United States

2025 Understanding Interventions Annual Conference

“Unpacking Recommendations for Developing Undergraduate Research Infrastructure: Leveraging Ten Years of Lessons Learned from the Diversity Program Consortium”

### Welcome to the 2025 Understanding Interventions Annual Conference

This year’s event promises to be an enlightening experience, filled with opportunities for sharing, networking, engagement, and inspiration.

Our mission? To foster an inclusive environment where the science communities can come together to discuss, collaborate, and strategize on how to broaden participation in science careers. Whether you’re an educator, researcher, policymaker, or passionate advocate, this conference is designed to provide valuable insights and practical solutions.

Get ready for:
* **Cutting-edge Research:** Explore the latest trends and findings in interventions aimed at enhancing diversity and inclusion in science fields.
* **Networking Opportunities:** Connect with like-minded professionals, forge new partnerships, and exchange ideas that can drive meaningful change.
* **Inspiring Keynote & Speakers:** Gain insights from renowned speakers who are leading the charge in promoting diversity and equity in science.
* **Global Perspectives:** Engage with experts from around the world to gain diverse perspectives and approaches to addressing common challenges.
* **Professional Development:** Enhance your skills and knowledge through workshops, panel discussions, and interactive sessions tailored to your professional growth.
* **Seed Funding Opportunities:** Learn about funding opportunities and resources available to support initiatives aimed at increasing diversity in STEM.

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Don’t miss out on this invaluable opportunity to be part of a movement towards a more inclusive and equitable future in science. This year’s event promises to be an enlightening experience, filled with opportunities for sharing, networking, engagement, and inspiration.
Mark your calendars, spread the word, and join us for the 2025 Understanding Interventions Annual Conference on February 7-8th.

keynote

Background: The graduate education community increasingly recognizes the critical role that mentorship plays in trainee development and career preparation. Studies indicate that mentor-mentee relationships enhance graduate students’ academic research experience. The process of choosing a research group and dissertation committee to establish a foundation for the graduate school experience can significantly impact a trainee’s research skills and career development. However, navigating this process can be challenging, especially for students from historically marginalized backgrounds who may lack the social and cultural capital needed to navigate the research environment. Therefore, training that empowers graduate students with the skills and knowledge to choose an advisor, a research group, and a dissertation committee that best fits their identities and backgrounds is needed. 

Program: Science Communication Lab (SCL) and WISCIENCE teamed up to develop a course using evidence-based materials, including the Entering Research curriculum (Branchaw, Butz, & Smith, 2020), on establishing and maintaining healthy, professional relationships. The course, “Build Your Research Community,” aims to demystify the apprenticeship model of scientific training through a free, interactive online platform, and is designed for students transitioning into life-science graduate school (senior undergraduates, post-baccalaureate students, and early career graduate students). It guides students through the process of finding and developing healthy mentoring relationships, especially with one’s primary research advisor. To connect the practices to their individual situations, students watch videos, complete reflective questions, participate in online discussions, and are encouraged to reflect on their own strategies and challenges. 

Pilot test: In collaboration with 12 training programs, we conducted 2 years of pilot testing with 396 students in total. Preliminary results from this past year show that 75% of students (Ns 108-197) agreed or strongly agreed that the course topics were relevant to their training and 67% were somewhat or extremely likely to recommend the course to other trainees. In addition, more than 60% of students reported “a lot” or “a great deal” in the learning gains for the course and higher percentages of participants agreed or strongly agreed with science identity statements post-course compared to overall responses on a pre-survey.

Conclusion: "Build Your Research Community" addresses a critical need by providing accessible, evidence-based training to help students establish and maintain healthy mentoring relationships. By making the hidden curriculum explicit, graduate students are empowered, particularly those from historically marginalized backgrounds, to navigate the research environment effectively.

