Yale Psychiatry Grand Rounds: February 12, 2021

February 12, 2021

"The Meyerhoff Scholars Program: A Successful and Replicable Program for Enhancing Diversity in STEM"

Michael Summers, PhD, Professor, University of Maryland BC

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00:00Good morning everyone.
00:01Welcome to the Department
00:03of Psychiatry grand rounds.
00:04I'm Cindy Cristom,
00:05deputy chair for diversity,
00:07equity and inclusion in the Department,
00:09and we have a very important grand
00:12rounds today focused on the recruitment
00:14and retention of minorities in
00:16the Sciences and engineering.
00:18Before I turn the program over
00:20to Doctor Sinha to introduce
00:21our speaker doctor Summers,
00:23I want to say a few words
00:26about the diversity,
00:27equity and inclusion in anti racism.
00:29Work in the Department.
00:31As some of you know,
00:32we have a longstanding commitment to DVI,
00:35but in 2014 that a commitment was
00:37deep in with the establishment of
00:39the Diversity Taskforce which made
00:41some important recommendations,
00:43including the stablishment of a
00:45Standing Diversity Committee and the
00:47Assistant Chair for Diversity Position.
00:49Then with the events of last
00:51year we added anti racism work,
00:54including the Anti Racism Task Force
00:57and the Steering Committee for the
01:00Anti Racism Task Force has been
01:02meeting since October of last year.
01:04RDI and anti racism efforts
01:07are focused in four areas.
01:09The first is policy procedures
01:11and accountability.
01:12The second is recruitment,
01:13retention and advancement.
01:15The third is educational program so our
01:18training programs but also grand rounds.
01:21And the 4th area is representation
01:23in public spaces,
01:24so the images that we see around us.
01:28Our work spans the educational,
01:30clinical and research missions
01:32of the Department,
01:33an we interface with DI and
01:35anti racism efforts in our
01:37affiliated institutions and also
01:40in our Community collaborations.
01:42We are large Department,
01:44over 1000 people an we attend a faculty,
01:47staff and trainees.
01:48We are engaged in a tremendous amount of
01:52work that's carried out by a lot of people.
01:55Not just me,
01:56but in every institution there are
01:58people engaged in this work and
02:01every aspect of our Department.
02:03And I would say in the last year there
02:05is increased commitment at all levels
02:07of the Department to becoming more diverse,
02:10more equitable and inclusive.
02:12An less racist.
02:14We have learned a lot and made some progress,
02:17yet we still have a lot
02:19to learn and accomplish,
02:21and these are long-term endeavors.
02:22I know that we can learn a lot today
02:25from the Meyerhoff Scholars Program,
02:28and I look forward to your ideas of
02:30how we can apply elements of what we
02:33learn about today to our Department.
02:36So I'm going to turn it over to Doctor Sinha.
02:41Thank you so much Cindy.
02:44It is my pleasure to welcome
02:47you all to today's grand rounds
02:49with Doctor Michael Summers.
02:52Doctor Summers is the University
02:54Distinguished Professor
02:55at University of Maryland,
02:57Baltimore County in the
02:59Department of Chemistry.
03:00He is also Howard Hughes investigator
03:03and holds the Meyerhoff Chair for
03:06Excellence in research and mentoring at UMBC.
03:10He received his bachelors in chemistry
03:13from the University of West Florida
03:16in 1980 and then his PhD from
03:18Emory University in bioinorganic
03:20Chemistry in 1984 and then was
03:23a postdoc fellow at NIH until 87
03:27before joining the faculty at UMBC
03:30in 87 and has been there since then.
03:33In 1994 he was appointed investigator with
03:36the Howard Hughes Medical Institute Ann.
03:39In 2016.
03:40He was elected to the National
03:43Academy of Sciences.
03:45Doctor Summers has is an eminent
03:48researcher and with the focus
03:50on NMR studies of proteins,
03:52RNA macromolecular interactions
03:54associated with HIV,
03:55one genome packaging and virus assembly.
03:59He is not going to be talking to
04:03us about that aspect of his work.
04:06He has also led efforts to
04:08develop programs for retaining
04:10minority students in the Sciences,
04:13and this work has has really
04:15taken off and and brought him
04:18a number of different awards.
04:20Numerous awards,
04:21really,
04:21because he's really led the field
04:24in helping us think about how to
04:27increase diversity in STEM area.
04:30Doctor Summers is a recipient of
04:32the Roots Kersting Award of the
04:35American Society of Biochemistry and
04:37Molecular Biology, and several others.
04:40I'll name a couple of key ones.
04:43The A as B MB award for exemplary
04:46contributions to education and
04:48the Mentor Award of the American
04:51Association for the Advancement of
04:53Science and then the White House
04:56Presidential Award for Science,
04:58Mathematics and engineering mentoring.
05:00We are thrilled to have Doctor
05:02Summers speak with us today about
05:05the Meyerhoff Scholars Program,
05:06which he started and has shown amazing,
05:09successful outcomes and what I've
05:11really been interested in is the
05:14success of his program has been
05:16described in a recent science paper as well,
05:19and the program has been established at
05:22a number of other universities which
05:24I'm sure we're going to hear about,
05:27including Stanford, Duke,
05:29Penn State, UNC Chapel Hill.
05:30An others so please join me in welcoming
05:33Doctor Summers to grand rounds today.
05:36Practicing thank
05:37you so much Vegeta.
05:38It's a real pleasure to be here.
05:41For those of you who joined more.
05:43More conversation just more recently
05:45I just wanted to point out that Yale
05:47was one of our early partners with
05:49our meyerhof undergraduate program.
05:51I'll talk to you about
05:53the program in a minute,
05:55but many of our early Meireles
05:57scholars were accepted into Duke,
05:58so they were they were reaching
06:00out to us and working with us
06:03to accept minority students.
06:04When this wasn't normally
06:06done around the country.
06:07And so a lot of our earliest PHD's in
06:10MD PHD's got their degrees from Yale,
06:13so it's really exciting for
06:15me to be here with you today.
06:17I'm going to go ahead and share my
06:19screen and then launch my presentation.
06:25And so you know much of this.
06:27You don't need to see again.
06:31But I want to just point out is that
06:34if you look at national population
06:36growth of Hispanics in the US from 1980
06:40till and this was published in 15 and
06:43compare that to college enrollment,
06:45what you'll see is their college
06:47enrollment has not kept kept up
06:50for Hispanics and for Blacks there
06:52has been a small increase in the
06:54population of Blacks in the US,
06:57but there has been a completely
06:59flat level of enrollment and so
07:01you can see the gap between.
07:04The US population and an enrollment in the
07:07top 100 private and public universities,
07:10which includes Yale,
07:11has been either been flat or decreased,
07:14and this actually led the New York Times
07:17to conclude that affirmative action which
07:20occur during this period hasn't worked.
07:23And so if affirmative action doesn't work,
07:25and we're not really doing
07:27affirmative action now,
07:28the way it was done back then,
07:30you know,
07:31how do we address these disparities?
07:33And why do we even need to
07:36care about diversity?
07:37This is data from the US Census
07:40Bureau showing that according to
07:42their projections by well in 20 ten,
07:4565% of the US was Caucasian,
07:47but by 2030 it'll probably be almost 50%,
07:50and by 2050 it'll be below 50% and I'm sure
07:54you all know that in California and Texas,
07:57Caucasians already make up less
07:59than half the state populations,
08:01and so if we care about the education of the.
08:05Of our country of our fellow citizens,
08:08we've got to be paying more attention to
08:11groups that are not participating in colleges
08:14in higher education the way they need to be.
08:17Another reason to care is health disparities.
08:20This is Shar del Hawk shardul Hawkins.
08:23She was a undergraduate at a historically
08:26black College in Maryland University,
08:29Maryland,
08:29Eastern Shore.
08:30She came to UMBC to do summer
08:33research in my lab and liked it.
08:36So she joined our PhD program.
08:39She did really well.
08:40She was a straight A student.
08:42She had her candidacy exam about three months
08:45before her wedding and at her candidacy
08:48exam she did what all graduate students do,
08:51they she brought a little
08:53food to the committee.
08:55Usually students bring Donuts
08:56because it's a stressful event.
08:58You know,
08:59UMBC is a white majority.
09:01School I'll talk a little
09:03bit more about that later,
09:04but she was a minority at our
09:06University and she has to get up in
09:09front of the white male committee and
09:11presenter work and so most students
09:13bring Donuts is sort of a bribe.
09:15Her father was a chef for the
09:18National Library of Congress,
09:19and so she brought a tray of
09:21oysters and shrimp and everything,
09:23so she passed without any problems.
09:25The reason I'm showing you this picture
09:27is that a month after her candidacy exam,
09:30her father passed away
09:31unexpectedly from heart disease.
09:33He was a tall, thin man who didn't drink.
09:36He didn't smoke,
09:37he was raising Shard Elan three younger
09:39siblings of hers on his own.
09:41He was only 46 years old.
09:43The only thing that he had going against
09:46him statistically was the color of his skin.
09:49And I also want to point out Lamont.
09:52Tolliver, who ran the Meyerhoff
09:54undergraduate program for more than 10 years.
09:56A terrific guy who was
09:58raised in an orphanage in.
10:00Master at Homes in Petsburgh.
10:02He was a phenomenal leader.
