RESUMEN
The American Association for Dental, Oral, and Craniofacial Research (AADOCR) has developed a national and sustainable mentoring and mentor training network titled AADOCR Mentoring an Inclusive Network for a Diverse Workforce of the Future (AADOCR MIND the Future). This program is instrumental in fostering a diverse group of early-career investigators in dental, oral, and craniofacial (DOC) research. The network's principal purpose has been to establish a robust and enduring national mentoring program centrally managed by AADOCR. The overarching goal is to develop a sustainable, nationally recognized mentoring network that enhances the career development of early-career DOC researchers from diverse backgrounds. The program aligns with the National Institute of Dental and Craniofacial Research Strategic Plan and aims to cultivate a robust pipeline of future DOC researchers who can address critical scientific challenges. AADOCR MIND the Future guides mentors and mentees in individual career development as well as improving the quality of mentoring at the home institution through dissemination of lessons learned by mentors and mentees in the program. As science practices have evolved, investigators have moved from isolated individual projects to interactive multidisciplinary teams. Within this research framework, AADOCR MIND the Future offers the global infrastructure and the variety of scientists/AADOCR members. While most institutional mentoring efforts have been developed using conventional single mentor-mentee pairs, the AADOCR MIND the Future program supplements this model with additional group mentoring (mentors-mentees) and peer mentoring (interactions between just the mentees). Mentees commit to 12 mo of programming devoted to enhancing research career development through intensive hands-on work, distance-learning components, and engagement in a mentored grant-writing experience. Mentees are strongly encouraged to remain engaged with the program beyond the initial 12-mo period. Years 1 to 3 alumni (cohorts 1 to 3) mentees continue to participate in a meaningful way, and after the completion of the program, it is envisioned these alumni will become mentors for another generation.
RESUMEN
The International Association for Dental Research (IADR) Distinguished Scientist Awards are prestigious recognitions of outstanding scientific accomplishments in various areas of dental, oral, and craniofacial research, which correspond to several of the IADR Scientific Groups and Networks. These 17 awards were established over a period of 60 y. The objective of this report is to highlight women recipients of IADR Distinguished Scientist Awards. Additionally, we report the distribution of awards to women scientists over time and compare the number of women nominees, awardees, and gender distribution of the membership. Information about the awards was obtained from the IADR member database and press releases. Information collected included name of the award, year received, and the awardee's name, institution, and position held at the time of the award. For the last 14 y, the time span for which reliable information was available, the gender distribution of the membership of the IADR was also retrieved. Overall, only 13% of the awardees have been women; even in the last 20 y, <20% have been women. In the last 14 y, the number of women awardees paralleled the number of nominees for each award. However, the proportion of women nominees was significantly lower than the female membership each year (P < 0.001). With the exception of 1 y, the percentage of women awardees trailed the women membership of the IADR. In the past 4 y, women represented 12% to 18% of the awardees, whereas they composed 41% to 46% of the IADR's membership. Given the benefits of prestigious recognitions on recruitment and retention of faculty and on attracting new research trainees into a discipline, it is important that policies be implemented to increase the proportion of women nominees for awards to appropriately recognize the efforts of remarkable women scientists.