U-M launched the Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation (M-PACT) with a five-year, $15.8 million grant from the National Institutes for Health Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (NIH FIRST) initiative, along with a $63.7 million university investment in June 2023. The mission of M-PACT is to achieve greater inclusive excellence in the biomedical and health sciences at the University of Michigan and beyond. M-PACT will achieve its goal of inclusive excellence by recruiting 30 new tenure-track assistant professors with a demonstrated commitment and expertise in promoting diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) via their research, teaching, and/or service activities across 11 biomedical and health science schools and colleges across the University. Also, the program will help to support the 30 new hires up through tenure by creating a supportive ecosystem that will provide the scholars with cutting-edge mentoring, relevant professional development experiences, and the appropriate resources needed for them to thrive. In addition, M-PACT will use innovative, evidence-based practices, policies, procedures, and programs to transform the culture of the participating units to becoming more diverse, equitable, and inclusive in order to become more effective in meeting their research, teaching, and service missions. Finally, M-PACT will utilize a multimethod approach to rigorously assess, evaluate, and document both processes and outcomes associated with the program in order that the success experienced at the University of Michigan can be shared with the broader biomedical and health science community.
Inputs
What U-M Brings
RIPE Conditions for Cultural Transformation
- U-M DEI Strategic Plan in place since 2016
- Demonstrated Committment to inclusive excellence as core value
- Existing DEI Infrastructure
- MOMENTUM
STRONG Institutional Commitment
- Significant financial commitment
- Leadership commitment to DEI
- Buy-in: 11 health science units
EXISTING Resources for Developing Diverse Pools of Faculty Candidates
- Various UM Pipeline Programs
- Existing Partnerships in MSIs
EXISTING Capacity & Facilities for Faculty Development, e.g…
- National Center for Institutional Diversity
- MICHR (UM’s CTSA)
- UM ADVANCE Program
- Office of DEI
- Michigan Integrative Well-Being & Inequality Training Program
- Center for Research on Ethnicity, Culture & Health
- Curtis Center for Health Equity Research & Training
EXPERIENCED Leaders
- PI, Co-I’s and Key Personnel
- Cluster leads
- Sponsor-mentors
- RFEC-EAB
Activities
What U-M Will Do
ADMINISTRATIVE CORE
- Oversight & support for 3 cores
- Develop & implement support for M-PACT faculty hiring plan across units
- Support/training to recruit diverse candidates
- Workshops to minimize bias during review, interview & hiring processes
- Implement NextProf-Health Sciences (HS) for pipeline development & recruitment
- Manage Star recruitment funding to compete for high-quality candidates
- Convene annual M-PACT conference for diversity pipeline programs & faculty recruitment
- Disseminate lessons learned from M-PACT
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT CORE
- Develop & implement 4-year fac/research development programs
- Facilitate research-specific training in clusters
- Oversee Sponsor-Mentor training & progress
- Provide financial support for Scholar development, e.g., for Sponsor-Mentor activities outside program, small grants for pilots or collaboration, etc.
EVALUATION CORE
- Annual survey & interview of M-PACT
- Scholars for self-reports on experience
- Mentors for self-reports of performance
- Unit leaders for self-reports of program progress, impact
- Documentation of M-PACT Scholar progress (grant proposal development & success, publication development & submission, research program development)
- External reviews of the administrative practices, processes & functioning of M-PACT for continuous improvement
Outputs
Program Deliverables
ADMINISTRATIVE OUTPUTS
- U-M adoption of evidence-based best practices for all faculty hiring
- NextProf as a new source of talented potential faculty with demonstrated committments to DEI for UM/others
- Evidence-based knowledge on transfusing practice of inclusive excellence into HS institutions
- Annual M-PACT conference for networks of institutions to form sustainable partnerships around diversifying HS faculty
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT OUTPUTS
30 new tenure-track faculty with demonstrated commitment to DEI (significant % being URMs):
- conducting HS research at UM
- well-prepared for promotion and tenure
- well-prepared, supported & encouraged to pursue NIH funding
- have knowledge, skills & competencies for advancing DEI in HS research and professional environments, positively impacting trainees, units, institution & disciplines/fields
EVALUATION OUTPUTS
Reports on:
- Best practices for unit, school/college & cluster mentoring for successful career development
- Effective recruitment & retention practices
- What constitutes positive DEI institutional cultures in HS units
Outcomes
Program Impact
LEADERS
30 M-PACT Scholars will be a critical mass of leaders who will make significant change in HS research via research productivity & as mentors of future generations of researchers more likely to be URMs
GRANTEES
- A significant number of the M-PACT scholars and their trainees will become regular NIH grant recipients, serve as NIH reviewers
CATALYSTS
- Via participation in M-PACT, scholars will galvanize UM leaders and senior faculty (Cluster Leads, Sponsor Mentors, unit mentors, deans, EOs) to become more effective DEI change agents
FACULTY DEVELOPMENT BEST PRACTICES
- Emperical evidence of the efficacy of cohort-based models for hiring & nuturing URM faculty (& faculty with DEI commitments) to becoming professionally successful & personally affirmed
HIRING BEST PRACTICES
- Documented evidence on conducting effective faculty searches that yield strong, diverse pools of candidates, & how how to mitigate biases in search processes
INSTITUTIONAL MODEL
- U-M sill serve as an evidence-based model for other insitutions to draw on to make inclusive excellence both a core value & standard operating procedure
Contact the Michigan Program for Advancing Cultural Transformation team
For application and eligibility questions email: [email protected]
For general questions: [email protected] or call 734-647-5925.