10:03He was on his way to my office too
10:06so that we and others could discuss
10:08how we might help other universities.
10:11Replicator Meyerhoff program,
10:12he called said he was running late and
10:14he collapsed just outside my office.
10:16We were unable to resuscitate him,
10:18he passed away when he was 48 years old.
10:21Again of heart disease.
10:23And so when we meet with.
10:26High school students and talk
10:27about a PhD or an MD,
10:29PhD or as as a goal that they might consider.
10:33We talk about health disparities,
10:34and I asked the students to look at
10:37their fathers and who brought them to
10:39the meetings or look at their mothers.
10:42And we talk about the fact that
10:44if their fathers are black,
10:46they have a 30% higher chance of
10:48dying from coronary heart disease
10:50than their white friends.
10:51And it's the same for their mothers
10:53that diabetes one in four American
10:55African American women over 55.
10:57In the US right now has diabetes.
11:00Lupus is threefold higher in African
11:02American women than it is in their.
11:05Their white friends,
11:06and this was published a few years ago
11:09that Blacks live about 5 1/2 years.
11:11Fewer years then then there than
11:13their white friends.
11:15And so these are health disparities
11:17that our students need to be thinking
11:19about as their choosing their careers.
11:22And when we talk about.
11:24In our careers in medicine,
11:25you know,
11:26it's great to want to go back into
11:28your into their communities and
11:29to give back and to help people.
11:32But we tell them that if they are
11:34competitive for our meyerhof program,
11:36they're not just going to be the best.
11:38The well, best,
11:39well prepared and highest achieving and
11:41hardest working Blacks on our campus.
11:43They're going to be among our best students,
11:46period.
11:46And that means that they'll have an
11:49opportunity to do more than just go
11:51back and use the existing technologies.
11:53They can be part of developing better
11:56health care systems for their communities.
11:58So why aren't more minorities earning
12:00science PHD's and the answers that
12:02I typically get from my white
12:04friends are that there aren't many
12:05students of color who are interested
12:07in science and math and the smart
12:09ones all go to medical school.
12:11I mean, I still when I give my talks,
12:13that's what my friends tell me.
12:16But there's a lot of facts out there that
12:19show that that's the perception is wrong.
12:21Actually,
12:22the College Board publishes data
12:24that go back more than 20 years,
12:26showing that similar percentages of
12:28African Americans and Caucasian freshman.
12:30Who start college aspired to a stem degree.
12:34And we're actually help these days
12:35by television shows that portray
12:37Blacks as being very smart in science.
12:39You know, we get a lot of students
12:41that now want to be CSI scientists.
12:43They want they want to learn forensic
12:45chemistry, so we can't really blame you.
12:47Know what we used to do in the past.
12:50We say, well, Blacks smart Blacks are
12:52always portrayed in a very negative way.
12:54That's just not true anymore.
12:57And then to tell I'll be telling
13:00you about our meyerhof program.
13:02We typically get more than 2500
13:05nominations for our undergraduate program.
13:07We typically get more than 200 completed
13:10applications from minority students,
13:12of which about 80% are
13:14Maryland area students.
13:15And this is for about
13:1745 to 70 freshman slots,
13:19depending on our funding resources.
13:21So the only thing that you
13:24can conclude based on data.
13:27Is that large numbers of talented
13:29African American and minority students
13:31in high schools are interested in stem,
13:34and we're just doing a bad job
13:37of retaining them.
13:38It's not fair or accurate
13:40or appropriate to a blame.
13:42The high school to college pipeline or to
13:45blame the education of the high schools.
13:48Because these students are well prepared.
13:52So then you have to ask, well,
13:55why are we doing such a poor job of retaining
13:57minority students in stem in our colleges?
14:00And I think, and this is my view, but I
14:03think it's shared by many of my colleagues.
14:06Is that typically our expectations are
14:08not where they need to be, and let me
14:10just give you a couple of examples.
14:13This is Kristi Pullen who was
14:15an undergraduate meyerhof.
14:16She published a couple of papers in my lab,
14:18did really well,
14:19went to Berkeley work with Tom Alber,
14:22solved a really interesting crystal
14:23structure as a graduate student at Berkeley.
14:26So I invited her to give a talk at a
14:28Keystone meeting that I organized and
14:30Christy showed up to give her talk in
14:33the morning and the other speakers,
14:35all white males were asking her,
14:37you know how this slide projector
14:39worked and how the lighting worked and
14:41things and then finally one of 'em said,
14:43oh, you're Christie, Poland.
14:45I thought you were the projectionist.
14:47Anh DEP individual that said that
14:49wasn't intending to put her down,
14:51but it's just an example of what's
14:53called a micro aggression,
14:54and it's the kind of language that
14:56she has heard her entire life because
14:58she's always done well in math,
15:00and she's done well in science.
15:02And yet the people that were educating her
15:04didn't really expect her to be there now.
15:07It's also true she was the first
15:08black to ever give a talk at this
15:11particular Keystone meeting,
15:12and so you know there were.
15:14There was a reason why people
15:16didn't expect her to be here.
15:18But the language we use can be discouraging.
15:21And then I want to tell you one
15:23other story that really illustrates
15:25the changes that occur at UMBC.
15:28This was from a senior colleague.
15:31And we got into an argument about the
15:34weather meyerhof when it was started
15:36was really the right thing to do.
15:38So here we have a black president
15:40who had just become our president
15:42and he's building a program that is
15:45supposed to at that time focus on black
15:47males and and this senior colleague
15:49said that that wasn't appropriate,
15:51that everybody should be treated
15:53the same and he pounded his fists on
15:56the table when we started arguing,
15:58he said I don't have a prejudice
16:00bone in my body.
16:01I've never voted for a Republican in my life.
16:04I went to school in Berkeley in the 60s.
16:07Don't tell me that I that I have prejudices.
16:11So, five years later,
16:13we were at a dinner with a visitor
16:16who gave a chemistry Department
16:18seminar and this same senior colleague
16:20was talking to the visitor about
16:23the Meyerhoff program.
16:24And what he said is that prior to meyerhof,
16:27if there was one or maybe two Blacks
16:30in his upper level chemistry class,
16:32they sat in the back.
16:33They didn't ask questions,
16:35and if they earned AC,
16:36he would write a strong recommendation.
16:38Now he said there are large numbers.
16:40They sit in the front of the class.
16:43They ask questions regularly there
16:45in the tutorial centers as tutors.
16:47And here's the important point.
16:49He said. Now if a black student
16:50earns AC on his first exam,
16:52he calls them into his office to ask what
16:55the problem is or to work on a solution,
16:58his expectations went up and I don't
17:00know if he even gets it to this day.
17:02But it struck me when he told
17:04his visitor about his change and
17:06I realized that so many of us
17:08had the same shared experience.
17:10Can you imagine going into a
17:12classroom with 350 students?
17:13And let's say that there are 25
17:15black students scattered around in
17:17the classroom in the class starts
17:18in India and they go unnoticed.
17:20With the Meyerhoff program,
17:22the students have to be in class
17:2415 minutes before class starts.
17:25They have to sit in the front row,
17:28shoulder to shoulder, and so if I'm,
17:30you know,
17:30typical white guy walk into the
17:32classroom to get ready to lecture,
17:34and there are those 25 students
17:36in the front row and we start
17:38having a conversation and I can't
17:40get the first few words out of my
17:42lecture out of my mouth,
17:44and they're raising their hand,
17:45asking questions,
17:46and they're doing well on their exams.
17:48It's easy to see how I would then go home.
17:51And look in the mirror and say wow.
17:54I've gotta rethink things.
17:57This didn't involve diversity training.
17:58It didn't involve anything other
18:00than me seeing in front of me,
18:02something that I had not seen before.
18:05So part of the Meyerhof program is not
18:08only preparing these students to do well,
18:10but putting them in a position
18:12where they can help people like
18:14me change their expectations.
18:17And so you know another real problem
18:20that we have is that the news is
18:22not good for minority students.
18:24So you know there there are there
18:26articles that claim where we're
18:28producing way too many PHD's and we
18:30don't have enough faculty positions
18:32for all the PHD's were producing,
18:34there's the Ginter paper that
18:36said Blacks can't compete for
18:37NIH grants even when accounting
18:39for preparation and training.
18:40And then, more recently,
18:42another science article said that
18:43the reason they're not competing
18:45is that they're choosing.
18:46Uninteresting research topics.
18:48So why would anybody want to go
18:50into science with all that bad news?
18:55So at UMBC things really changed because
18:57of our President Freeman her boskey.
19:00Here's a picture of him when he and
19:02I both started at UMBC in 1987.
19:05The black students were protesting
19:07because they perceived our
19:09campus to be racist at that time,
19:11fewer than six Blacks had ever
19:13earned better than a C in genetics,
19:15and the same went for physics
19:17and so they view that as racist.
19:20The white view.
19:21The students felt that the campus was cold.
19:25And now we for many years now
19:27we've been the top school of Origin
19:30of Blacks who go on to earn MD
19:33PhD degrees by a large number.
19:35Places like Howard University, Spelman.
19:37They don't come close.
19:38Where the number 2 School of Origin
19:41of Blacks who go under in stem PHD's
19:44actually were probably number one these.
19:46This was the based on the latest report
19:49from the National Science Foundation
19:51and of course Howard is a large,
19:53predominantly African American University.
