Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation (M-PACT) in Biomedical and Health Sciences

点击翻译按钮获取中文摘要

PROJECT SUMMARY: OVERALL Engaging diverse intellectual capital is imperative for finding creative solutions for complex problems at the frontiers of biomedical science. As a large public institution, the University of Michigan (UM) has been deeply involved in both the science and practice of diversity-building. Identifying targets for intervention to promote the careers of NIH-funded researchers has been a key scholarly focus of PI Reshma Jagsi, who has led national programs to promote the vitality of the biomedical research workforce. Promoting cross-institutional change in the service of inclusive excellence at UM has been led for the past 8 years by PI Robert Sellers, UM's first Chief Diversity Officer. Together with innovative leaders across our campus, we now propose to establish the Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation (M-PACT) to consolidate our gains and deepen our commitment to expanding and sustaining diversity in the biomedical and health sciences. M-PACT will build on UM's successful Collegiate Fellows Program, a fellows-to-faculty pipeline designed by Co-I Tabbye Chavous, UM's new Chief Diversity Officer; since its inception, that program has successfully recruited 45 new tenure- track faculty with demonstrated commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). M-PACT will broaden the reach of this robust pilot program by expanding from one unit to 11 biomedical and health science units across campus, and address an institutional gap, i.e., recruiting a critical mass of faculty committed to DEI, which is needed for sustained impact. M-PACT's Administrative Core will oversee the recruitment of 30 new tenure- track early-career investigators in 3 research clusters that span the breadth of NIH's mission: 1) Basic Biomedical Research; 2) Clinical-Translational Research; and 3) Social and Behavioral Research. M-PACT's Faculty Development (FD) Core will train a pool of accomplished Sponsor-Mentors with commitment to DEI who will serve the M-PACT Scholars and transform culture by seeding change in departments across campus. The FD Core will implement evidence-based practices, including training to support career development and networking and culturally aware coaching support to develop the skills of Scholars to succeed in research, find satisfaction in their professional and community/residential lives and develop into leaders who can sustain the transformed culture. M-PACT's Evaluation Core will rigorously assess this process and outcomes to inform and refine the program and disseminate generally. We anticipate that M-PACT will improve the productivity, career trajectories and experiences of M-PACT Scholars and help transform the broader DEI climate through an innovative approach that includes deep training of embedded Sponsor-Mentors, Scholars and unit-level mentors and leaders positioned to affect the experiences of faculty and learners well beyond the Scholars alone. Buy-in from across the highest levels of central administration, decanal support from the 11 participating schools/colleges/institutes and close involvement of department leaders will foster institutionalization of best practices and policies to ensure long-term cultural change.