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In This Edition

June 26, 2019

Volume 4 Issue 2
Consortium News 16
In The News 5
Research Digest 4
Consortium Events 1

NIH DPC Newsletter

Consortium News

Celebrating BUILD Graduates Across the Nation

From coast to coast, undergraduate and graduate BUILD scholars and trainees are celebrating as they graduate and venture off to the next step in their academic journeys!
For more information click here.

#MyBUILDresearch Celebrates Science and Diversity Across the Consortium

On April 25, 2019, the Diversity Program Consortium came together to celebrate scientific diversity and student, and faculty research. Communications specialists, mentors, students and faculty from across the DPC posted on social media about the role of research in their lives and their growth as scientists.
For more information click here.

SF BUILD Graduates Thirteen Scholars

Congratulations to the Class of 2019 SF BUILD Graduates!
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UTEP BUILDing SCHOLARS Graduates Honored at Annual Senior Ceremony and Welcome Event

At the University of Texas, El Paso, BUILDing SCHOLARS students, parents, leadership, and special guests gathered on Saturday, May 11, to welcome the incoming cohort of new scholars and to honor the graduating seniors completing the program.
For more information click here.

STEM BUILD at UMBC Celebrates Its First Cohort of Graduates

This spring, nine current and former University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) STEM BUILD trainees, three who also affiliated with the MARC U*STAR Scholars, became the first cohort of BUILD Training Program (BTP) participants to graduate from UMBC. These graduates follow in the footsteps of Alexis Waller ’18, biological sciences, who was the first to graduate this past December.
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PODER Means Power: CSUN BUILD PODER Graduating Seniors Share Stories of Empowerment

Seven BUILD PODER seniors from the class of 2019 share their inspiring stories of empowerment as they move forward in their journey as scientists!
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PSU BUILD EXITO Graduates Its Largest Cohort of Student Trainees

Portland State University’s BUILD EXITO graduated their largest cohort of student trainees this June. Fifty-two students completed the three-year research training program, embarking on new adventures. 
For more information click here.

NRMN Mentor of the Month: Johnna Frierson, Ph.D.

Johnna Frierson, Ph.D., is featured as National Research Mentoring Network's Mentor of the Month in this Q&A article. Frierson shares her experiences with mentoring, diversity, higher education and what she has gained through working with the NRMN.
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Morgan State University ASCEND Hosts International Meetings Aimed At Reducing Health Disparities

Two meetings addressing health disparities were held at Morgan State University in June 2019. 
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BLaST Staff Jennifer Lu Recognized for her Dedication to Students

Jennifer Lu, University of Alaska, Fairbanks BLaST Program Coordinator, was awarded the Staff Make Students Count Award. She was one of four outstanding staff members recognized across the University of Alaska (UA) statewide system.
For more information click here.

BLaST Offers Summer Research Experiences with an Alaskan Flair

From working in a lab and refining techniques to being out in the field collecting specimens, conducting research experiments and recording data, summer in Alaska means many things. For those interested in research and becoming a scientist, it means being able to work with highly qualified and seasoned faculty working in many different research opportunities. Read about some of the exciting and unique experiences the trainees in the University of Alaska (UAF) BLaST program participate in.
For more information click here.

Meet Andrej Podlutsky & Stephanie Kennedy, BLaST's May and June Scientists of the Month

The Biomedical Learning and Student Training (BLAST) program at the University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) highlights scientists from all biomedical fields through their Scientist of the Month articles. These articles are shared across all University of Alaska (UA) campuses, Iļisaġvik College (a BLaST partner institution), and with BLaST’s new partners: Fort Lewis College, Diné College, Salish Kootenai College, and Alaska Pacific University. In this article, meet the BLaST Scientists of the Month from May and June 2019.
For more information click here.

XULA BUILD PI Selected for Inaugural Mentoring Award

Xavier University of Louisiana (XULA) BUILD principal investigator, Maryam Foroozesh, Ph.D., was recently honored as one of three inaugural recipients of the Council on Undergraduate Research Chemistry Division’s Outstanding Mentorship Award. This award recognizes excellence in mentoring of undergraduate researchers.
For more information click here.

XULA BUILD Faculty Highlight: Florastina Payton-Stewart, Ph.D.

On May 11, 2019 at Xavier University’s 92nd commencement ceremony, BUILD Mentor Florastina Payton-Stewart, Ph.D., received the Norman C. Francis (NCF) Service Award. This award recognizes the efforts and dedication that Payton-Stewart exhibits in her work, from serving on a wide variety of committees (both local and national), serving as a PI on grants, and mentoring and teaching at Xavier University.
For more information click here.

