U54CA267735

Catalyzing Systemic Change at Drexel University to Support Diverse Faculty in Health Disparities Research - Project Summary

In response to the NIH U54 Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program (RFA-RM-20-022), Drexel University proposes to establish a robust, transformative, and sustainable program to support diverse early career scientists engaged in health disparities research spanning population science to intervention research.

This proposal is a collaboration across Drexel University, led by Drexel's Dornsife School of Public Health and College of Nursing and Health Professions. It leverages the nationally and internationally recognized NIH and other extramurally supported research, community-based clinical practices serving diverse, underserved communities, and shared core values of social justice and health equity guiding our pedagogy, research, and hiring practices. Our proposal also strongly reflects Drexel University's unwavering commitment and newly instituted strategic goals to promote inclusive excellence and ensure diversity, equity, retention, and promotion for diverse faculty across their career pathways.

Our proposed program will create a collaborative structure involving multi-level inputs from university leaders, academic units, and faculty to catalyze sustainable institutional change that supports scientific and inclusive excellence in the conduct of health disparities research.

With support from the FIRST Program, we will hire and mentor a diverse (gender, race, ethnicity) group of 10 early-stage faculty in three clusters who are competitive for tenure-track research positions with joint or secondary appointments across relevant departments, programs, or colleges. Using evidence-based, multi-level mentorship strategies at the individual, department, college, and university levels, we will form a scientifically rigorous and supportive learning community in which FIRST faculty will engage in individual and group activities leading to submissions of competitive NIH R01 research proposals.

First faculty will be hired who are committed to diversity and whose research addresses one of three pillars of health disparities research: detecting (defining/measuring health disparities), understanding (identifying determinants of disparities), and/or reducing (intervene, evaluate, translate, scale, policy) health inequities in cross-cutting thematic areas (aging, chronic disease, and/or environmental determinants).

Developing and supporting a cadre of diverse researchers has been identified as an evidence-based strategy for advancing new methodologies, measures, and novel multi-level/multi-modal interventions that address inequities and improve individual and population health outcomes.

We will deploy a multi-level and multi-methods evaluative approach guided by critical and intersectionality theories to evaluate nuanced experiences of bias and structural discriminatory practices, as well as program successes, at the individual, department, mentor, college, and university levels of achieving inclusive excellence.

Our FIRST Program is co-led by nationally/internationally recognized leaders in population health, intervention science, mentorship of racially/ethnically diverse faculty, and evaluation of programs seeking inclusivity.

Drexel University

NOT APPLICABLE

93.310 - Trans-NIH Research Support

National Cancer Institute (NCI) [HHS - NIH]

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) [HHS - NIH]

Pennsylvania United States

State-Wide

NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program: FIRST Cohort (U54 Clinical Trial Optional) (RFA-RM-20-022)

Termination This cooperative agreement was reported as terminated by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) in July 2025. See All
Amendment Since initial award the End Date has been shortened from 08/31/26 to 03/21/25 and the total obligations have increased 3035% from $454,500 to $14,247,391.