19:56We're condemned,
19:56considered a national model for inclusive
19:58excellence in STEM, and if you want to.
20:00Learn more about Freeman.
20:02Just Google Freeman, her boskey or he has it.
20:05They did a really nice video on
20:07him when he won the UCSF medalist.
20:11Last year and there are many other that
20:14he's been on 60 minutes for the program.
20:17He's just an amazing guy.
20:19So for those of you who don't know,
20:21I'll just quickly tell you his name.
20:23Is Freeman her about?
20:24See the 3rd that her boskey comes
20:26from the fact that his great,
20:28great, great Gran father was a white
20:30Polish slave owner.
20:31There,
20:32Freeman,
20:32the third comes from the fact that he's
20:36the third generation that was Born
20:39Free rather than having to be freed.
20:42He was raised in Birmingham and one
20:44of the girls that was the four girls
20:46that was killed in the baptistery
20:48church bombing was a friend of his.
20:51And it hurt him deeply,
20:52as you could imagine.
20:54So he helped organize a youth March
20:56at 12 years old and was rounded up
20:58by the police and incarcerated for
21:00a week with hardened criminals.
21:02Now, if I'd gone through something like that,
21:04I'd be very angry and very bitter.
21:07He is the most positive, energetic,
21:08brilliant person I've ever known,
21:10and he's my most important mentor in my life.
21:14So because of the program that
21:15he started and I've been able to
21:17help with in some respects.
21:21We have this program.
21:22The Meyerhoff Scholars
21:23Program started in 1989.
21:24It only originally focused on
21:26African American males because
21:28the donor who who gave us money to
21:31start the program, Bob Meyerhof,
21:32had read in the Baltimore Sun that if
21:35you were born black male in Baltimore,
21:38your chances of going to college
21:40at that time were lower than
21:43your chances of going to jail.
21:45And he wanted to do something about the
21:48plight of black males in Baltimore.
21:50It was opened up a year later to
21:52African American females because
21:54we raised money from sources that
21:56we couldn't discriminate that way.
21:58And then,
21:59based in part on the Banneker decision,
22:02another affirmative action decisions
22:03that occur during the Clinton years.
22:05This was opened up to all students
22:08who care about issues of inclusion,
22:10and this is a really important point.
22:13Because we do get large numbers
22:16of very high achieving white and
22:19Asian students as well.
22:20And those students typically get not
22:23only because they are very competitive,
22:25they not only get offers to
22:27join the Meyerhoff program,
22:29but they typically get offers to
22:31become University scholars or take
22:33other scholarships that don't have
22:34all the requirements and activities
22:36and social justice components
22:38of the Meyerhoff program.
22:40And so this tends to be self
22:42selective for majority students
22:43that care about issues of inclusion
22:46and social justice so historically,
22:48now since its inception about
22:5071% are minorities,
22:51most of them African American.
22:53And then about 15% Caucasian and
22:5615% Asian students typically.
22:59This is a student centered approach.
23:01We attract high achieving minority
23:04students and we don't apologize for that.
23:06We provide intrusive support
23:08with very high expectations.
23:10We use a cohort learning model
23:12where students work in teams.
23:14Let me just give you an example
23:18of cohort learning.
23:19We have a summer bridge where students,
23:21if they want to be in the Meyerhoff program,
23:24they have to come and spend six
23:26weeks on campus in our summer
23:28bridge and the students like to
23:30call it a bootcamp an it is tough.
23:32The students are up at breakfast at
23:347 their activities typically don't
23:36end in the day until about 8:00
23:38and then they can start studying
23:40for their classes.
23:41For which they get,
23:42they are graded and the grades
23:44go on their transcripts.
23:45Now,
23:46many of these students have never earned
23:48AB or have only earned very few bees,
23:50and so they're used to doing well
23:53while they basically get one of their
23:55courses is a very intensive math course.
23:57Most students take a full course
23:59of calculus in six weeks,
24:00plus the social justice classes and
24:02learning how to write a resume.
24:04There's all kinds of things that
24:06they have to do,
24:07but this math class is probably a
24:09key part of the cohort building.
24:12Because.
24:14The students typically are asked
24:17to self select into groups of four.
24:20They are told to learn how to.
24:22They are taught to learn how to
24:24study as individuals.
24:24An study within that group.
24:27They take their first quiz.
24:30And the group gets the average grade.
24:35Of the group, so everybody in a group
24:37gets the average grade for that group.
24:39But what's even better is the entire class
24:43gets the grade for the weakest group.
24:46Now if any of you have taught and
24:48ask people to study in groups,
24:49you know what typically happens.
24:50The well prepared students get together
24:52and then that leaves the students that
24:54are less well prepared, struggling,
24:55and it really doesn't accomplish much well.
24:57Now what happens is they all know
24:59that they're all in this together,
25:00so the well prepared students are holding
25:02their hands up saying who needs help.
25:04I got an A and the students they need
25:06more help or raising their hands and
25:08saying we should work together and
25:09they're allowed to reorganize into
25:11new groups of four that they then
25:13maintained for the rest of the semester.
25:15And so this is just one of the more.
25:17Interesting ways that Freeman and
25:19others came up with for trying to get
25:22students to learn to reach out to
25:24their colleagues when they need help
25:26and to work together as a cohort.
25:29There is early emergent in research,
25:31so we really want students to focus on
25:33their grades during their first semester,
25:35and if all is going well and it usually is,
25:38then in the second semester we want
25:40them interviewing faculty and we they
25:42teach them how to interview faculty
25:43and then join a research lab in the
25:45summer after their freshman year.
25:47So they start to see themselves as
25:48a scientist right away rather than
25:50something that they're aspiring to.
25:52And in 10 years or more.
25:55And then high exposure.
25:56This raises expectations of the
25:57faculty and the students, so again,
25:59you're in a 350 room class and you're a
26:02black student who might be working part time.
26:05Maybe you've got a family.
26:06Maybe you've coming back to school later.
26:09You get that first quiz,
26:10and you make a C.
26:12Or maybe you've struggled even more.
26:14The first impression isn't,
26:15I don't belong here because you look
26:17down in the front row and you see
26:19these other students doing well.
26:21So what we see is A is a retention
26:24of minority students.
26:25Even when they're not in our program
26:27and the GPA's have gone up even when
26:29they're not in the program because
26:31they can go to the tutorial center
26:33now and get help from people with
26:36that have similar life experiences.
26:38And I just want to give you an example.
26:42I prepared this because a northeastern.
26:47School, not Yale.
26:48The leader of that school said,
26:50well,
26:51we could never do meyerhof at our
26:53institution because the black students
26:55just can't compete with our white students.
26:58They're just too good.
27:01And so I put this together so that
27:03I could present it the next day
27:06at a board meeting.
27:07And so this individual could see this.
27:09So this is typical numbers.
27:11What you can see.
27:12We had been this year.
27:14Given year we had 2100 nominations.
27:16We had 500 completed applications,
27:17more than 80% in state.
27:19Half of the Mail,
27:20more than half of 'em minority and I
27:23want to point out that the male part
27:25is really important because we do
27:28have to work really hard to keep their
27:30minority population of males as high as the.
27:33Is the females.
27:36But you can see the ethnicity more
27:38than 50% were minorities in the class.
27:41I'm just going to quickly point out here.
27:44These are the graduation
27:45plans in the applications.
27:46We have 157 that say they just want
27:49to do an MD during selection Week.
27:52We bring 10 of 'em in this year
27:54because there was something about
27:56their application that made us think
27:58that they might consider an MD,
28:00PhD or research.
28:03And then if you look,
28:05we ended up with a total
28:07of three out of those 157,
28:09we're really focusing on people who are
28:11hopefully going to become leaders in science,
28:14and you can see these are strong
28:16students because you know the
28:18average GPA of this class was 4.0,
28:20seven, and average math S80 was.
28:22Here.
28:22We have some minority students
28:25who have perfect math essay Tees.
28:28Now this is 1 individual and I
28:31selected this individual for a reason.
28:34Because of the person in the
28:36audience he came in from a
28:38great curriculum in high school.
28:41He had already had AP Physics,
28:43AP Stat, AP calculus, A&B,
28:45AP chemistry, AP biology.
28:46He'd he'd scored well on the essay Tees,
28:49but not among our very best.
28:52He came to UMBC with 41 AP credits
28:54at high school research he took
28:57first place in a New Jersey Merck
29:00State Science Day Test in 7th place
29:02in a science Lee competition.
29:04He placed into calculus three.
29:06He graduated with a four.
29:08Oh did research at all these
29:10places you can see here.
29:12He got into all of the PhD MVP.
29:15I'm sorry, MD,
29:16PhD programs he applied to and
29:18decided to go to Johns Hopkins.
29:20Now this is one of the best prepared,
29:23highest performing students we've had.
29:24There's this is another person
29:26in this same individuals class.
29:28Who came from Maryland from a weak school?
29:31We know it's not the best
29:33preparation so our GPA was high,
29:35but it doesn't equate to this GPA.
29:38Came in with pre calculus AP
29:40Biology AP chemistry below.
29:42What we would normally
29:43expect on the math S80.
29:45No AP credits,
29:46no research experience in high school,
29:48but there was again something about her.
29:50She placed into precalculus but there
29:52was something about her interview.
