinx postdoctoral fellows, to optimize recruitment and retention of Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Pacific Islander faculty. With commitment of a 3:1 match of institutional dollars to NIH FIRST dollars, V-FIRST will recruit at least 18 tenure-track faculty from minoritized racial and ethnic groups. With a leadership team comprised of key institutional leaders who are highly committed to and experienced in recruiting, developing, mentoring and sponsoring faculty from minoritized groups, we will achieve these goals: Overall Aim 1: Identify and eliminate organizational barriers that impede full participation, advancement, and thriving of racially diverse faculty in academia. We will implement sustainable and progressive institutional policies that enhance diverse faculty hiring, retention, promotion, and tenure, and employ cross- institutional strategies to cultivate inclusivity, cohesion, and belonging. Overall Aim 2: In a series of three cluster hires, recruit 18-20 tenure-track, early-career scientific faculty who are Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Pacific Islander, and establish a supportive and nurturing environment for their success. Using an equity framework, we will implement an inclusive search process that proactively identifies early career Black, Latinx, American Indian, and Pacific Islander scientists, equitably evaluates applications, removes barriers to applying, and provides well-resourced start-up packages. Overall Aim 3: Effectively mentor, retain, and support diverse early-career scientific faculty to promotion with tenure. In addition to Vanderbilt’s vast faculty development resources, we will provide V-FIRST faculty with a multi-tier mentoring and nationally recognized senior scientists as sponsors. We will reduce isolation and increase sense of community with social and culturally-relevant activities that enable V-FIRST faculty to thrive. Overall Aim 4: Comprehensively evaluate V-FIRST’s hiring process, career development activities and the impact of V-FIRST on Vanderbilt’s culture. Using an equity lens, we will determine the effectiveness of the V-FIRST program through process and outcome indicators that measure change at multiple levels, including faculty development, mentoring and relationships, and institutional policies, practices, and culture. We will use data collected through evaluation to inform ongoing program improvement and institutional change.