The MAVEN Senior Scientist Initiative: A Trial of an Educational Training Program to Accelerate Diversity in Health & Science Leadership

The long-term objective of the MAVEN education training program is to expand the national pool of qualified women and minority candidates for senior scientist positions across all National Institute of General Medical Sciences (NIGMS) areas of science. The investigators intend to create a self-sustaining community committed to inclusive excellence in science. The investigators will do so by adapting best education practices from other industries in executive leadership, strategic career planning, and institution culture change, to create a sustainable, but intensive program with objective evaluation metrics. Using a randomized, 2-arm trial design, the investigators will enroll 40 senior scientists per year in 4 cohorts into the MAVEN study (160 participants total). Participants will be randomized to the MAVEN intervention group or the control group. Participants in the MAVEN group will receive two 7-day virtual institutes focused on senior scientist career planning, respect-based leadership, evidence-based mentoring, organizational culture problem solving, transparency and Open Science, interdisciplinary team collaboration and inclusivity, and effective science thought leadership. These summer institutes will be comprised of didactics, discussions, and interactive individual and team-based activities. Between the institutes there will be 10 months of mentorship, networking, and conduct of institutional change projects. Participants randomized to the control arm will complete all study measures but will not receive access to any of the virtual sessions or mentorship. Target program participants are scientists 10-15 years from their terminal degree , who identify as women, particularly as belonging to an ethnicity or race under-represented at the senior levels of faculty, and who currently hold one or more R01 or equivalent grants. To achieve the MAVEN long-term objective, scientists enrolled in the MAVEN intervention arm will be provided the skills to attain: 1) increased career satisfaction (primary outcome); 2) peak academic productivity; 3) expanded scientific networks; and 4) leadership ascension. Program success will be evaluated primarily by comparison of the control group to MAVEN scientists for change in career satisfaction scores, and also by a blended Major Educational Score Index comprised of h-index, relative citation ratio, number of publications in journals with an impact factor > 5, and annual federal grant dollar amounts. The investigators will also explore changes to professional scientific network size and the leadership ascension between the two groups, tested quantitatively. Primary, secondary, and exploratory outcomes will be evaluated at baseline for each cohort and yearly for all cohorts until the cessation of the program. If the scientific leaders and role models are diverse, the investigators of the current trial stand to benefit from enrichment of the pool of future investigators, the broader perspective in research agenda prioritization, the greater success in recruiting diverse research participants, and the enhanced ability to advance science to reduce health disparities.