Session Format: This session will explore our instructional design approach to developing inclusive, interactive online curricula for navigating relationships for mentees, including sourcing diverse speakers and content selection. Representatives from SCL and the Wisconsin Institute for Science Education and Community Engagement (WISCIENCE) at University of Wisconsin-Madison will present an overview of the NIH-funded (IPERT) course on navigating mentoring relationships (5 mins). Preliminary evaluation results from ongoing pilot testing will be presented as well as lessons learned from the implementation process and guidelines on how to integrate the online course into existing curricula (10 mins). In the final section, participants will work in groups to identify potential strategies to incorporate the course into their research training programs. A final question and answer period will engage participants in a discussion of implementation strategies (5 mins). Participants will leave the session with an understanding of the hidden curriculum that graduate students and postdocs face, approaches to address those concerns through mentoring, and strategies for implementing a mentoring curriculum at their own institution.

"Build Your Research Community”: An Inclusive Online Course Effectively Guides Research Trainees in Building Mentoring Networks

Background: The graduate education community recognizes the critical role of mentorship and professional development in training and retaining a diverse biomedical workforce. However, the mentoring and professional development that students’ receive as they near the end of their PhD is often informal, unstructured, variable, and presents a unique set of planning, mentoring, and communication challenges. These challenges are even more pronounced for underrepresented minority students, increasing the likelihood of attrition. To address this, the Yale Ciencia Academy, an NIH-funded professional development program, partnered with Science Communication Lab to develop a series of online video courses to enhance trainees’ ownership of their career exploration and communication, mentoring, and planning skills as they near completion of their PhD and help their PhD to postdoc transition. 

Yale Ciencia Academy program, online course solution, and implementation: The Yale Ciencia Academy (YCA) is a free year-long program that equips biomedical or health sciences doctoral students from underrepresented backgrounds in the final 1-2 years of their programs with the knowledge, skills, and networks they need to find great postdoctoral positions that will further their academic interests and career goals. The YCA program increases mastery in career planning, mentoring-up, and communication skills through workshops, peer and role model discussions, and one-on-one mentoring meetings. YCA fellows showed higher PhD completion (93% YCA vs ~50% in six years or less for biomedical PhDs), clearer career interests, and higher self-efficacy in managing professional transitions. To extend the impact of the program, in collaboration with Science Communication Lab, we converted four of the YCA workshops into a free, interactive online course series. Entitled “Professional Skills for Proactive and Engaged Scientists,” the series aims to enhance trainees’ ownership of their career exploration and communication, mentoring, and planning skills as they near completion of their PhD. The series features courses in four key areas: (1) The Strategic Postdoc, which guides students through the process of considering whether a postdoc position is right for them and if so, finding, interviewing, and choosing a postdoc that fits with their personal and professional aspirations; (2) Strategies for Effective Public Engagement, which helps learners for whom outreach is an important aspect of their identity develop a plan for how to do it ethically and integrate it to their busy lives; (3) Career Planning for Early Career Scientists, which helps learners create an actionable roadmap for identifying career goals and moving on from a PhD; (4) Mentoring-Up, which focuses on establishing productive mentoring relationships to support PhD completion and career advancement. Participants of each course leave with a personalized plan, based on their responses to the course questions, to help implement their personal and career development. The skills acquired through these courses empower students to model supportive mentoring environments and effective career development practices contributing to more inclusive academic research environments. To connect the practices to their individual situations, learners watch videos, complete questions, participate in online discussions, and are guided to reflect and apply lessons to their own lives. We started to create these online courses in 2021 and some have already been pilot-tested by replacing the traditional workshop used in the YCA training with the online course. They have also been tested online as free, interactive online courses. We currently have tested two of the four courses, The Strategic Postdoc and Strategies for Effective Public Engagement. For these courses, students stated that they would highly recommend the course to a friend or colleague and were highly satisfied with the course (average above 4.5 out of 5). 
      
