The Office of Training and Diversity (OTD) serves the Division of Intramural Research (DIR) trainees in Maryland and Montana at the Rocky Mountain Laboratories (RML), including Postdoctoral, Visiting and Clinical Fellows;Medical Students;Postbaccalaureates;Graduate Students;and Summer Interns. Outreach and recruitment are also key endeavors, with the goal of recruiting outstanding, competitive candidates for DIR training positions. Wendy J. Fibison, Ph.D., is the Associate Director, and the office has a staff of four. OTD manages five annual programs: NIAID's Annual Fellows Workshop;Intramural NIAID Research Opportunities (INRO);the OTD Sponsorship Program;the Summer Internship Program in Biomedical Research;and the OTD Summer Diversity Program. An exciting initiative continued for the fifth year, the Fellows Advisory Committee comprised of graduate students and postdoctoral fellows. At monthly meetings, the members make recommendations regarding enhancing the learning environment in DIR, explore new programs to support the trainees'career development, and discuss issues related to the DIR experience. This committee plans the annual fellows retreat, determining the theme, format, and agenda;inviting speakers;hosting attendees at the retreat;and reviewing the program evaluations. The process is concluded with recommendations for the following year. The Eighth Annual Fellows Workshop was held on the Bethesda campus. The theme was NIAID Fellows Seizing Opportunities. Dr. Peter Fiske, CEO, PAX Water Technologies, Inc, was the keynote speaker. Dr. Kathryn C. Zoon, Scientific Director, NIAID, also addressed the group. There were two panel discussions: Transferrable Skills at the Bench;and Transferrable Skills Away from the Bench. Many of the panel members were NIAID Postdoc Alumnae who hold a variety of career positions within the metropolitan area. The NIAID Outstanding Mentor Award, developed in 2009 to recognize the many mentors at NIAID who are dedicated to sharing knowledge, inspiring, and instilling confidence in fellows, was awarded this year at a special event in January, National Mentoring Month. A committee of fellows, working with Dr. Wendy J. Fibison, followed a blind selection process to identify the winning nominee among a large pool of strong nominations. The 2014 award was bestowed on Hans Christian Ackerman, MD, DPHIL, Laboratory of Malaria and Vector Research, and Shyam Kottilil, MD, PHD, Laboratory of Immunoregulation. Intramural NIAID Research Opportunities (INRO) is NIAID's centerpiece for outreach to populations underrepresented in biomedical research. Following a nationwide search, 20 talented students were selected from over 100 applications, to attend the annual 4-day program of scientific lectures, interviews with potential mentors and lab tours. The visiting students also interacted informally with researchers and current trainees. Five former trainees at a variety of career stages, returned to attend INRO and their input was valuable to the INRO visiting students, current trainees, and mentors alike. INRO 2014 was the twelth year of the program, and was notable for the percentage of students who accepted training positions. By the end of the fiscal year, fifty percent of the INRO participants had returned to NIAID for training as a postdoc, postbac or summer intern. Since INRO was started in 2003, over 250 outstanding students have participated in the program. To assist strong applicants who were not selected for INRO 2014 in finding training positions, the """"""""Share-the-Wealth Program"""""""" created four years ago, was expanded. For those applicants who had given permission, their applications were shared with Training Directors in other NIH institutes. The Marketing Database, a resource developed by OTD, was revised and expanded. With nearly 12,000 entries, this is a valuable recruitment tool for DIR's training and scientific positions. It is used for the INRO program, as well as for promoting NIAID and NIH open positions, and to announce OTD's webinars and other special programs. The 2014 Summer Internship Program was fully subscribed, with students coming from around the country to work in DIR labs for 8 to 12 weeks. Nearly one-half off the interns presented their research at the annual NIH Summer Intern Poster Day. Special OTD programs for summer interns included Orientation, the Infectious Diseases Seminar Series presented by NIAID postdoctoral fellows and graduate students, and a special seminar on Generational Diversity, presented by Joyce Avila, M.S., which explored the challenges of multigenerational teams in the workforce. For the fourteenth consecutive year, under the leadership of Elizabeth Fischer and Anita Mora, RML scientists teamed with local Montana middle schools to present an Introduction to Research program for seventh and eighth grade students. The objectives are to broaden the student definition of a scientist by providing diverse role models with varying interests and skills;and to encourage interests in becoming scientifically literate citizens whether they choose a career in traditional sciences or in fields ranging from politics, to journalism, to business. Many RML scientists volunteered their time and shared their research experience with participating students. To date the BRASS program has involved 300+ volunteers and reached more 750 Montana students. Many past BRASS participants have gone on to pursue careers in science because of their experience in this program. New programs were developed and offered to the DIR postdocs. A new grant-writing series, consisting of five seminars, was developed and is offered three times each year. A monthly Career Options seminar series was planned, featuring NIH alumnae who had recently transitioned to a variety of career positions. The Infectious Diseases Seminar Series was offered for a third year. This series gives postdocs teaching experience with a more general audience, in this case, the NIAID summer interns and postbacs. Postdoc faculty develop objectives (learning, diversity, and professional), a power point presentation targeted to an audience new to their field, and an evaluation form. Following their presentation, the faculty receives feedback from a designated colleague and Dr. Wendy J. Fibison, Associate Director. All faculty attend a debrief meeting to discuss lessons learned and review a summary of the student evaluations. Due to the increased level of interest, the seminar series was again extended this year to accommodate all the fellows who wanted to participate. Several ongoing OTD projects which support the Institute's diversity mission were continued this year: the Sponsorship Program;the Brown Bag Lunch Series;and the Tracking Project. A new OTD Summer Diversity Program provided Principal Investigators and their summer interns an opportunity to explore the positive impact of diversity on NIAID's mission. Participation involved taking the Harvard Project Implicit online tests, seminars, readings, and completing an anonymous survey. Competitive trainees from populations underrepresented in biomedical research were again sponsored by OTD. This program was fully subscribed in 2014, with 43 trainees receiving stipends and health insurance. Fifteen former trainees hold positions within NIH and FDA. To foster a network of current and former trainees, a LinkedIn group was created by Dr. Wendy J. Fibison, adding a digital approach to providing former trainees information about NIAID opportunities and resources, and to enlist them as ambassadors for OTD programmatic outreach. NIAID is well positioned to meet its diversity goals in the near future by recruiting these young researchers back to the Institute as research positions become available.
