Institutional Research and Academic Career Development

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The Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching (FIRST) program is in a consortium of two research- intensive institutions, Emory University and the Morehouse School of Medicine (MSM), and the three minority-serving teaching institutions of the Atlanta University Center (AUC), Morehouse College, Spelman College, and Clark Atlanta University. The program has proven successful in recruitment, retention, research publications and placement of graduates of the program. We have increased the number of underrepresented minorities entering careers in biomedical research. The FIRST program provides interdisciplinary biomedical research training in the areas supported by NIGMS by a faculty with the expertise to provide the foundation critical for outstanding postdoctoral research training. The current research mentors are members of 20 biological and clinical science departments at Emory and MSM. Over the three years of the fellowship, the research post-doctoral experience is complemented and integrated with a teaching program which moves from a How to Teach course, to peer teaching, to a carefully developed mentored teaching experience with a professor at the AUC which culminates in the fellows taking leadership roles in a course. By many research measures, including number and quality ofpublications and job placement, FIRST fellows and theFIRST ' program are succeeding in providing a quality research experience. Similarly, by many evaluative teaching measures, including integrating innovative methods and courses into the AUC curricula and inspiring the next generation of minority scientists, FIRST fellows and the FIRST program are successful in teaching endeavors. Some of this success may be due to less-traditionally-noted benefits, such as the creation of a cohesive core of post-doctoral fellows and alumni that interact in and out of the laboratory, resulting collaboration between the research and teaching institutions of the consortium in research and education projects, and the surge in overall representation of minority scientists at Emory. With the aid of intensive formative and summative evaluation and strong collaborative efforts, FIRST has adapted to many of the challenges any such multi-institutional program faces, and we propose herein to continue the program and all of its successes.