# Presentation: 584056

## Institutional Research and Academic Career Development Awards (IRACDA) 

## IRACDA Program Objectives 

- to enhance research-oriented teaching at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs)
- to increase or enhance the research and other skills needed in developing scientists to conduct high quality research in an academic environment
- to promote linkages between research-intensive institutions and MSIs that can lead to further collaborations in research and teaching.
- to increase the number of well-qualified underrepresented minority students entering competitive careers in biomedical research.

- The objectives of this initiative are three-fold:

## The IRACDA Rationale 

- Underrepresented minorities constitute a small fraction of the postdoctoral fellows in the life sciences and an even smaller fraction of principal investigators of NIH research grants.
- Collaborations between research intensive institutions and minority serving institutions fostered by IRACDA grants have a unique opportunity to help address these problems.
- Requires an alternative paradigm for post-doctoral education.

## The IRACDA Experiment 

- Hypothesis: post-doctoral fellows who have a research-intensive experience and have an opportunity to engage in teaching activities will perform as well as traditional post-doctoral fellows.
- Undertake evaluation of IRACDA fellows.
- Measures of performance:
- Success in publishing in peer-reviewed journals.
- Success in obtaining and remaining in research-related employment.
- Success in obtaining NIH research grant support.

## IRACDA Evaluation 

- Study group consisted of 145 current and former IRACDA fellows.
- Comparison group consisted of 536 current and former T32 fellows at IRACDA institutions.
- Only considered fellows with more than 6 months but 60 months or less training.
- Only considered publications from within the time period above.
- Examined all employment outcomes

## The Study Population 

- Comparison Gender

- Male

- Female

- IRACDA Gender

- Male

- Female

- Comparison Ethnicity

- IRACDA Ethnicity

- 53%

- 47%

- 68%

- 32%

**Notes:**
The program is not limited to underrepresented minorities, but access to the AUC schools and Atlanta's reputation for a positive multi-cultural experience provide a recruiting environment that has allowed us to maintain an enrollment of underrepresented minorities in our Program well above their representation in the general U.S. population and far above their representation in the national population of post-doctoral fellows.

## Summary of Publication Results 

| IRACDA and T32 Fellows Demographic and Publication Data |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| Post-doctoral
groups | # | Gender % |  | Ethnicity 
% |  | Tenure (mo) | Post-Doctoral Publications per post-doctoral year |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |
|  |  |  |  |  |  |  | All Fellows |  |  | Majority |  |  | Minority |  |  |
|  |  | M | F | W/As | URM |  | 1st Author | Other | Total | 1st Author | Other | Total | 1st Author | Other | Total |
| IRACDA Fellows | 145 | 32 | 68 | 58 | 42 | 32.8 ± 14.6 | 0.33 ± 0.56 | 0.44 ± 0.86 | 0.77 ± 1.1 | 0.49 ± 0.67 | 0.54 ± 1.0 | 1.0 ± 1.3 | 0.12 ± 0.21 | 0.29 ± 0.47 | 0.41 ± 0.57 |
| T32 Fellows | 536 | 47 | 53 | 88 | 12 | 25.6 ± 15.1 | 0.45 ± 0.69 | 0.27 ± 0.63 | 0.71 ± 1.1 | 0.49 ± 0.69 | 0.32 ± 0.80 | 0.81 ± 1.2 | 0.33 ± 0.56 | 0.28 ± 0.41 | 0.62 ± 0.89 |
| Notes: all values are means ± s.d. |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |  |

## Post-Doctoral Publishing is a “Rare” Event 

- The frequency of  post-doctoral publishing is described by a Poisson (exponential) distribution.
- For a Poisson distribution the population mean and standard deviation are equal.
- Most traditional parametric statistics cannot be used to test hypotheses (but can use chi squared analysis to test for similarity of distributions) .
- Non-parametric statistics are poorly developed for Poisson variables.

## The IRACDA Experiment 

- Hypothesis: post-doctoral fellows who have a research-intensive experience and have an opportunity to engage in teaching activities will perform as well as traditional post-doctoral fellows.
- Distributions of publishing frequency were indistinguishable for IRACDA and T32 fellows.
- Conclusion: there cannot be a significant difference in the rates of publication.

## Post-IRACDA Employment 

- Hypothesis: post-doctoral fellows who have a research-intensive experience and have an opportunity to engage in teaching activities will be as successful in obtaining and remaining in research-related employment as traditional post-doctoral fellows.
- For IRACDA fellows, use data from IRACDA Programs.
- For T32 fellows, use data from “The Career Achievements of National Research Service Award Postdoctoral Trainees and Fellows: 1975–2004” *prepared for *Office of Extramural Programs, Office of the Director, NIH *by *R. Mantovani, Ph.D., M. V. Look, Ph.D., and Emily Wuerker. May 2006.