Session Format: In this session, we will present an overview of this new video course series entitled “Professional Skills for Proactive and Engaged Scientists,” including instructional design and online curriculum (10 mins). We will describe how we have incorporated these asynchronous courses into Yale Ciencia Academy (YCA), the importance of pairing online courses with synchronous/group peer-mentoring discussion sessions, and overview the preliminary data for the pilot test with YCA fellows (5 mins). The session will conclude with a discussion of how institutional leaders may be able to incorporate the series, individual courses, or single videos into graduate training programs; and why institutions might be interested in supporting students' explorations of these topics (5 mins). This session will provide the audience with an understanding of what each course provides, including the structure, learning objectives, and activities, the importance of professional development on the success of graduate training, and the benefits of incorporating these professional development training courses on graduate students. We will present models to our participants on how this curriculum can be incorporated into existing graduate training and provide an opportunity to discuss with others on alternative models.

"Professional Skills for Proactive and Engaged Scientists,” a Free, Online Courses Series to Pave the PhD-to-Postdoc Transition

Abstract
Introduction. As demographic shifts continue to occur across the educational landscape, national goals remain salient for diversifying the biomedical workforce. In 2014, the NIH selected 10 undergraduate institutions across the U.S. as sites for the BUilding Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) award, a historic $500 million research training and institutional capacity-building initiative that utilized a multi-pronged approach to enact student, faculty, and institutional level change through evidence-based yet novel initiatives (Hurtado et al., 2017; Gibbs et al., 2022). This study examined efforts toward institutionalization and sustainability accomplished through the award. Through a multiple case study design, we identified what BUILD sites have accomplished at an institutional level and plan to maintain beyond grant funding. The following research questions guided this study:
1.What kinds of initiatives will be sustained and/or institutionalized after award funding ends?
2.What institutional conditions aided or inhibited programs in becoming a permanent part of the institution to advance diversity in biomedical sciences?
 
Methods. To understand program sustainability and institutionalization of the BUILD program, the researchers held one- to two-day site visits at each of the 10 BUILD sites and conducted 259 interviews and focus groups with 368 total participants, including staff, students, faculty, principal investigators, and central administration. The team created summary reports from the site visits and developed matrices to conduct a cross-case analysis of the initiatives. They then conducted multiple rounds of coding of the interview and focus group data, including descriptive coding, thematic coding, and pattern coding. The team continued to create and refine matrices at each step in the process to thoroughly examine the collected data (Saldaña, 2013; Miles et al., 2020).
 
Results. There are several program elements being sustained beyond the grant. At the student level, program elements include: undergraduate scholarship, research, and biomedical training; graduate student programming; and curriculum and courses. At the faculty and organizational levels, interventions include faculty training, changes in faculty hiring practices, and infrastructure developments. However, while this expanded our understanding of what was being sustained beyond the grant, it was also necessary to understand the context and circumstances of these maintained initiatives. The study found four contextual elements that facilitated whether or not programs would be sustained: institutional financial status; organizational infra/structure and partnerships; commitment from central administration and STEMM faculty; and alignment with institutional priorities. The presence of these elements, or lack thereof, described whether or not an institution’s context was receptive toward intervention sustainability.
 
Conclusions and Discussion. This study provides lessons for future grant-funded teams and senior administrators engaged in STEMM equity and inclusion efforts. Regarding the most commonly sustained activities, the interventions that required the fewest resources to maintain were most salient: undergraduate training in courses, faculty mentor training, hiring developments, and infrastructure changes. Regarding contextual elements, the study found that interventions can only be maintained if they are financially viable and supported by the institution at structural, organizational, and individual levels. It is important to note that these contexts, while often preexisting, are also malleable. Context may initially be nonreceptive to sustainability, but there may also be circumstances fostered by program teams to increase the likelihood of sustaining initiatives beyond grant funding.
 
Acknowledgments. Work reported in this publication was supported by NIH Grant U54GM119024 and several NIH offices, centers, and institutes. We thank members of the Coordination and Evaluation Center who contributed to data collection and/or coding: Christian Cabunag, Justin Andrew Gutzwa, and Patricia Martin, and the change agents who shared their experiences for the Enhance Diversity Study and members of the DPC.