29:54Something about her that
29:56showed fire in the ability.
29:58We don't just make acceptance is based.
30:00Down scores we look for other things that
30:03make us believe they're going to do well,
30:06so she ends up.
30:07She ends up getting an HMI scholarship.
30:09She's a meyerhof.
30:10She got into our mark program.
30:12She graduated cume Laude A and she
30:15just finished her PhD at Upenn.
30:17So this is how pulling these
30:19students together and having
30:21them work as a cohort can actually raise
30:24the outcomes for some of our students,
30:26and that it's obviously beneficial
30:28even for our best students.
30:32So what are the outcomes?
30:34We've had a total of about 1500
30:37meyerhof participants, 71% minority.
30:40We've had 1150 graduates 91%.
30:43Retained instead and you think about
30:45that because these are kids who are
30:48coming in from high school telling
30:50us they want to be a stem major.
30:53An 91% of them are being retained.
30:55We've had 930 graduates pursue
30:57graduate or professional degrees
30:59we've had so far 312 PHD's awarded,
31:01of which 82% or minorities.
31:03So it's not like it's just the the
31:06majority students who are being successful
31:08after they leave the minority students
31:11are we had 59 MD pH D's awarded.
31:1390% of those were minorities.
31:15And 256 stem Masters degrees awarded.
31:18I should point out that Upenn has the
31:21oldest medical school in the country
31:23and their first ever African American,
31:25MD PhD went to a Meyerhoff scholar.
31:30And we now have right now about 260
31:33of our graduates meyerhof graduates
31:36who are enrolled in Graduate School.
31:40Now people say, well,
31:42you're selecting the really strong students.
31:44They would do well anywhere.
31:46Shouldn't you be giving money to
31:48people that really needed most?
31:49Actually, I should point out
31:52Freeman was once confronted by.
31:54African American students were
31:55not in the Meyerhoff program
31:57and they basically said to him,
31:58why are you giving them money?
32:01We're the ones that really need it.
32:03We're the ones that don't have the
32:04same preparation and we're struggling.
32:06We were holding down jobs and.
32:08And it's a it's a tough argument, right?
32:10But Freeman said well,
32:11wait a minute,
32:12you know we're trying to develop science
32:14you didn't complain when we gave
32:16scholarships to the basketball team.
32:17Why are you complaining when we're
32:19giving scholarships to people that
32:21want to do science and want to go
32:23into medicine and want to improve
32:24the health of your communities?
32:26So. There is a.
32:29Perception,
32:30even among our black students that we're
32:33helping people that don't need help.
32:35But actually,
32:36so we've what we've done,
32:37and this is again one of the genius
32:39things that Freeman and his colleagues,
32:41when they first started the program, did.
32:45Is when they invited families to
32:47come to our selection weekend.
32:49We asked the parents to sign forms.
32:52That say that if we make your
32:54son or daughter an offer and you
32:56turn us down to go to the Ivies.
32:58That we can track their academic
32:59performance and the parents mostly
33:01signed those because they didn't
33:03know what scholarship offers
33:04their kids were going to get or
33:06where they would want to go.
33:07So we have a control group now of students
33:10who by every metric we could come up with,
33:13whether it's GPA,
33:14SAT scores.
33:15High School Research experience
33:16stated interest in wanting to
33:18be a scientist by every metric.
33:21They would be great in our program
33:23for those that that turned us down.
33:26They graduated with similar GPA's
33:28but they were half as likely
33:30to graduate with a stem degree
33:33and seven times less likely to
33:35complete a STEM graduate degree.
33:37So in terms of having an impact,
33:39we're having an enormous impact on
33:42retention of high achieving students
33:43who say they want to be a scientist.
33:46We're helping them achieve their dreams.
33:50Now this is obviously had a huge impact
33:54on institutional climate by 2005,
33:56and this was a paper
33:58published by Freeman and me.
34:00We we showed that we saw in more
34:03than 400% increase in non meyerhof
34:06African American stem degrees.
34:08We saw African American stem GPA's at
34:11graduation finally equal Caucasians
34:12from 2.7 which is still the national
34:15average to about 3.2 which is the
34:18national average for Caucasians in STEM.
34:20Meyerhoff components were adapted
34:22within the broader curriculum.
34:24I can talk to you about that later,
34:27and that's probably also had an effect
34:29on retention of non meyerhoff scholars
34:31in the Sciences and then by 2018.
34:34We're really proud of this.
34:35We haven't published this and he is
34:37not in any peer reviewed article,
34:40but we we posted this if you're
34:42African American at UMBC,
34:43it doesn't matter what your what
34:45your major is or or what Department
34:48you're in or what program you're in.
34:50Meyerhof non meyerhof.
34:52Graduation rates equal or exceed
34:55Caucasians in all majors.
34:57Just to give you a couple examples,
34:59this is Isaac.
34:59In day he came from California.
35:01We do take a small number of
35:03out of state students,
35:04but because we have to come up
35:06with the money for tuition,
35:08the numbers are pretty small.
35:09This is one that we took and his younger
35:12brother opinion I Zic worked in my lab.
35:14He published a few papers with me.
35:16He turned actually he turned down.
35:18Stanford said to come to UMBC.
35:21He did after graduating from UMBC did his
35:24MD PhD with Bert Vogelstein he come up with.
35:27He came up with a way of detecting cancers
35:30early in Pap smears and in fecal samples.
35:33So he Co founded a company
35:36called Thrive Early Detection.
35:37This guy is going to revolutionize
35:39healthcare for women.
35:40He made it too.
35:42He was he was featured in Forbes
35:44magazine 30 under 30.
35:46You may have seen Kizzie on television
35:48sometime over the past year.
35:50Kosmicki A she is a.
35:52A leading the effort to work with
35:55Moderna to develop the Moderna vaccine.
35:57You can see her on television here
36:00and actually one of the scientists
36:02at Moderna worked in my lab on RNA
36:05work before doing his PhD at UCLA
36:07and he's now at Moderna working with
36:09Kizzie on the on the Moderna vaccine.
36:12We've had an impact beyond UMBC.
36:14I know you've seen Jerome Adams
36:16on television recently.
36:17He's Rus surgeon general,
36:19especially in the early days
36:21of Covid and then you.
36:23I don't know if you know Sylvia Trent Adams.
36:26She's a deputy principal deputy
36:27Assistant Secretary for health,
36:29and we've had 40 of our former
36:31Meyerhoff undergraduates take tenured
36:32or tenure track faculty positions.
36:34Here's just a mosaic that I
36:36put together recently.
36:37Some of you already know cough,
36:39who's up there in the middle,
36:41'cause he just visited or vert,
36:44probably virtually visited Yale,
36:45and these are the places where they are.
36:48They're not bad, right?
36:49We have four of our former
36:51Meyerhoff undergraduates now
36:52have tenured or tenure track
36:54faculty positions at Duke.
36:55Two of them are at Stanford.
36:58Several are at Johns Hopkins in
36:59tenured or tenure track positions,
37:01and these are all the other research.
37:04One universities that have our
37:05former undergrads on their faculty.
37:10Now, everything I've been telling you
37:12about it relates to our undergraduate
37:14program and one of the things that
37:17I did early on was I thought,
37:19well, you know what we're doing.
37:21All this great work with undergrads.
37:24What are we doing at the graduate level?
37:27And this is a chart showing minority science
37:29and engineering PHD's awarded by UMBC.
37:32And remember my I moved UMBC,
37:34and 87 Meyerhoff undergraduate was
37:36started in 89 and so this is the period
37:39with which the Meyerhoff undergrad
37:41program was really getting going.
37:43And this is an awful chart, right?
37:46This is a binary chart.
37:48We produce 0001 pH D 000011.
37:50So these are the numbers of PHD's
37:54in all areas of stem from UMBC.
37:57So I started this.
37:59What we call the Meyerhoff
38:00Graduate Fellows program.
38:01It's a lot different from the undergrad
38:04program because these students have
38:06families and you know they're at
38:08a different stage in their life,
38:10so we have different activities for them.
38:12It's been supported exclusively
38:14by 1 grant from the NIH called.
38:16It was an IMS Degrant,
38:18and we originally supported students for
38:20the first 2 years and sometimes three years.
38:23But as faculty began taking more
38:25and more risks because they
38:27saw the students doing well,
38:29you know.
38:29Taking students from places they might not
38:31normally take students into their programs,
38:33we were able to cut back the number
38:36of years to now wait for many years.
38:38Now we only provide one year
38:40of support from the grant,
38:41and then they immediately go onto
38:43training grants or borrow ones,
38:45and so this was one of our,
38:47you know,
38:47this was after maybe four or five
38:49years of our program in place
38:51where we went white water rafting.
38:53We go hiking.
38:54This was a shot taken above
38:55Harpers Ferry in 2017.
38:56That's a terrific group of people.
38:58This just shows you some numbers.
39:00These are the numbers of students
39:02supported by the grant in blue.
39:04And the numbers of students supported by
39:07institutional or other funding in red.
39:09And this shows by 2017 we are up.
39:12We started with three three students by 2017.
39:15We're up to over 100 enrolled students.
39:18These are PHD's awarded to
39:20minorities in this program.
39:21You can see the numbers going up so from
39:25that ain't a 10 year period from 87 to 97,
39:28UMBC produced six minority PHD's
39:30and now we produce 142 minority
39:33PHD's in this 20 year period.
