The proposed project seeks to expand and build upon the accomplishments of FASEB's Diversity Resources for Enrichment, Access & Mentoring (DREAM) and Leadership, Excellence and the Development of Diversity in Research (LEADDR) grant programs supported by the now discontinued NIGMS MARC Ancillary Training Activities (T36) grant mechanism. The ultimate goal of the project is to continue to provide innovative educational/ancillary training and mentoring activities for underrepresented* students, postdocs, and early- career scientists by providing access to skills development courses, mentoring, and outreach activities designed to complement and/or enhance the training of a highly skilled and diverse research workforce to meet the nation's biomedical, behavioral, and clinical research needs. The objective of the project is to enhance and expand the outreach of FASEB's DREAM and LEADDR grant activities through the support of NIGMS/NIH Innovative Programs to Enhance Research Training program. FASEB proposes continuing two (2) major activities for the next five (5) years: (1) To provide student/career development and structured mentoring activities for students, postdocs and early-career scientists at FASEB societies' national meetings and the ABRCMS conferences. This activity provides support for mentoring, skills development, and outreach activities designed to address special needs and interests of underrepresented students, postdocs, and early- career scientists attending FASEB societies' national meetings (e.g., Experimental Biology) and ABRCMS; and (2) To provide opportunities for underrepresented students, postdocs, and early-career scientists to enter the mainstream of the basic sciences community by participating in professional scientific societies' national meetings and engaging in structured mentoring and training activities specifically designed to support and enhance the participants' meeting experiences. This activity provides support for the participating peer/faculty mentors and the mentored travel and meeting registration awards for underrepresented students, postdocs and early-career scientists to facilitate their participation and onsite structured mentoring at professional scientific societies' national meetings, workshops, and short courses. *Consistent with NIH policy to enhance scientific workforce diversity, any reference to underrepresented groups and/or backgrounds refers to students, postdocs and early-career scientists from underrepresented racial and ethnic groups; individuals with disabilities; and individuals from economically, socially, culturally, or educationally disadvantaged backgrounds.
These mentoring activities/programs develop and enhance the intellectual horizons, preparedness and competitiveness of underrepresented students, postdocs and faculty. They initiate and enhance communication and cooperation, open new vistas and opportunities, increase continued interactions with top research programs, and serve to stimulate and support students, postdocs and faculty in their pursuit of scholarship and careers in the biomedical and behavioral research workforce. The program initiatives have proven to have broader impact by providing effective program models that can be disseminated widely.
| Serrano-Velez, Jose L; Rodriguez-Alvarado, Melanie; Torres-Vazquez, Irma I et al. (2014) Abundance of gap junctions at glutamatergic mixed synapses in adult Mosquitofish spinal cord neurons. Front Neural Circuits 8:66 |
