This is a proposal directed at increasing the number of highly qualified faculty at Minority institutions. Our strategy evolved from within the MMC/Vanderbilt Alliance environment and is designed to utilize the complementary strengths of the two schools. In brief, we propose to build upon the substantial number of well qualified minority postdoctoral fellows at Vanderbilt, many of whom have graduated from MMC. These individuals will extend their predoctoral research training into one of the many outstanding research laboratories at Vanderbilt. In addition we will institute an extensive mentoring program designed to prepare these postdoctoral fellows to become highly competitive in the faculty job market. Such training would encompass carefully mentored teaching experience at MMC as well as a detailed introduction to lab management. Finally, and in many ways, most importantly, we will set in place mechanisms to facilitate the research independence of these individuals, so that they will eventually be in effect running their own laboratory before they prepare for the move to a faculty position. We propose to further these goals by providing technical support within the laboratory as the postdoctoral fellows become intensely involved in the development of their own research focus, at the same time as becoming exposed to teaching strategies designed to put them in an intensely competitive position for a faculty appointment. Such an individual should be attractive for a faculty position at any first rate institution, however we are specifically proposing to facilitate them gaining a position at MMC, which would be supplemented by a joint appointment in a Vanderbilt department in the Medical School. The details of the strategies to be employed are presented below. However, we stress that although the strength of the Alliance allows us to develop this option, we will work closely with the students to help them establish faculty positions at any institution that they see as satisfying their faculty career aspirations.
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