## Post-IRACDA Employment 

- T32 Employment
- 8 years after post-doc

- IRACDA Employment
- (FIRST, SPIRE, PERT)

- * Other includes self-employed; primary or secondary school; U.S., State, or local government

- 150

- 123

- 371

- 26

- 13

- 86

## Post-IRACDA Employment 

- IRACDA Employment
- (FIRST, SPIRE, PERT)

- * Other includes self-employed; primary or secondary school

- 22

- 40

- 24

- 4

- 9

- 5

- 21

## Post-IRACDA Grants 

**Post-IRACDA Grants **

| T32 Fellows | Degree | R01 |  | R01, R23, andR29 |  | Early Career
K Awards |  |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
|  |  | # | Years | # | Years | # | Years |
|  | Ph.D. | 2,506 | 6.5 | 3,012 | 4.8 | 68 | 5.5 |

**Mean Elapsed Number of Years Between Last Year of T32 Support and First NIH Competing Award for Selected NIH Grant Mechanisms**

- Mean years
- After FIRST

- All R Awards

- R01

- All K Awards

-  Career Development  	9
-  R01 or equivalent	3
-  Other R 		1

## Post-IRACDA Grants 

- Former Fellow

- Year

- Position

- Institution

- Award

- Haftel, V.

- 2003

- Assistant Professor

- Morehouse College, Dept. of Biology

- NIH/NIGMS S06 and Dept of Ed Award)

- Morris, A.

- 2003

- Assistant Professor

- Haverford College, Dept. of Biology

- NIH K01

- Hendrickson, T.

- 2004

- Assistant Professor

- Morehouse College, Dept. of Biology

- NIH/NIGMS S06

- Shipman, L.

- 2003

- Assistant Professor

- Morehouse College, Dept. of Chemistry

- NIH/NIGMS S06 and NSF Development

- Williams, D.

- 2004

- Assistant Professor

- N. Carolina Central Univ., Biology

- NIH R15, SC2

- Ciavatta, V

- 2005

- Research Biologist

- VA Hospital, Decatur, GA

- VA MREP- Merit Review Entry Program

- Stahl, E.

- 2003

- Assistant Professor

- Univ. of Mass-Dartmouth

- 2 NSF awards

- Brosnan, S.

- 2007

- Assistant Professor

- Georgia State, Dept. of Psychology

- NSF/SES

- Neigh, G.

- 2007

- Assistant Professor

- Department of Psychiatry,
- Emory University

- New Invest. Award - Nat. Alliance for Res.

- on Schizophrenia & Depression and AHA Career Development Award

**Andrea Morris**

**Valerie Haftel**

**Daniel Williams**

**Sarah Brosnan**

**Triscia Hendrickson**

**Gretchen Neigh**

**Lance Shipman**

**Eli Stahl**

**Vince Ciavatta**

**Notes:**
Dr. Sarah Brosnan – an Assistant Professor at Georgia State University, was awarded a grant from NSF for $514,658 which began 10/01/07. Dr. Lance Shipman - Assistant Professor of Chemistry at Morehouse College received a NSF Research Initiation grant, and an NIH MBRS SCORE grant. Dr. Andrea Morris, Assistant Professor of Biology at Haverford College, received an NIH K01 grant for "Sonic the Hedgehog."  the first of its kind awarded to a faculty member at a small liberal arts. 
Dr. Valerie Haftel, Assistant Professor in the Department of Biology at Morehouse College, was awarded the Department of Education Minority Science Improvement grant. The grant, entitled "Enhancement of Interdisciplinary Science", begins in October of 2007, and lasts until September of 2010 for a total budget of $476,000.  

## IRACDA - Promoting Diversity in a Problematic Time:Success Rate Of Kirschstein-nrsa Post-doctoral Fellowship (F32) Applications

**IRACDA - Promoting Diversity in a Problematic Time:****Success Rate Of Kirschstein-nrsa ****Post-doctoral Fellowship (F32) Applications**

- Fiscal Year

- Number of Applications/ Awards

- Success Rate

- TRENDS IN RESEARCH  TRAINING AND FELLOWSHIPS
- NIH NEDB Training_Fellowship.ppt

## IRACDA Contributes to Diversity at Emory 

## The IRACDA Contributes to the Number of Underrepresented Minority Faculty in the Life Sciences 

**Andrea R. Morris, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor of Biology, Haverford College

**Jackie B. Hoffman, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of Poultry Science North Carolina State University

**Alessandra Barrera, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor of Biology
- Georgia Gwinnett College

**Daniel Williams, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of BiologyNorth Carolina Central University

**Francisco Cruz, Ph.D.**
- Lecturer, Department of Biology, Georgia State University

**Antonio Baines, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of BiologyNorth Carolina Central University

**Dinitra White, Ph.D**.
- Assistant Professor of BiologyNorth Carolina A&T State University

**Checo Rorie, Ph.D. **Assistant Professor of Biology North Carolina A&T State University

**Cassandra Delgado-Reyes, Ph.D.**
- Instructor and Graduate CoordinatorTexas Interdisciplinary Plan (TIP)
- University of Texas at Austin

