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Despite the increasing number of racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) individuals earning PhDs and the substantial investment in diversity initiatives within higher education, the relative lack of diversity among faculty in tenure-track positions reveals a persistent systemic challenge. This study used an adaptation of the Community Readiness Tool to evaluate readiness for faculty diversification efforts in five biomedical departments. Interviews with 31 key informants were transcribed and coded manually and using NVIVO 12 in order to assign scores to each department in the six domains of readiness. The results revealed no meaningful differences in overall scores across institutional types, but did show differences within specific domains of readiness. These findings indicate that readiness is multi-faceted and academic departments can benefit by identifying priority areas in need of additional faculty buy-in and resources to enhance the success of diversification efforts. 

Biomedical faculty positions require experience as a postdoctoral scholar (or “postdoc”). However, there is a current misalignment with postdoctoral training and workforce needs within higher education. The majority of postdocs are trained to be research faculty while completing fellowships at research-intensive universities, despite the fact that the majority of US higher educational institutions (where these postdocs may be employed) focus on undergraduate education. This leads to postdoctoral scholars not having the opportunity to gain exposure to different institutional types where they could be employed. Importantly, they also lack the opportunity to build a network or receive mentorship from faculty at non-R1 institutions. This may be particularly true of underrepresented scholars. In this brief report, we describe the practice of the NSF-funded PROMISE Academy Alliance to bridge this training gap and support greater preparation for faculty careers at an array of institutional types by leveraging collaboration within a state university system. A survey of PROMISE Academy Fellows about their structured experiences engaging with other campuses (e.g., campus tours, workshops, speaking opportunities) reveals that visits to other campuses within the state system are informative and impactful, both on their research and their employment interests. The positive findings can hopefully inspire easy-to-implement changes in postdoctoral support across other university systems or regional consortia. 

Though increasing numbers of racially and ethnically minoritized (REM) individuals earn PhDs and national initiatives focus on faculty diversity, challenges persist in recruiting, hiring, and retaining REM faculty. While a pervasive issue nationally, the literature predominantly focuses on faculty diversity at research‐intensive institutions. This exploratory case study pilots a readiness instrument to evaluate the commitment and willingness of a biomedical department at a primarily undergraduate institution to embrace faculty diversity before initiating a postdoctoral faculty conversion program. We introduce the Community Readiness Model (CRM) into an academic context, offering academic departments a robust framework and tool to evaluate readiness and capacity to recruit, retain, and support REM faculty. Practical Takeaways: Academic departments can be conceived of as a type of community. The adapted Department Readiness Tool can be a valuable method of evaluating a department's readiness to support the success of underrepresented minority faculty. Departments may score highly on some areas of readiness but relatively low on others, which provides insight into where time and resources should be invested to improve readiness. 

Postdoctoral scholars have traditionally received mentoring from a single mentor (creating a “dyad”), limiting the psychosocial support they receive, which is particularly challenging for minoritized scholars (Deanna et al., 2022; Ransdell, et al., 2021). The AGEP Promise Academy Alliance (APAA) (Cresiski et al., 2022) provides multiple mentors for postdoctoral fellows to expand their academic, professional, and support networks. This mixed-method case study involves postdoctoral fellows in the APAA faculty conversion program to identify the extent to which these multiple mentoring opportunities occurred and benefited the APAA fellows. Surveys administered to participants and their non research mentors elucidate the mentorship experience. The findings provide insights for implementing a multi-mentor network within a state university system. This study explores the broader ecosystem of mentorship and its influence on the advancement of minoritized postdocs in biomedical sciences, particularly those who may experience social isolation within their departments. It recognizes that mentorship extends beyond the formal research mentor-mentee relationship and encompasses a network of support that can positively impact the career trajectories and professional development of minoritized individuals. Scholars report benefits from having multiple mentoring opportunities within their institution, within the university system, and from external scholars through our mentors in residence program. “Just in time” mentoring on time-sensitive issues supplemented sustained mentoring. The inclusion of inter-institutional peers, administrators and faculty mentors enhanced this multiple mentor model. Minoritized postdoctoral scholars often have limited opportunities to receive mentorship (Yadav et al., 2020). Mentoring in dyads remains pervasive, though multiple mentors have been proposed (Deanna et al., 2022). We demonstrate that state university systems can be leveraged to provide a unique ecosystem of both short and sustained mentoring interactions that benefit minoritized postdocs without overburdening already over-worked faculty mentors.