39:35We have 28 more that are
39:37now advanced to candidacy.
39:39We have an 84% retention rate and
39:42112 minorities were enrolled in
39:44September of this year and we've been
39:48above 100 for the past four years.
39:51Many programs, like our biochemistry program,
39:53which includes the medical school
39:55downtown we're up to between 30 and
39:5740% of our PhD students are minorities.
40:01So my half is considered the gold
40:03standard for inclusive excellence
40:05in stem by some people.
40:07The question is,
40:08can it be adopted at a majority institution?
40:11Other majority institutions with like
40:13minded majority leadership and our
40:16view is that you know most of the
40:18PHD's are coming to minorities are
40:20coming from majority institutions.
40:22We should be doing a better job and when I
40:25raise the question to my colleagues you know
40:28why aren't you doing something like this?
40:32The answer that I always got was
40:35we don't have a Freeman ribowsky.
40:38Right, so the assumption is that
40:40you have to have a black president.
40:42Or at least the charismatic dynamic
40:44black president.
40:44Like Freeman, if you wanted,
40:46do something important for minority
40:47students at your institution.
40:49And to me that was an experiment
40:51that just begged to be done.
40:53And so we started a partnership with
40:55the University of North Carolina,
40:57Chapel Hill and Penn State University,
40:58primarily because they were the
41:00first to really reach out and say,
41:02would you help us?
41:03And then I went to HMI and asked,
41:06how are you some medical Institute?
41:08If they could provide some seed
41:10money and they did more than that,
41:12they actually help with.
41:13On site meetings and bringing
41:15in experts to help guide us and
41:18several other things that have
41:19helped with this partnership.
41:21So let me just tell you
41:23the institutional context.
41:24UMBC has about 11,000 undergrads,
41:2634% of our students are minorities,
41:2870% African American,
41:29and we're a suburb of Baltimore.
41:31UNC has 18,000 undergrads.
41:33They have a medical school there
41:35only half as diverse as UMBC with
41:38only 8% African Americans and have
41:40a terrible history of inclusion,
41:41they only had four Blacks on
41:44their campus in by 1960.
41:47And if you look at Penn State,
41:49this is where I really did
41:51not think this would work.
41:53They have 41,000 undergrads,
41:5412% minorities, 5% African Americans,
41:56so their their diversity is very
41:58low compared to the rest of us.
42:00Yet they are the top five among the top
42:03five schools of origin of Stem PHD's.
42:06So 193 year PHD's per year
42:08over a 10 year period.
42:10According to the NSF,
42:11193 PHD's in STEM in the US.
42:15Got their undergraduate
42:17degrees at Penn State.
42:19But of those 193,
42:21only four year African American.
42:23And their chief diversity Officer
42:25told us this will never work at
42:27Penn State because parents of
42:29high achieving black kids will
42:30not trust us with their children.
42:32And so we took a partnership approach.
42:34There's immersive meyerhof training their
42:36faculty that we're going to do this,
42:38their administrators,
42:39even some of their leaders came to
42:41UMBC to learn about our program.
42:43We went to their institutions.
42:45I stayed in a student dorm for
42:47about a week and a half at UNC,
42:50and we went with Meyerhoff scholars
42:52and even our parents Association
42:53to both campuses to help them with
42:56their initial recruiting efforts.
42:57We have BI weekly staff meetings,
42:59annual leadership meetings that
43:01go on to this day.
43:03An regular,
43:03ongoing formative assessment
43:04which is key to everything we do.
43:06Everything is based on numbers and
43:08I should tell you at the very first
43:11selection weekend at Penn State.
43:12And again, this is where we were told
43:15that this would not work there by there
43:17by their chief diversity Officer,
43:19who'd been there for 20 years,
43:21and I should tell you now he's
43:23a huge fan of what we're doing,
43:25but at the time, everything in his
43:28history said this would not work.
43:31So. They in their very first
43:33year they had no money from HMI,
43:36it was all internal.
43:38They said, well,
43:39we can probably support about 18 students,
43:41and so they invited 72 students and
43:43their families to the selection
43:45weekend for interviews and to
43:47tell them about the program.
43:48They had 70 show up into
43:50that that attended virtually.
43:52They decided to make 25 offers,
43:54hoping that they get about 12 and then
43:57they would make a few more offers
43:59until they got up to 18 and May 25 offers.
44:02They had 23 accepts in their very first year,
44:05in fact that their selection weekend it
44:07always ends with a white tablecloth dinner.
44:09One father went black,
44:11father stood up and said when will I find
44:13out if my son gets into this program?
44:16I would pay for him to be in this program.
44:20And so it's interesting because
44:21it Penn State they've never had a
44:24decline group large enough to do
44:25a statistical assessment of the
44:27effectiveness of their program.
44:29So even a place like Penn State
44:31can really make this work.
44:33The outcomes at both schools
44:35exceeded or met Meyerhoff outcomes.
44:36Stem retention matches.
44:37Meyerhof retention is better better
44:39than 90% four year graduation rate.
44:41So this is the first year of
44:44meyerhof of UMBC in Gray.
44:45After four years we only had
44:47a small percentage graduate.
44:49After four years we were still.
44:51Trying to work on the program
44:53and make it work.
44:54You can see UNC and Penn State their
44:57graduation rates after four year
44:58and stem are much higher and in
45:00fact they are equal to present day.
45:03UMBC graduation rates at after
45:04four years GPS at graduation.
45:06Meyerhoff,
45:06you know we at our first cohort
45:09was really quite low,
45:10is below 3 1/4 and you can see
45:12over the years as we're learning
45:14and we're getting more faculty
45:16buy in the numbers go up the 28
45:19year average is just below 3.45.
45:21What you can see is Penn State
45:23and UNC from year from cohort
45:26one is achieving outcomes,
45:28GPA outcomes that meet or exceed.
45:30They greatly exceed our early outcomes
45:33and they meet or exceed present
45:35day in average meyerhof outcomes.
45:38PhD, Matriculation UMBC's first cohort.
45:40We had a lot that went to
45:42medical school but now you can
45:45see on the chart on the right.
45:47We have many more that do a PhD or an MD PhD.
45:51But look at the very first cohort
45:53of Penn State is equaling the
45:56Meyerhof present day cohort.
45:57An UNC is also doing quite well.
46:00Much better than our early outcomes
46:02and then minority participation
46:04exceeds the meyerhof by year.
46:056 by year six of their programs,
46:08UNC is 67% African American.
46:1093% Minority Penn State.
46:1253% African American 74% minority.
46:16The growth is good.
46:17You can see present day Meyerhof
46:19in the dotted bars and over over a
46:21period of years and you can see the
46:23cohort one for meyerhof is white and
46:25the other schools are these other
46:27colors blue and red and you can see
46:29how they're growing at the same rate.
46:31It takes money to do these.
46:33You have to raise the money,
46:34so that's how we're growing an this.
46:36These are what the costs are.
46:38I can go over more of this with you later.
46:40The important thing is that money
46:42from the institutional budget or
46:44are in Gray and you can see that
46:45in the beginning the institutions
46:47put in about 1/2 a million.
46:49But people got really excited.
46:50They built their programs into
46:52their capital campaigns and you
46:54can see that there's been growth.
46:56This is present day meyerhof and you
46:58can see we put less institutional
47:00money into our program,
47:01but we do a lot of fund raising.
47:06An endowment building after three years,
47:08UNC raised $16 million just for its
47:11and meyerhof like program Endowment,
47:13Penn State rate 12 million after three years.
47:16For comparison,
47:17UMBC presently only has a little
47:19over $22 million,
47:21and that's because most of our
47:23money that we raise goes into
47:25operating costs and hasn't been
47:27able to be to go into an endowment.
47:31So the point is that there is
47:33considerable outside interests,
47:35especially among.
47:36You know the the graduates of the schools
47:39and even at places like UNC in the South.
47:43Here's a picture of the
47:45Millennium Group at Penn State.
47:46This is at the presidents dinner.
47:48Can you imagine having dinner with this
47:51group of people with your president?
47:53The impact that that has you put this
47:55group into a small room with the president,
47:58and they're all talking science
48:00and talking about their dreams.
48:02Can you imagine the the impact that
48:04has on the President, the University?
48:06And then here's the same.
48:08I think about the same year,
48:10the Chancellor Science scholars
48:12is what they've named there.
48:13Program at Penn State.
48:15This is Carol Fault in the middle and
48:18just to tell you that this was not easy.
48:21You may know that Carol Folt was
48:23fired a couple of years ago because
48:25she demanded that the infection and
48:27demanded she went against the state
48:30legislator at later and had the
48:32granite base of a statue of a racist
48:34Confederate removed from the campus.
48:36And she wrote a letter to the
48:39legislature saying, I will.
48:40I've had this this removed.
48:42I will step down from my office in
48:44by the end of the semester and they.
48:47Told her she could be out of
48:50her office in two weeks.
48:52She's now the chancellor USC.
48:53So she's doing really well,
48:55but I'm just telling you,
48:57even when you're building programs like this,
48:59there's always some fight.
49:03So we're expanding.
49:04We have now support from the
49:06Chan Zuckerberg Initiative.
49:07We're working with UC
49:09Berkeley and UC San Diego.