SF BUILD Updates Student Community Space

The SF BUILD team used a co-design process to redesign a student community space, which will now have a clearer focus on diversity in STEM and feature a space for student comments and stories.
For more information click here.

ReBUILDetroit Launches Little Libraries for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

There are many ways to engage administration, faculty, and staff in topics around diversity, equity, inclusion (DEI), and inclusive pedagogy, both structured and unstructured. One strategy is the concept of the Little Library.
For more information click here.
In The News

Texas Center for Health Disparities Hosts 14th Annual Texas Conference on Health Disparities

The Texas Center for Health Disparities, at UNT Health Science Center hosted its 14th Annual Texas Conference on Health Disparities June 6-7, 2019. Conference participants & presenters included clinicians, health policy makers, researchers, health educators, public and community health leaders, and students whose work incorporates the use of multidisciplinary partnerships that build collaborations to eliminate health disparities and achieve health equity.
For more information click here.

UTEP Attains National Research Top Tier Ranking

This article from The University of Texas at El Paso Communications shares an exciting achievement for the institution: UTEP has attained a coveted R1 designation (top tier doctoral university with very high research activity) in the Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education.
For more information click here.

Morgan State University Receives "High Research" Classification

This article, from Morgan State University (MSU) News, describes an exciting achievement for Morgan State University: gaining an elevated research classification of R2.
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Challenging U.S. Research Universities and Funders to Increase Diversity in the Research Community

This article, featured in the Winter 2019 issue of "Issues in Science and Technology" is written by University of Maryland, Baltimore County (UMBC) President Freeman A. Hrabowski, III, Ph.D., and Senior Advisor to the President at UMBC, Peter H. Henderson. The writers feature the NIH's BUILD program, and they pose a challenge to top 30 institutions for African Americans and Hispanics: to focus on doubling the number of their African American and Hispanic students who go on to earn a Ph.D. in STEM fields.
For more information click here.

University of Wisconsin-Madison Receives Distinguished Educator Award for Research Mentor Training Programs

Two University of Wisconsin collaborators were recently honored with a prestigious award from the Association of Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS). Christine Sorkness, PharmD, RPh, Distinguished Professor of Pharmacy and Medicine, and Christine Pfund, PhD, Senior Scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Education and director of the Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experience in Research (CIMER), were honored in March at the 2019 ACTS Annual Meeting with a Distinguished Educator Award for their decades long partnership to improve research mentor training programs for scholars in the biomedical workforce.
For more information click here.
Research Digest

Recent Publication: Students of Color Show Health Advantages when they Attend Schools that Emphasize the Value of Diversity

Using data from a larger study of healthy eighth graders in the Chicago-land area and the students' risk for cardiovascular disease, researchers looked at data from 270 students who attended 120 schools. They analyzed the schools' mission statements and conducted climate surveys, testing for meaningful differences. After a series of analyses, they found that "students of color have better cardiometabolic health when their school emphasizes diversity. This pattern is apparent across multiple dimensions of cardiometabolic health."
For more information click here.

Book Chapter Publication: All for One and One for All: Coordinating the Resources of Individual Student Research Training Initiatives in Biomedical Sciences at Xavier University of Louisiana

Researchers affiliated with the BUILD program at Xavier University of Louisiana published a chapter in the book, "Broadening Participation in STEM" that discusses how their on-campus training programs (BUILD, RISE and MARC U*STAR) collaborate to provide the best possible experiences for their students. The publication is part of the Diversity in Higher Education series and was published by Emerald Publishing Limited.
For more information click here.

Recent Publication: Addressing Health Disparities Through the Utilization of Health Information Technology (Journal Supplement)

This supplement to the journal "Medical Care" presents a variety of articles and editorials about addressing health disparities by leveraging health information technology. it was supported by funding from the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD), of the NIH.
For more information click here.

New Book Published by SF State BUILD-funded Researchers

Research funded by SF BUILD through a mini-grant to Michele Eliason, Ph.D., and her team of Social Justice Pedagogy faculty led to the publication of a book, "Social Justice Pedagogy Plus: Transforming undergraduate research methods courses."
For more information click here.
Events

2019 Diversity Program Consortium Annual Grantees Conference

Event Date: Sun, Jul 28, 2019 to Tue, Jul 30, 2019

Location: Bethesda, Maryland
About Us

The NIH Diversity Program Consortium (DPC) Newsletter provides updates on activities at DPC sites, shares progress on collaborative efforts within the consortium, and highlights news and recent publications related to diversity and mentoring in the biomedical sciences.

The Diversity Program Consortium Coordination and Evaluation Center at UCLA is supported by Office of the Director of the National Institutes of Health / National Institutes of General Medical Sciences under award number U54GM119024.