IRACDA at UCLA

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ABSTRACT Our goal is to continue a career-development program at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) termed IRACDA at UCLA, for transitioning diverse postdoctoral scholars into university-level academic positions. This interdisciplinary program will train new Ph.D. level scholars in research through UCLA's high-quality, discipline- specific programs, and in career development through stage-specific workshops. In parallel, scholars will be trained in inclusive, active learning pedagogy, and assessment by UCLA's “Center for Education Innovation and Learning in the Sciences” (CEILS), the national "Center for Integration of Research, Teaching and Learning" (CIRTL), and UCLA's Summer Institute (SI). An accompanying two-stage mentored teaching experience, termed practicums 1 and 2, will occur at our partner institution, California State University, Los Angeles (Cal State LA), which comprises >70% URMs in STEM majors. Our scholars will teach introductory and advanced biology, and biochemistry courses with their mentors, while introducing novel pedagogical approaches based on CIRTL's Teaching as Research (TAR) core mission. The scholars will also team-teach their own course, BIOL4540, which will train Cal State LA undergraduates to read, present and critique the primary literature. UCLA's Center for Educational Assessment (CEA) will formatively evaluate the program annually. CEA along with assessment performed at Cal State LA, will improve the scholars' teaching skills, and course content, benefiting our partner institution. A steady state of nine IRACDA-funded scholars are necessary to form an effective cohort and learning community to impact Cal State LA's courses. UCLA's research training faculty includes fifty-two outstanding scientists chosen for their diversity, and their records of leadership, scholarship, and mentoring. The training faculty cover a breadth of NIGMS-relevant research topics and participate in outstanding science that will allow scholars to obtain advanced research training using state of the art facilities. Recent Ph.Ds. with excellent research credentials and a commitment to teaching will be actively recruited. Stipend support in the first year of research will be from the research mentors, while the following three years will be from IRACDA. After a year of intense research, teaching will be interwoven into the program. A key aspect of the mentored teaching experience will be development of a TAR project during a limited practicum 1, where the scholars shadow their teaching mentor and teach four lectures. The TAR project will be refined in UCLA's SI between the scholars' first and second years of IRACDA funding, and implemented during Practicum 2, where the scholars will teach half of the mentors' classes. The last IRACDA-funded year will focus on research, paper-writing, job preparation, and completing requirements for CIRTL Scholar-level certification. The broad-based administrative support for IRACDA at UCLA assures a commitment at UCLA and Cal State LA to the development of a new generation of highly effective faculty trained in pedagogy that enhances URM retention in the major, and transition to both graduate schools and the workforce.