49:10My alma mater is doing this with with
49:12their own money that they're raising.
49:15Howard University is now part of this.
49:17Since we've been working together,
49:19we're sort of serving as a hub for
49:21monthly meetings where we're working with
49:23these other institutions to advise them.
49:25And it's not just academic institutions.
49:27We're also working with companies.
49:28We've just we've been working
49:30with Genentech for a few years.
49:32These are some of our meyerhoff.
49:34Graduate fellows who've gone to
49:36Genentech either for part time or
49:38full time positions and Alicia Dent.
49:40I'm really excited about her because
49:41they just hired her last summer into
49:44a leadership development position so
49:45they're not just hiring minorities
49:47to take post doc positions and try to
49:50become more diverse at the postdoc level.
49:52They've hired her to spend one year at
49:54the bench in one year and development
49:57and one year and management with
49:59the hope that she will eventually
50:01take a management position and help
50:03diversify management at Genentech.
50:05So the conclusions I'll leave you
50:06with is at the undergraduate level.
50:08There are large numbers of minorities
50:10that are interested in stem.
50:11We're not retaining them.
50:12We need to do better.
50:14Yeah, we are cherry picking,
50:15but look at all the cherries out there.
50:17Why wouldn't you Cherry pick
50:19our football teams?
50:20Cherry pick.
50:20We should be cherry picking in science too.
50:23At least that somehow I'm not
50:25just saying exclusively Cherry Pit
50:27because UMBC does a lot of things
50:29for students minority and majority
50:31students who are struggling financially
50:33so we do have other programs.
50:35But the goal of this is to develop
50:37leadership minority leadership in science.
50:39And yeah,
50:40high Achievers will succeed
50:42without our support.
50:43But they are less likely
50:45to be retained in stem.
50:47And this is a very different approach
50:49to what most of the country is taking
50:52today and has historically taken.
50:54I encourage you to look at the
50:57publications by Frank Dobbin at who
50:59talks about why traditional diversity
51:01training programs don't work through
51:04diversity training according to his papers,
51:06has worked when it's coupled with
51:09other more defined actions that
51:11are designed to actually change
51:13institutional outcomes.
51:14And So what he talks about is the
51:17fact that you know people that
51:19come out of diversity training,
51:22learn something.
51:23Yes, they feel like they they are empowered,
51:26yes.
51:26But then if you look at company or
51:29University outcomes or metrics like
51:31enrollments of minorities or graduation
51:33rates of minorities or retention in stem.
51:36We're not having the impact
51:37that they need to have.
51:40Graduate training the there are
51:42there the the numbers that are
51:45interested in PhD are growing.
51:47Outreach is critical.
51:48The most important thing we did was bring
51:51undergraduates into UMBC to do summer
51:53research and those students or their
51:56peers at their minority serving institutions,
51:58applied because they had
52:00good summer experiences.
52:02Key decisions are made by the faculty,
52:04so unlike the undergrad program,
52:05I think graduate diversity can be
52:07and should be run by the faculty.
52:09There really isn't a.
52:11You don't need to wait for the
52:14administration to do something.
52:16And that's with just what I said here
52:18and then in terms of replication,
52:21we now know that meyerhof, like outcomes,
52:23can immediately be achieved at large
52:25predominantly majority institutions.
52:27What it requires is like minded,
52:29administrative and faculty leadership,
52:30and that's pretty much it
52:32commitment to diversity,
52:33and it can be facilitated by
52:35Inter institutional partnerships.
52:36And that's where we're looking
52:38for what you know, how.
52:40What kind of role UMBC can
52:42continue to play in the future,
52:44and with that I am.
52:46Happy to stop here and take any
52:49questions that you may have.
52:51Thank you.
52:54Wonderful thank you Doctor Summers
52:56that was just very inspiring.
52:58The numbers and and all that
53:00you've been able to achieve.
53:01So why don't we open it up for
53:04questions for Doctor Summers?
53:06If anybody has, please go ahead and
53:08ask them where a small enough group.
53:11You can also put your question in
53:13the chat an I will read that out.
53:21I'll just go ahead and start since
53:25I've got something on my mind.
53:27So as you were talking like I was
53:31thinking about one of our challenges
53:34is since we don't do great,
53:37we don't do graduate training here
53:39in in in psychiatry is recruiting
53:42a more diverse postdoctoral group,
53:45and you know so.
53:47Wondering what advice you would have
53:49on how we should go out and do that.
53:53We're obviously all we always
53:54thinking about outreach,
53:55but it just seems like you you're
53:58training these wonderful students
53:59and their PhD numbers are going up,
54:02and that's proliferating.
54:03We would love to get some of those
54:05here because obviously what we
54:07want to do is increase our PhD
54:09numbers in terms of diversity.
54:11But then really,
54:12one of the things we do very
54:14successfully is that builds
54:16our pipeline for faculty.
54:18So we keep them, you know,
54:20in academic careers,
54:21and so we'd love to do that.
54:24And what would your
54:25advice be on that? Yeah,
54:27my advice would be to start by looking at
54:30all of the MSD programs around the country.
54:33the NIH, I MSD. And now they have a new
54:36program called G Rise. Those programs.
54:41R for students who are working on their pH.
54:44D in stem and psychiatry in certain areas
54:48of psychiatry are considered by NIH.
54:51To be part of that stem.
54:55The group and so for example,
54:57in our Meyerhof Graduate Fellows program,
54:59we have 100 and right now I think
55:02we just had a couple of graduates,
55:04so I think we're at like 106 enrolled PhD
55:08students. Of which I believe probably.
55:13Around 20 are psychology students. Wow.
55:17So and many of them are doing clinical well.
55:21I think all of them are doing
55:23something that's semi clinically
55:25related or clinically related.
55:27Most of it is relatively related
55:29to health disparities and not only
55:32just minority health disparities,
55:34but disparities with the aging
55:36population as well and so.
55:39My advice would probably be to have
55:42some kind of letter or advertisement
55:44or something that could be distributed
55:47on a very regular basis to these
55:50programs that would advertise
55:52postdoctoral opportunities for the
55:54students working in these areas,
55:56and we have some students who
55:59are doing combined work with,
56:01you know, the Institute of Aging on.
56:05That are doing psychology and
56:07neurobiology work together,
56:08and I suspect that there is some of
56:10that that might be going on as well.
56:13Now I may be mixing psychology and
56:15psychiatry and and maybe there
56:17is overlap and maybe there isn't,
56:19I don't know.
56:20I would that,
56:22but that's probably where
56:23I would start. Yeah,
56:25an neuroscience is the other, you know,
56:27we could think about neuroscience,
56:29PHD's, or related neuroscience and by
56:32engineering that that are also more and
56:34more could could meet you know could
56:37match up with some of our training
56:39programs. Yeah, absolutely.
56:40And we we do have those in.
56:43There are several places around
56:44the country that have federal
56:46grants to promote inclusion.
56:48You know DI that are really good.
56:50Actually UNC has an extremely good.
56:53I MSD granted and PhD program and now
56:55that they have this new undergraduate,
56:57not new anymore.
56:58It's eight years old,
56:59but their meyerhof,
57:00like undergraduate program,
57:01the whole campus is paying a
57:04lot more attention to diversity.
57:06The another place you could look
57:08at that where I've interacted with
57:10people there quite a bit is Baylor
57:12College of Medicine and they have had
57:15a very successful program as well.
57:17I don't know how many are psychiatry,
57:19but certainly you know they're doing a
57:22terrific job with their PhD students.
57:25Great.
57:29This question from Cindy what components
57:31of this can be applied to the recruitment
57:34and retention of URM faculty?
57:38Oh gosh. That's that's I have to say
57:42that's been my biggest failure at UMBC.
57:45I chaired the search for a new
57:48biochemistry faculty last year.
57:50Before Coben and.
57:52We had 160 applicants,
57:54of which two were black.
57:57One was from Africa and
57:59had had a language problem,
58:00but we thought we could probably
58:02get over that and we agreed to
58:04make that person an offer and
58:06we couldn't get that person.
58:08This was somebody who's doing their pH,
58:10their postdoc at Wash U.
58:12The other African American African
58:14American that applied had one
58:16publication in the Department just
58:18wouldn't pursue that individual.
58:19I wanted to delay the recruitment
58:22by year and do it again,
58:24but with code when Covid came around,
58:26the University said if you can't
58:28find somebody in this pool,
58:30you won't be able to recruit
58:33again for awhile and so.
58:36I think that.
58:39Part of the problem is the pool is low.
58:42Now if you're a Yale,
58:43you know that we've we've made offers to
58:46people that have gone to other schools,
58:49Caltech, or other places,
58:50or even places that are maybe
58:52similar stature to UMBC.
58:53But they have more resources and they can
58:56make spousal hires and things like that.
58:58So we just have not.
59:01But we still have not had a tenured
59:03black faculty member in chemistry and
59:06biochemistry since I've been at UMBC.
59:08So I so part of the issue I think
59:10is in a Department like chemistry
59:13you have different subgroups and
59:15different subgroups argue that
59:16they have a need in their area,
59:19so so you end up looking in a very
59:22specialized area like bio medicinal
59:24chemistry and then the pool is
59:26narrow down so much that you just
59:29don't even get minority applicants.
