Here, we describe our team's approach to fostering an inclusive laboratory culture that executes a study in accordance with funder guidelines and research regulations, as well as provides volunteers with targeted mentorship, skill-development, and leadership opportunities. Our approach is five-pronged: (1) applying the principles of transformational leadership and kaizen, (2) establishing a strong mentor-mentee relationship and fostering community, (3) expanding the role of the research volunteer, (4) identifying volunteer leaders to (a) oversee and work alongside members of existing committees and (b) create new interconnected/interdisciplinary teams, and (5) using technology effectively. Our team is large; at the time of the initial submission we had 104 undergraduate/post-baccalaureate students with no graduate student supervision, and we have since grown to 118 members. Volunteers are diverse and come from 14 countries spanning four continents and numerous intersectional identities. We attribute our rapid expansion and diverse membership to our unique flat organization structure, which allows students from diverse backgrounds to work alongside the PI and contribute to improvements within the team, while fostering their own leadership skills. All volunteers are encouraged to take an active role in the lab, based on their strengths, experiences, and goals, and promote continuous improvement within the organization. Volunteers report feeling valued and have recruited new members from other groups they belong to, creating a self-sustaining system that allows aspiring professionals to learn from and lead their peers.

The advancement of the pediatric traumatic brain injury (TBI) knowledge base requires biospecimens and data from large samples. This study seeks to describe a novel clinical research modality to establish best practices for enrolling a diverse pediatric TBI population and quantifying key information on enrollment into biobanks. Screening form responses were standardized and cleaned through Google Sheets. Data were used to analyze total individuals at each enrollment stage. R was utilized for final analysis, including logistic model and proportion statistical tests, to determine further significance and relationships. Issues throughout data cleaning shed light on limitations of the consent modality. The results suggest that through a diverse research team, the recruited sample exceeds traditional measures of representation (e.g., sex, race, ethnicity). Sex demographics of the study are representative of the local population. Screening for candidates is critical to the success of the consent modality. The consent modality may be modified to increase the diversity of the study population and accept bilingual candidates. Researchers must implement best practices, including increasing inclusivity of bilingual populations, utilizing technology, and improving participant follow-up, to improve health disparities for understudied clinical populations.