The Office of Education delivers workshops, programs, and individualized opportunities to a population averaging 320 trainees, including postdoctoral, visiting, and research fellows;clinical fellows and medical students;graduate students;and postbaccalaureate and technical fellows, as well as summer trainees. The activities include, typically: public speaking workshops, job interviewing, writing and editorial services, grantsmanship and study section workshops, career presentations and counseling, teaching opportunities through the NICHD Becoming an Effective Scientist course for postbacs and skills workshops and a training program with the University of Maryland, and management programs. An annual retreat for fellows and graduate students is held for 75-100 people each spring to address scientific developments and careers, which includes fellow presentations and a poster presentation by each attendee. The program is developed and run by a fellow-student steering committee. Among the office's accomplishments from the past year: Dr. Yvette Pittman continues in the Office of Education as Associate Director. A former NICHD postdoctoral fellow, she developed our TmT (Three-minute Talks) competition this past year, for which three awards were made to Alex Ritter, Dr. Eva Szarek, and Dr. Monica Gupta for their video clips describing their research, targeting a broad scientific audience. She was instrumental in developing our expanded and validated database of NICHD alumni from 2008 to the present, and earlier. In June 2014, the Division of Intramural Research gave its seventh Mentor of the Year awards to Brant Weinstein, Ph.D., investigator;and Elias Leiva-Salcedo, Ph.D., fellow. Twenty-two FARE awards were made for the 2015 competition. A Fellows Intramural Grants Supplement (FIGS) continues to recognize and stimulate grant applications among fellows, and the Fellows Recruitment Incentive Award (FRIA) continues to support investigators who recruit postdocs from populations traditionally underrepresented in science. The NICHD Scholars program, in its fourth year, has two MD/PhD student members conducting their thesis research in the institute and has recruited two new postbaccalaureate trainees, Gian Rodriguez and Nicole Millan. The Scholars program focuses on """"""""developing talent"""""""" and supporting trainees'academic and career progression. The NICHD Connection monthly newsletter published its 51st issue in August 2014 and reaches all members of the intramural division and our alumni.