59:30So I think in my opinion,
59:33if you really want to diversify,
59:35you need to do something a
59:37little more creative now.
59:38What?
59:39We just done is I was at a meeting last year.
59:43I met a black postdoc who I thought
59:46was terrific and so now we invited
59:48her to give a Department seminar.
59:50We went to the administration so we just
59:52had this phenomenal seminar speaker.
59:54There's no in-house fighting.
59:56We all agree that if we could
59:58get that person to come.
59:59So now we're waiting for the
01:00:02University to tell us if we will be
01:00:05allowed to try to recruit that person
01:00:07outside of a normal hiring cycle.
01:00:09So I think that you know if
01:00:12you're at Yale you you,
01:00:13you have the institutions reputation
01:00:15behind you and you may not have to be
01:00:18as creative as we appear to have to be.
01:00:20The other thing that I've heard people
01:00:22are doing is making cluster hires
01:00:24and so if in if in administration
01:00:27decides to go that route,
01:00:28they can on our campus.
01:00:30We do have requirements for our advertising.
01:00:32So before we can even run a normal search,
01:00:35we have to submit the plan not only
01:00:37to the Dean but to Addyi committee
01:00:39that make sure we're targeting
01:00:41the right groups.
01:00:42And then once we have the application pool,
01:00:45it has to be as diverse as we can get it.
01:00:49An if it's not diverse enough.
01:00:52We have to explain why we can.
01:00:54We have had fairly diverse if you
01:00:57consider other factors like first
01:00:58generation college and is now applying
01:01:00for a faculty position or different
01:01:03gender orientation or transsexual person.
01:01:05So we've we've been OK in other areas,
01:01:09but we just haven't been able to recruit
01:01:12African American faculty member and.
01:01:14In most of our department's.
01:01:16I'm sorry I don't have anything better to
01:01:19offer along those lines.
01:01:21I just wondered whether you
01:01:23have data on your PHD's,
01:01:25either in your campus or other places now,
01:01:28or what they select because it's interesting.
01:01:31I wonder if they are actually going
01:01:34into academia an where you know we
01:01:37and other places because I know this
01:01:39is a broad problem of just not having
01:01:42enough applications who from minority
01:01:44applications for faculty positions an.
01:01:46I'm wondering if they're actually
01:01:48not going into academia.
01:01:50That's a great question,
01:01:52and it turns out that of our graduates
01:01:55that I talked about and of those
01:01:58that have completed a postdoc.
01:02:03No, yeah of those that
01:02:06have completed their PhD.
01:02:08Yeah, about 15% are in academics.
01:02:12Now, that's not that much different
01:02:15from the other percentage of PHD's that
01:02:18go into academics currently anyway.
01:02:21We've talked to some of our
01:02:23former students about this.
01:02:25One of them said.
01:02:27Now this is a person who went to Stanford.
01:02:31Who was always whenever?
01:02:32I'd look at the Stanford website,
01:02:34this guy was on the was somehow
01:02:36featured on their website, right?
01:02:37So and he did. Well.
01:02:39He published some papers and he
01:02:40decided to go into policy and he came
01:02:43back to UMBC and I said, well, why?
01:02:45Why did you go into policy and
01:02:47he said he said, look Mike,
01:02:49I'm at Stanford.
01:02:51There are all of these white and
01:02:53Asian postdocs have been applying
01:02:54for jobs and not getting jobs,
01:02:56and if they can't get a job,
01:02:58how am I going to get a job?
01:03:00And then I see the article in
01:03:01science and it says I'm not going
01:03:03to be competitive for an NIH grant.
01:03:05Anyway,
01:03:05I want to have a big impact and
01:03:07if I get stuck in a lab somewhere
01:03:09and I can't be successful,
01:03:11how am I going to have an impact?
01:03:13So maybe if I go to work for
01:03:15passive or some other organization,
01:03:16maybe I can have a big impact?
01:03:18Kristi Pullen, who I mentioned in my talk,
01:03:20did the exact same thing.
01:03:22She went to Harvard.
01:03:24To do a Woodrow Wilson.
01:03:26Postdoc in policy science so that she
01:03:28could try to have a more immediate impact.
01:03:30So I said to this one guy I said,
01:03:33are you kidding me?
01:03:34I said,
01:03:35are you telling me if I gave you,
01:03:37you know 3/4 of $1,000,000 in lab
01:03:39space and said go have fun for
01:03:41five years you wouldn't take it.
01:03:42He said I would take it in a heartbeat.
01:03:46So people are making some people
01:03:48I can't shouldn't generalize,
01:03:50but some of our students are making
01:03:52decisions based on this negative
01:03:54perception about academia and
01:03:56their ability to be successful.
01:03:58Even our students who go to
01:04:02Berkeley and Stanford.
01:04:03Are somehow still being feeling
01:04:05discouraged or or unable to compete?
01:04:07I mean we all have some sense
01:04:09of impostor syndrome.
01:04:10I certainly do micros bash.
01:04:12Who won the Nobel Prize not too
01:04:14long ago talks about how he
01:04:16passed out before one of his HMI
01:04:19reviews because he was so nervous.
01:04:21You know, people,
01:04:22you know,
01:04:23maybe that's what motivates some of us.
01:04:25But in terms of our of our minority students,
01:04:28it's it's keeping them from some
01:04:31of them anyway from pursuing these.
01:04:33Academic positions.
01:04:38Great, thank you. Other
01:04:40questions or thoughts comments?
01:04:45Even sharing your experience of
01:04:47what you may have encountered.
01:04:58Let me just follow up about the
01:04:59NIH and this negative perception
01:05:01that you're talking about.
01:05:03I wonder if you've had?
01:05:04I know, many of the institutes at
01:05:06NIH are very interested in the work
01:05:08you're doing and really sort of
01:05:10building the pipeline and sort of
01:05:12building this kind of work at each
01:05:15stage of the pipeline, so to speak.
01:05:19How are they interested in sort of
01:05:21shifting that negative perception,
01:05:23but also sort of programming
01:05:25around around this grants idea?
01:05:27You know the minorities and already
01:05:29faculty not getting grants and what
01:05:32what sort of creative ways are they
01:05:34sort of talking about changing that
01:05:36and then also changing the perception?
01:05:39Yeah, so I think Jon
01:05:41Lorsch is doing a really good job of that.
01:05:44John is ahead of NIGMS.
01:05:46He's been ahead there for quite awhile.
01:05:51I've talked to them about about their,
01:05:53the people it used to be called the
01:05:55more Division I just finished serving
01:05:57on NIGMS Advisory Council and I would
01:05:59talk to the people in the more division
01:06:02about because they're going around the
01:06:04country saying you need to train your
01:06:06PHD's for jobs outside of academia,
01:06:08and that's been their message.
01:06:09Both minorities and women here
01:06:11that then you know,
01:06:12it's like the Canary in the coal mine.
01:06:15They're the first to leave there.
01:06:17They're not dumb.
01:06:18And so I've been talking to them about
01:06:21how their message isn't helping us.
01:06:23So that's one thing John has
01:06:26been very proactive, he started.
01:06:31A policy where which has hurt me financially,
01:06:34but if you're an HMI investigator,
01:06:36you can only have one NIH grant.
01:06:38And if you are not in HMI investigator,
01:06:41then you can have at most two NIH grants,
01:06:44and you cannot rape.
01:06:45Bring in more than $700,000 of total money.
01:06:48So if you gave me money or up,
01:06:51I got some private donor to give me money.
01:06:54John counts that against me and so.
01:06:57But what he's doing is trying to lower the.
01:07:00Age of the first time NIH grant recipients
01:07:03and he's trying to be proactive about
01:07:06who gets the money now by by doing
01:07:09those things he can fund more people.
01:07:12But that wasn't enough,
01:07:13and So what he's done is he started
01:07:16this new program called Mira.
01:07:18And what he's doing is saying if
01:07:20you have multiple NIH grants,
01:07:22you can combine them.
01:07:24It would be one Myra Grant
01:07:26and this Myra Grant then.
01:07:28The property you get evaluated
01:07:30based on what you've accomplished
01:07:33and what you're planning to do,
01:07:35but it's it's not.
01:07:39You don't have to have a
01:07:40lot of preliminary data,
01:07:42it's more about you know what is the
01:07:44broad impact of your science going to be.
01:07:46In other words,
01:07:47I don't know that I'm 100% in favor of
01:07:50this because it puts a lot more control
01:07:52in the hands of the leadership at NIH
01:07:54and takes it away from study sections.
01:07:57But what he's done is he's now
01:07:59has a different study section
01:08:00for Myra grants right.
01:08:02And so a lot of people are applying
01:08:04to Myra and the people on those
01:08:06study sections are evaluating
01:08:07the grants differently than they
01:08:09might evaluate a narrow one.
01:08:11If you look at the the percentage of
01:08:14minorities that are getting my rewards,
01:08:16it's much higher than the percentage of
01:08:18minorities that are getting other awards.
01:08:21The success rate of Myra is higher
01:08:23than the success rate of ARO ones.
01:08:25Now again this bothers me in a sense,
01:08:28because the ARO ones have preliminary data,
01:08:31there sometimes ranked by their study
01:08:33sections better than them Iras,
01:08:34but the mirrors are getting funded.
01:08:36And So what I'm just saying is that this
01:08:39is one of the ways that the leadership,
01:08:42at least at NIGMS.