Sustaining Grant-funded Programs: Conditions for Sustaining Initiatives that Enhance Diversity in STEMM

Science is inherently hard for most learners. Research demonstrates that learners from underrepresented racial and ethnic backgrounds experience additional difficulties with subject matter. Moreover, at every post-secondary educational level, in the sciences, the representation and retention of underrepresented learners is steadily declining where contributing factors include students’ experience of reduced self-efficacy, stereotype threat, limited familial and financial support as well as insufficient academic preparation. Poor teaching techniques have also been demonstrated to contribute to the decline. Current interventions of mentoring to mitigate the disparity in attrition of said learners do not directly address learner-identified issues within the classroom where instructors are tasked with maximizing the learning experiences for students. Here, in this session, instructor misbehavior is proposed as an unconventional candidate responsible for modulating the attrition of underrepresented learners in science. 

This session is designed to introduce attendees to the literature describing the types of instructor behaviors that are favored and unfavored by students as well as educate attendees on the impact of such behaviors on student affect for subject matter. Following this introduction, session attendees will participate in an activity to generate candid conversation about their opinions as it pertains to instructor (mis)behavior on student learning outcomes in science courses as well as contribute to budding discussions to help foster a much-needed typology that describes how racial and ethnic identity influences student perceptions of instructors’ behaviors.

Whose Fault is it Anyway? The Case of Instructor Misbehavior in the Persistence of Underrepresented Students in Science

Do I Fit? Am I LINKED?, is leaving STEM to much of a SACRIFICE?: STEM Persistence and Career Embeddedness Theory

Despite several institutional and national efforts, underrepresentation persists among the faculty ranks, particularly in STEM disciplines. Innovative faculty hiring interventions are key to correct this historical underrepresentation, but many yield slow or limited progress and are mired by institutional politics and challenging departmental cultures. Longitudinal, sustained efforts are required to advance these initiatives and promote equitable systemic change and advance hiring goals. Duke University developed a novel, multi-faceted approach to faculty hiring over the last 8 years that builds on theoretical frameworks informing culture change, including systemic advancement, increasing self-efficacy and capacity, developing equitable policies and educational opportunities, and building authentic communities. The approach centers extensive efforts to create environments for all faculty to thrive and includes leadership development as an essential component of faculty development, hiring, and retention. Together, these collective efforts have resulted in significant increases in the representation of historically underrepresented racial, ethnic, and gender groups in the academy. This growth is sustained with a parallel focus on faculty retention that has resulted in low institutional attrition for underrepresented faculty in the campus community. 
In this session, participants will discuss successes and roadblocks to equitable faculty hiring and retention programs. They will also learn about the different aspects of the Duke faculty hiring model and discuss aspects of their own institutional approaches. Finally, they will consider ways to strengthen their local hiring efforts and learn from the experiences of their peers.

An Evidence-based, Holistic Model of Faculty Hiring and Retention

Intergenerational education mobility is one of the key dimensions of social mobility. Educational mobility is defined as the association between parents and children’s educational attainment. Children born to parents with a college degree are more likely to graduate from college (Yaish et al 2021). On the other hand, first generation college students (i.e., students who have parents without a college degree) are less likely to go to college and are more likely to drop out of college compared to students with college-educated parents (Ishitani and DesJardins 2002). Previous literature has suggested that parental involvement in higher education leads to improved student performance (Wintre and Yaffe 2000; Kenny 1987).  Parents who did not attend college, on the other hand, might not have the knowledge to help their children navigate college. College students, especially in their freshman year, face many challenges, such as a heavier workload and a distracting peer culture. At our Historically Black University, we developed a year-long communication plan targeting parents of first-year students that aimed to boost the educational cultural capital of parents and cultivate a supportive environment that enhances students' educational experiences and outcomes. One of our main goals was to help retain students in the academic pipeline in majors related to Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM), as well as the health sciences, while also motivating students to pursue graduate school or obtain a job in the field. The program has graduated 3 cohorts of freshman parents. Applying an online survey method, our preliminary results indicate that our intervention may be beneficial to parents without a college degree. For example, parents reported decreased levels of worriedness regarding their children’s healthy living, performance in class, and securing a job after graduation. In addition, the program might also have empowered parents with educational cultural capital, including information about course registration, jobs, internships, research opportunities, how to communicate with professors, and resident life. Details about the intervention and the implications of our findings will be presented.

