2022 National Postdoctoral Association

At the annual National Postdoctoral Association conference (April 28-29 online), we produced the session Preparing Postdocs and Institutions for a New Faculty Diversity Intervention: Cluster Hiring.

Tackling the hard problem of diversifying the professoriate may require new solutions such as the latest intervention -- faculty cluster hiring. To be competitive candidates, this may be an opportunity for postdocs to collaborate in the targeted research area being recruited. What concerns may postdocs have about being in a recruited cluster? How can postdoc offices be involved in educating postdocs about such opportunities? How should institutions prepare themselves so that these new faculty cohorts are successful? Notably, the NIH has catalyzed this intervention with its new program - Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST). Goals of the FIRST program are to: "(1) foster sustainable institutional culture change; (2) promote institutional inclusive excellence by hiring a diverse cohort of new faculty at the Assistant Professor level; and (3) support faculty development, mentoring, sponsorship, and promotion." Join us to learn from experts involved in the policy and praxis of faculty cluster hiring.

Alberto Roca, PhD, Producer

Executive Director, DiverseScholar; @MinorityPostdoc

María Luisa Zúñiga, PhD

Professor in the School of Social Work, San Diego State University;

Cluster Hiring Towards Elevating Diversity and Inclusion in the Health Research Workforce: SDSU FUERTE

Edward Krug, PhD

Emeritus Professor; Medical University of South Carolina;

What Issues Should Postdocs Bring to the Recruitment Table?

Michael Taffe, PhD

Professor of Psychiatry, University of California, San Diego; @effatma

The Impact of Racial Inequities in NIH Grant Funding on Faculty Retention

screenshot of NPA panelists from Cluster Hiring session including (clockwise from top left) Edward Krug, Alberto Roca, Maria Luisa Zuniga, and Michael Taffe

Resources

Taffe (2021) UCSD seminar: Racial Inequities in NIH Grant Funding, March 19

Taffe (2021), Equity, Diversity and Inclusion: Racial inequity in grant funding from the US National Institutes of Health, eLife 10:e65697

Lopez-Villafana (2021) SDSU gets $15 million to research Latino health disparities, San Diego Union-Tribune, September 29

Oldach (2022) The evolution of cluster hiring, ASBMB Today, February 23

Scientific Workforce Diversity (2021) Achieving Equity in Faculty: Pros and Cons of Cohort Recruitment, NIH seminar, December 8

Scientific Workforce Diversity (2022) Fostering Cohort Recruitment Virtual Forum, NIH workshop, February 23-24

Note: SDSU has purchased an advertisement on our job board.

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