01:08:44Is trying to encourage more minorities
01:08:46to to look at academic positions?
01:08:49Yeah,
01:08:49but a lot of people don't
01:08:51know those statistics.
01:08:53They're they're on the NIGMS website,
01:08:55but they don't realize that.
01:08:58You know people are trying to reach out
01:09:00and become more diverse and see more
01:09:02success among their diverse scientists.
01:09:05Yeah. Thank you. Other questions comments.
01:09:09Rachel yes question. Thank you
01:09:12doctor Summers. Great talk.
01:09:14I had the opportunity to get to
01:09:19know first hand about the Meyerhoff
01:09:23Scholars program all through the 2000s.
01:09:27We can talk more about that.
01:09:29I had the pleasure of knowing Lamont,
01:09:32however wonderful person and friend.
01:09:35I wanted to know if you had any thoughts
01:09:38about recreating your PhD or the graduate
01:09:41aspect of the Meyerhoff experience.
01:09:44For other institutions I know later will
01:09:47talk about the undergraduate and I hope
01:09:50that will get into the graduate aspects
01:09:53and accoutrements of your success.
01:09:56But if you could.
01:09:57Discussed a little bit
01:09:59about that, sure.
01:10:01I mean, I think the graduate program
01:10:03to me is was all it was all just
01:10:06kind of common sense, it was.
01:10:08We're going to have monthly meetings so
01:10:10that we can bring our one psychology
01:10:13student an R1 biology student in our
01:10:15one chemistry student together so
01:10:17that they could feel like they're in
01:10:19a group and they have some kind of
01:10:22support structure among themselves.
01:10:24And that was the first year
01:10:26and the next year.
01:10:27I think it jumped to 8 total students in our
01:10:30group and it was very personal back then.
01:10:33I came to all the meetings basically,
01:10:35and then I we would have a
01:10:38retreat during the summer.
01:10:39Where we would go off campus and
01:10:41go white water rafting or hiking
01:10:43and and I would basically say look.
01:10:45I'm you know,
01:10:46I'm a white male who was raised in the South.
01:10:49You tell me what would make this
01:10:51a great program and the students
01:10:53took ownership of it.
01:10:54How do we want to spend the money?
01:10:57What do you want to do?
01:10:58So I would say at the graduate
01:11:01level it started off by me telling
01:11:03the students that we had that,
01:11:05you know, I know essentially nothing
01:11:06about what you need.
01:11:08Educate me and let me help you build this.
01:11:11And it's kind of stayed that way.
01:11:12Now the numbers are huge.
01:11:14I don't know all the
01:11:15students are just too many.
01:11:16You get 100.
01:11:18In 12 people in a room, and you know.
01:11:21And that's now.
01:11:22But now we do have more leadership.
01:11:24That's that's going to come in next year.
01:11:26And we're going to kind of
01:11:28try to share responsibilities,
01:11:29but so I'd say it starts by
01:11:32taking the students you have.
01:11:34Where did they come from?
01:11:36Could they go back to their institutions
01:11:38and talk about what they're doing?
01:11:40We've done that with my alma mater.
01:11:42We've had a bunch of students
01:11:44who have now come to Maryland,
01:11:46turned down,
01:11:46wash you to come to Maryland
01:11:48to do their MD PhD,
01:11:49and now the guy is getting ready
01:11:51to do his residency at Emory.
01:11:53So just by by bringing in the minority
01:11:56students you have in your graduate program,
01:11:58where did they go?
01:11:59Reaching out to those schools,
01:12:01sending them back with some money
01:12:03and letting them talk about it?
01:12:04That's one thing you can do.
01:12:07And then the most important thing for
01:12:10us for building the application pool.
01:12:14Was starting a summer REU.
01:12:18Where we were and what we found
01:12:20is that if we brought students
01:12:21from Berkeley in other places,
01:12:23they wouldn't come to our PhD
01:12:25program where I'm talking about
01:12:26bringing undergrads into do.
01:12:28And are you? OK, so I know.
01:12:31I mean I know you're asking
01:12:34about the PhD program,
01:12:35but if we brought undergraduates
01:12:38in from nearby Msis.
01:12:40The chances were higher that they
01:12:42would come to our graduate program.
01:12:45And so we were able to increase
01:12:47the applications and increase
01:12:49the matriculation to our PhD
01:12:51program just by having
01:12:52a summer Ari you and then making it good too.
01:12:55So when they came in they
01:12:57would get together as a group.
01:12:59It wasn't one individual in one white
01:13:01lab feeling alone all summer right?
01:13:03There have to be intentional activities
01:13:05to make it a good experience.
01:13:07And then we would send them home AT
01:13:09shirts that had their names on the
01:13:12back and we call it SVTPAU NBC so
01:13:14they'd wear them around their campus.
01:13:17We would give their faculty that
01:13:19would bring students to our or we
01:13:21would have a seminar program at
01:13:23the end of the summer and we would
01:13:26invite the faculty from the HBC use
01:13:28to bring other students who didn't do
01:13:31our EU to come to see their friends,
01:13:34give talks and to learn about our program.
01:13:36So it was a very intentional outreach.
01:13:39Two minority serving institutions.
01:13:41To get them to come to our to a
01:13:44summer undergraduate experience,
01:13:46why do people go to minority
01:13:47serving institutions?
01:13:48It's because either the students
01:13:50or their parents, or both,
01:13:51want they want to be supported.
01:13:53They want to be surrounded by
01:13:54faculty to give a damn.
01:13:56And so how are you going to have convinced
01:13:59black families that Yale gives a damn?
01:14:01So they've got to have some kind of
01:14:03experience where you can bring them on
01:14:05to campus and it be a good experience.
01:14:07And of course,
01:14:08it helped us a lot that we had Freeman
01:14:11who could come and give a talk and.
01:14:13You know the parents see Freeman
01:14:15and that's all it takes.
01:14:18Awesome thanks.
01:14:21I have question could you talk
01:14:23about any early experiences with
01:14:25the program where you might have
01:14:27encountered institutional resistance?
01:14:29Certainly not from your president,
01:14:30but like general counsel would say,
01:14:33you know, how can you have a
01:14:35program specifically for you?
01:14:36Know this group initially and sort of
01:14:39what was your experience with that,
01:14:41and certainly have a president
01:14:43that can help you overcome that,
01:14:45but I'm just wondering your.
01:14:48Experiences with that?
01:14:49Yeah no, that's a great great.
01:14:51Christian College Park had a
01:14:53program called the Banneker Program
01:14:55that's our flagship campus.
01:14:57And when the legal decisions were
01:14:59being meted out that you could not
01:15:03have affirmative action programs,
01:15:05you couldn't just count students.
01:15:07Their program was basically dismantled there.
01:15:09The Banneker program.
01:15:11They still have a Banneker scholarship,
01:15:13but it's mostly majority students now.
01:15:16So Freeman was proactive.
01:15:18He said, no, anybody can apply.
01:15:20And we will take students that really
01:15:23want to be part of this and so our
01:15:26program does tend to be self selecting.
01:15:29If we have a real high achieving
01:15:32Asian student that comes in and
01:15:34meets with our students and our
01:15:36faculty and our administrators
01:15:37and convinces all of as well,
01:15:40this is somebody that that is is going
01:15:42to have a positive impact on our
01:15:45community then we want them in our program.
01:15:50One of my this isn't meierhofer.
01:15:52One of my former PhD students was
01:15:54recruited to Harvard on the faculty.
01:15:56This is Victoria de Souza and the first
01:15:59thing they asked her to do was to run
01:16:02their graduate program so they had
01:16:04no minorities in their PhD program,
01:16:06and after three years they were up
01:16:08to 35% minority students because
01:16:09she been in our program.
01:16:11She knew the kinds of things
01:16:13that we could do, and so.
01:16:16To get to your question about the
01:16:19legal issues Berkeley is doing
01:16:20this and they have one of the
01:16:22most recent during one of the most
01:16:24restrictive states in the country.
01:16:25They said initially we can't do this
01:16:27here because we're not allowed to.
01:16:29Well, you are allowed to you if you have
01:16:32a program that accepts any students.
01:16:34That's all that matters.
01:16:36Now, if the focus is on social
01:16:38justice and science,
01:16:39then it's going to self select
01:16:41for the majority students that
01:16:43want to be part of that community.
01:16:45And of course,
01:16:46if the requirement is that they
01:16:48have to be a high achiever,
01:16:50then you know you're going to get
01:16:51high achieving minority students and
01:16:53high achieving majority students.
01:16:58Thank you, sure.
01:17:02We're coming to the end of our time.
01:17:05Any other questions before
01:17:06we let Doctor Summers go?
01:17:08And now he's going to be meeting
01:17:11with with Doctor Smith and Lattimore
01:17:13and their group for a workshop.
01:17:16Any other comments?
01:17:22Well, this is a great discussion,
01:17:25and of course the wonderful presentation
01:17:27got us really thinking a number of
01:17:30different ways about what we can do.
01:17:32So thank you so much. Doctor Summers,
01:17:35who really appreciate your time
01:17:37this morning and I'm sure we'll be
01:17:40reaching out with followups as well.
01:17:43Though it's been a pleasure,
01:17:44thank you so much.
01:17:45I look forward to talking to
01:17:46you later. Yes, thank you.