Testing a Parent-Support Intervention to Improve Success of First-Year Students at a Historically Black University

“Have We Been Achieving Desired Outcomes? NO! Time to Think Outside the Box of a 55 Year Old Formula”

Patterns of Effective Mentorship Among NIH Career Development (K) Awardees

The number of U.S. citizens from minority groups who have earned doctorates in science and engineering has increased over the past decade; however, minorities continue to represent a small proportion of scientists and engineers in the United States (1, 2). In addition, a commonly identified barrier to under resourced populations is limited or inadequate integration into the scientific communities that train them (3). Undergraduates from historically marginalized communities often lack significant exposure to research and professional development, limiting both their interest and competitiveness as applicants to PhD programs in biomedical science. The UAB Blazer BRAIN Summer Research  Program is a summer research experience for undergraduates (REU) which addresses the need to broaden participation in neuroscience-themed PhD programs, by promoting a sense of belonging for students in underserved communities. Accordingly, success for the UAB Blazer BRAIN Program targets a minimum 60% acceptance rate of participants to PhD programs in biomedical science. Blazer BRAIN Scholars spend eight weeks at UAB in labs of their research mentors, completing hypothesis-driven, neuroscience-themed projects. Complementing our Scholars’ immersive research experiences are several opportunities to build confidence in writing and presenting skills, as well as many community building activities to promote their sense of belonging at UAB’s vast biomedical research campus. After their eight-week experience at UAB, Scholars are funded to attend and present at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minoritized Scientists (ABRCMS) meeting, and additionally are invited to serve as “Alumni” Mentors to help onboard future cohorts of Scholars. UAB Blazer BRAIN represents an innovative partnership with five HBCUs in the state of Alabama; we reserve seats for their qualified student applicants, thus facilitating a pipeline between our respective institutions. An additional innovative feature of Blazer BRAIN is our partnership with the NIH-funded Roadmap Scholars R25 program, which recruits PhD students from historically marginalized communities for training in neuroscience. Roadmap Scholars serve as “near-peer” aspirational mentors or RAMs for our Scholars; they help Scholars revise abstracts and posters for research presentations and provide feedback for their end-of-summer oral presentations. RAMs also run the Blazer BRAIN journal club, to help Scholars learn how to critically review scientific literature. Our near-peer mentoring program allows Scholars to “see themselves” as future graduate students, while providing future mentors with leadership and mentoring training. This past summer we hosted our third cohort of Blazer BRAIN Scholars, ten undergraduates hailing from several different institutions primarily throughout the southeast, including our HBCU partner institutions. Our Scholars are asked to complete self-evaluation surveys before and after their summer research experience and are also asked to evaluate their mentors at the end of their in-person experience. Performance of our Program is assessed via annual presentation of program outcomes to our External Advisory Committee. Results of prior evaluations indicated the following: Scholars had an overwhelmingly positive experience; they gained invaluable research skills and professional development; they had a better understanding of careers in biomedical research; and they expressed greater interest for careers in biomedical research. Being in our third year, we have also identified opportunities for improving our Program, including interventions designed to enhance effective engagement with our HBCU partners, and changes to our survey questions designed to more effectively evaluate our Scholars’ confidence, readiness, and sense of belonging in biomedical science. In summary, the Blazer BRAIN summer REU employs innovative strategies to promote the success of our Scholars and our HBCU partner institutions. Through analysis of our success and prospective reflection, we have identified and implemented targeted interventions to further improve the success of our Scholars and in turn our Program.

Mid-Point Assessment of Successes and Opportunities for Improvement of a Five-Year NIH-funded Summer Research Program to Broaden Representation and Inclusion in Neuroscience

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Unpacking Recommendations for Developing Undergraduate Research Infrastructure: Leveraging Ten Years of Lessons Learned from the Diversity Program Consortium