## The IRACDA Contributes to Partner Minority Serving Institutions 

- IRACDA fellows inspire and guide undergraduates in courses that can lead to biomedical research careers.
- IRACDA fellows assist the Institutions to develop a stronger contemporary curriculum in the life sciences.
- IRACDA fellows allow the Institutions to expand their course offerings.
- IRACDA fellows provide energetic, research-oriented teachers that are closer to the ages of the Institutions students.  Therefore, they can more easily act as role models.
- IRACDA fellows reinforce contemporary methods of instruction at the minority-serving institutions;
- IRACDA fellows increase the exposure of students to research and opportunities in research;
- IRACDA fellows enhance knowledge of contemporary topics in research and research methods at the minority-serving institution;
- IRACDA creates links between faculty and students at minority-serving institutions and faculty and students at research intensive institutions.

## The IRACDA Contributes to Partner Minority Serving Institutions 

- Animal Behavior (PSY 341/PSY 341L) - Morehouse College
- Behavioral Endocrinology (BIO 491) - Spelman College
- Biochemistry - Clark Atlanta University
- Bioethics - Morehouse College
- Bioinformatics Component of Genetics (BIO 312) - Clark Atlanta University
- Biology and Ethics of HIV (BIO 491D) - Spelman
- Biology of Women (BIO 401) - Spelman College
- Biological Research l & ll (BIO 381/BIO 382) - Morehouse College
- Cellular and Molecular Biology (BIO 471) - Spelman
- General Biology (BIO 111) - Clark Atlanta
- Biology 111 and Biology 112 - Clark Atlanta
- General Biology (BIO 111) - Spelman College
- General Chemistry (CHEM 111) - Spelman College
- Genetics (BIO 312) – Clark Atlanta University
- Learning and Memory (PSY 372/PSY 372L) - Morehouse College
- Physiology of Human Nutrition (BIO 491E) - Spelman College
- Plant Physiology Laboratory (BIO 471) - Clark Atlanta University

**Some of the Courses Taught by FIRST Fellows at the Atlanta University Center**

## The IRACDA Contributes to Partner Minority Serving Institutions 

- Cellular Biology (with lab): Fayetteville State University
- Developmental Biology: North Carolina Central University
- Developmental Neurobiology: Fayetteville State University
- Genetics (with lab): Shaw University
- Independent Research course: Shaw University
- Introduction to Molecular Biology: Winston Salem State University
- Molecular Cell Biology (with lab): Shaw University
- Ecology (with lab): North Carolina Central University
- Environmental Influences on Human Disease: North Carolina A&T State University
- Senior Seminar (team taught): Shaw University
- Microbial Pathogenesis: UNC Pembroke (Videoteleconferenced)
- Special Problems - Chromosome Attachment: Fayetteville State University
- Bioinformatics: Shaw University
- Human Genetic Disease: North Carolina Central University
- Molecular Basis of Disease: North Carolina Central University
- Protein Biology and Disease: Fayetteville State University
- Science, Technology, Ethics: Johnson C. Smith University
- Genomics/Bioinformatics: North Carolina A&T State University
- Immunology: University of North Carolina at Pembroke
- Research in Genetic Engineering: University of North Carolina at Pembroke

**Some of the Courses Taught by SPIRE Fellows**

## The IRACDA Contributes to Faculty Partner Minority Serving Institutions 

**Valerie K. Haftel, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of BiologyMorehouse College

**Triscia W. Hendrickson, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of BiologyMorehouse College

**Lance Shipman, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of ChemistryMorehouse College, Atlanta, Georgia

**Shani H. Peterson, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of PsychologySpelman College

**Kai M. McCormack, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of PsychologySpelman College

**Sinead Younge, Ph.D.**
- Assistant Professor
- Department of PsychologyMorehouse College

## The IRACDA Program Accomplishments 

- contributes to increasing or enhancing the research and other skills developing scientists need to conduct high quality research in an academic environment.
- fellows publish at a rate indistinguishable from T32 fellows.
- fellows are competitive for academic positions.
- alumni are competitive for grants to develop their careers.
- increases the number of well-qualified underrepresented minorities entering competitive careers in biomedical research.
- contributes substantially to the number of minority post-doctoral fellows at research intensive universities.
- promotes linkage between research-intensive institutions and MSIs that can lead to further collaborations in research and teaching.
- enhance research-oriented teaching at partner MSIs.
- undergraduates at partner MSIs give IRACDA fellows high marks for teaching.
- teaching mentors give the IRACDA Program and fellows high marks.
- provide new faculty to at partner MSIs.
-  provide support for infrastructure improvements at partner MSIs.

## IRACDA Program