The Einstein-Montefiore Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Mentorship program

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ABSTRACT This is a proposal for a supplement to the R01 entitled Understanding cellular and transcriptional regulatory changes in human aging. It responds to NOT-OD-22-057, the Notice of Special Interest (NOSI): Administrative Supplements to Recognize Excellence in Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility (DEIA) Mentorship. The parent R01 studies the ‘epigenetic’ events involved with ageing in humans, extending beyond the typical consideration of cellular reprogramming events into systematic cell subtype proportional changes, and the unmasking of functional DNA sequence variants with age. As this project permits the development of techniques that permit insights into DNA sequence variants in non- coding regions that can influence the risk of disease in people of diverse genetic ancestry, represented strongly by our community here in the Bronx, the project has attracted individuals from diverse, under-represented groups, with diversity supplements awarded to an indigenous postdoctoral fellow and a Hispanic graduate student. While such funding is individually very valuable, it has become apparent that there needs to be a more general institutional climate in place to foster the careers of those from typically excluded groups. The NOSI described above provides the opportunity to fund an institution-wide program to enhance the careers of these under- represented colleagues. We describe an intensive one-year plan to develop and implement a new curriculum towards this goal. We will leverage existing institutional resources, develop new programs, and harness external consulting resources in a new, integrated course. We will protect the time of program participants and faculty, and will collect information systematically about the program so that we will, at the end of the year, have collected enough data to direct how ongoing resource investment should be targeted. Our goal is to guide our institution’s development of an equitable environment that provides very active training for those from minoritized groups, developing the future leaders who will amplify the benefits of the training to an increasingly large part of our academic community.