DPC at the 2017 Understanding Interventions Conference in San Antonio, Texas

The theme for the Understanding Interventions conference was “Advancing Local Interventions towards Systemic Change” and it offered numerous presentations showcasing local and national strategies for diversifying the national biomedical research workforce.

Many individuals from our Diversity Program Consortium network participated in this conference, including members of the BUILD teams at Xavier, University of Alaska Fairbanks, University of California, San Francisco and San Francisco State University, University of Texas El Paso, Morgan State and University of Maryland Baltimore County, as well as members of the National Research Mentoring Network and the DPC's Coordination and Evaluation Center at UCLA.

There were multiple sessions dedicated to BUILD sites and programs. The BUILD program presenters were able to showcase their unique, individual efforts and approaches to diversifying the NIH workforce by sharing information about their individual campus programs, as well highlighting their contributions to the consortium as a whole. In one workshop, NRMN researchers were able to obtain feedback from program participants on their multidimensional cultural diversity awareness (CDA) scale. In another, a combined group of NRMN and BUILD investigators discussed the research needs posited in the new report from the National academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine on the successes, challenges, and opportunities of STEM undergraduate research experiences. UCLA CEC researchers presented an analysis of their national data sets, including The CIRP Freshman Survey. In all, the synergistic efforts and expertise of BUILD, NRMN and CEC investigators were quite visible throughout the conference.

Thus, the conference reports from UI are a treasure trove for individuals implementing intervention programs. The 2017 Conference Agenda and Session Abstracts can be found here:

http://understanding-interventions.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/Agenda9thfinalcopyfinal3.pdf

Previous conference year reports are also available.

The UI Index, which is composed of six separate databases, is another resource that DPC members can access. The databases include: the UI Article Database (an annotated bibliography), UI Journal List, UI Reports, UI Evaluation Measures, UI Articles Receiving 50+ citations, and NIH-funded Research on Interventions. The UI Index can be found here:

http://uiai.uccs.edu/

In addition, there is a now an Understanding Interventions journal that will be accepting submissions. The DPC efforts are clearly aligned to the efforts of the Understanding Interventions community. Dissemination of DPC programs and achievements are likely to find a supportive and informed audience here. Additional information will be distributed in the future to encourage submissions from the DPC community and beyond.