Diversity in the Biomedical Research Workforce: Developing Talent

Abstract

Much has been written about the need for and barriers to achievement of greater diversity in the biomedical workforce from the perspectives of gender, race and ethnicity; this is not a new topic. These discussions often center around a ‘pipeline metaphor’ which imagines students flowing through a series of experiences to eventually arrive at a science career. Here we argue that diversity will only be achieved if the primary focus is on: what is happening within the pipeline, not just counting individuals entering and leaving it; de-emphasizing achieving academic milestones by ‘typical’ ages; and adopting approaches that most effectively develop talent. Students may develop skills at different rates based on factors such as earlier access to educational resources, exposure to science (especially research experiences), and competing demands for time and attention during high school and college. Therefore, there is wide variety among students at any point along the pipeline. Taking this view requires letting go of imagining the pipeline as a sequence of age-dependent steps in favor of milestones of skill and talent development decoupled from age or educational stage. Emphasizing talent development opens up many new approaches for science training outside of traditional degree programs. This article provides examples of such approaches, including interventions at the post-baccalaureate and PhD levels, as well as a novel coaching model that incorporates well-established social science theories and complements traditional mentoring. These approaches could significantly impact diversity by developing scientific talent, especially among currently underrepresented minorities.

Null effects of boot camps and short-format training for PhD students in life sciences

“…Currently, many universities and government agencies are investing substantial resources in boot camp and summer bridge activities in the hopes of supporting a better-qualified and more effectively retained scientific workforce (47). The proliferation of these specific strategies is based on preliminary evidence reflecting highly enthusiastic self-reports of participants.…”

“It’s Every Family’s Dream”: Choice of a Medical Career Among the Arab Minority in Israel

“…Minority youth have high aspirations for successful professional careers, such as medicine, but often lack the knowledge, attitude and behavior required to achieve their occupational goals [27,28]. Minority students and their parents have less access to information and may not know how to navigate through the educational system.…”

Losing its expected communal value: how stereotype threat undermines women’s identity as research scientists

“…We also examined the relationship between science identity and women's intention to engage in future scientific research (versus motivation for science more generally). Understanding women's intention to pursue and engage in scientific research as part of their future college studies is especially important considering the need to diversify the scientific workforce to improve discovery, innovation, and remain competitive to meet global scientific needs (McGee et al 2012; STEMconnector 2012; President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology 2012). Women are highly underrepresented in science jobs in general, but are even more likely than men to opt out of research intensive science majors and careers (e.g., Martinez et al 2007) especially in highly male-dominated science research fields such as physics (NSF 2011).…”

“…Yet, even high ability women who perform well are more likely to opt out of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) domains at a greater proportion than their male counterparts, indicating a motivational explanation (e.g., Good et al 2012;Jacobs et al 2005;Seymour and Hewitt 1995;Smith et al 2013;Stout et al 2011;Xie and Shauman 2003). Performance, skills, and confidence are important to be sure, but scholars and educators must consider more than just ability to understand science identity (McGee et al 2012). Indeed, the development of a strong identity as a scientist is shaped by a number of additional motivational factors unrelated to performance (Schmader et al 2004;Shapiro and Williams 2012;Thoman et al 2013) and we focus here on the impact of stereotype threat on undergraduate women's perceptions about the values of science that may be associated with women's overall science identity.…”