A Conversation with Benjamin Chen, MD, PhD & Lauren Peccoralo, MD, MPH
DOM: The NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program aims to transform academic culture to build a self-reinforcing community of scientists committed to diversity and inclusive excellence. How do we as an institution and specifically as an NIH FIRST Grantee aim to achieve this?
BC and LP: In general, achieving this goal starts with individuals working from within our institution to welcome greater diversity and promoting greater awareness of how embracing our diversity makes us all better as an academic health system. For NIH FIRST it means we have the opportunity to recruit, mentor and support 12 new faculty who will enhance our diversity and inclusive excellence in science and biomedical research. When recruiting them as a cohort and in scientific clusters, they have the opportunity to interact as a group, collaborate, and share their scientific interests. As the faculty development core in support of NIH FIRST, we are focusing on eliminating persistent barriers to success of faculty who are underrepresented in science and medicine, and to identify best practices to ensure the success of all faculty recruits. Thus, we hope the NIH FIRST program will have a lasting impact on Mount Sinai that is applicable to and benefiting the entire community of scientists.
DOM: The initiative is limited to four focus areas: neuroscience, health disparities, cancer, and microbiology. How were those areas selected and what can other specialties do to replicate some of the diverse recruitment successes we anticipate?
BC and LP: The approach is consistent with the NIH goal of supporting a cluster hiring initiative. This has several benefits including fostering collaborations, reducing social isolation and facilitating peer mentoring relationships. The four focus areas represent broad areas of strength at Mount Sinai and major NIH funding priorities. Institute leaders at Mount Sinai representing each of these areas took a lead in our initial response, though the breadth of the areas was designed to encompass many research interests from diverse departments and divisions. Should researchers from other departments identify strong recruits with interests in these areas, they should encourage them to apply to the NIH FIRST program. Additionally with the Biomedical Laureates Program, we now have unique resources at Sinai to attract the highest caliber faculty from diverse backgrounds, who are also committed to DEI, and all departments should be developing recruitments to leverage these programs.
DOM: What benchmarks are currently implemented to ensure that we recruit, develop, and retain a highly diverse faculty? How does this grant complement this effort?
BC and LP: Our principal goal is to build an academic research culture that is reflective of the diversity in our community. The Biomedical Laureates program at Mount Sinai was our first institutional commitment of major capital resources to invest in a diverse faculty. At its core, the NIH FIRST grant’s purpose is to hire 12 new investigative faculty—rising stars in their fields--that will build and enhance this culture and the FDC has a role to support them in applying for and receiving NIH research awards. The grant provides the startup packages for these new hires as well as funds for faculty development resources to support these faculty in applying for and ultimately attaining R-level grant awards.
DOM: How long is the duration of the grant and why is Mount Sinai the perfect choice to be part of this initiative?
BC and LP: The grant is a five-year grant, though it is truly designed for “sustainable transformation,” which means that we are committed to the success of the FIRST Faculty in the long-term and the idea that the program will have a lasting impact on our institution, academically and culturally. The program fits in particularly well at Sinai, where we as an institution have developed many programs to transform our institution’s approach to enhancing diversity, equity and inclusion. In particular, our Biomedical Laureates Program is a perfect complement to the NIH FIRST program, which aims to recruit junior and senior faculty from traditionally underrepresented groups. The two programs are a perfect fit, both strengthening our long-term commitment to DEI and transforming our academic culture.
DOM: Can you describe how Mount Sinai plans to support and mentor the cohort of new hires under this program?
BC and LP: We (Drs. Chen and Peccoralo) co-lead the Faculty Development Core. As part of this core, we aim to coordinate, facilitate, and implement education, training, mentorship, and social networking programs and activities across Sinai’s different departments and institutions for the NIH FIRST Faculty. Upon hire we meet individually with each new NIH FIRST faculty member to welcome them, provide guidance for mentor pairings and orient them to the components of the FDC. The core elements of the FDC program include 1) Scientific and Academic Development 2) Professional Development and 3) Networking. We have collated and created programs and content for each core element. For example, for the Scientific and Academic Development component, we provide mentoring resources, encourage the rapid creation of a mentoring committee and completion of an electronic individual development plan (IDP) form and are planning a strategic planning and works in progress series for the NIH FIRST faculty. For the Professional Development component, the NIH FIRST faculty will benefit from programs in place from the Office of Faculty Development and the Department of Medicine and will also participate in a Peer Mentoring and Coaching Program run by Drs. Ann-Gel Palermo, Jacqueline Hargrove and Cardinale Smith.
Benjamin Chen, MD, PhD Professor of Medicine System Vice Chair, Research
Lauren Peccoralo, MD, MPH Associate Professor of Medicine Senior Associate Dean of Faculty Well-being and Development Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai