From Post‐Doc to Faculty Position: The IRACDA FIRST Program A Teaching Post‐Doctoral Fellowship

Abstract

The overall goal of the Intuitional Research and Academic Career Development Awards (IRACDA) program (Fellowships in Research and Science Teaching or FIRST) has been and continues to be the combination of a traditional mentored postdoctoral research experience at Emory University or Morehouse School of Medicine, research‐intensive institutions, with an opportunity for the fellows to develop teaching skills that involve instruction in teaching methods and a mentored teaching experience at one of the Atlanta University Center (AUC) Schools (Spelman College, Clark Atlanta University or Morehouse College, all Minority Serving Institutions(MSIs)). The combined program facilitates the progress of underrepresented minority postdoctoral candidates into research and teaching careers in academia and provides all program fellows with experience at Minority Serving Institutions (MSIs) that promotes the next generation of scientists at MSIs. The program also strongly reinforces interaction among faculty at the AUC schools and their counterparts at the two research intensive institutions participating in this program. The objectives of the Program are four‐fold: (1) to enhance research‐oriented teaching at the AUC schools; (2) to increase or enhance the research backgrounds of developing scientists to conduct high quality research in an academic environment; (3) to further promote interaction between Emory University, the AUC schools, and Morehouse Medical School that will lead to further collaboration in research and teaching; and (4) to increase the number of well‐qualified underrepresented minority students entering competitive careers in biomedical research. The program has benefited the MSIs by providing support for development and recruitment of new faculty some of which are FIRST fellows and providing new courses and training opportunities for MSI students. Evaluation of the Program shows that the fellows in the FIRST Program publish at the same rate as their peers supported on T32 grants at Emory University and other institutions with IRACDA programs. The evaluation also shows that FIRST fellows enter academic positions and receive post‐fellowship grant awards at the same rate as T32 fellows (based on NIH data). As a recipient of the IRACDA FIRST fellowship, I am currently a faculty member at Georgia State University which is the largest university in the state of Georgia. It is the 15th most diverse university in the country with a minority enrollment of 46 percent. It has recently been classified as a Title V Hispanic‐serving institution. I have an active research program, teach, and provide service to the university. I continue to fulfill the purpose of the IRACDA program by developing a diverse group of highly trained scientists to address the nation’s biomedical research needs through my faculty position.