Reimagining the Pipeline: Advancing STEM Diversity, Persistence, and Success.

Achieving trainee diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics is rapidly becoming a challenge faced by many nations. Success in this area ensures the availability of a workforce capable of engaging in scientific practices that will promote increased production capacity and creativity and will preserve global scientific competitiveness. The near-term vision of achieving this goal is within reach and will capitalize on the growing numbers of underrepresented minority groups in the population. Although many nations have had remarkable histories as leaders in science and technology, few have simultaneously struggled with the challenge of meeting the educational and training needs of underrepresented groups. In this article, we share strategies for building the agency of the scientific community to achieve greater diversity by highlighting four key action areas: (1) aligning institutional culture and climate; (2) building interinstitutional partnerships; (3) building and sustaining critical mass; and (4) ensuring, rewarding, and maximizing faculty involvement.

Improved and Sustained Graduate Programs Diversity Outcomes: a 10-year Analysis and Summary of the Brown University IMSD Program.

This report describes the 10-year outcome of implementing practices that support and foster success of underrepresented students in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) graduate training at Brown University. The results show sustained improvements in compositional diversity, retention, and degree attainment of supported students relative to their peers. Among the outcomes is an increase in enrolled student diversity from 19 (35 of 179) to 26% (58 of 223) for historically underrepresented minority (URM) students and an increase in Ph.D. degree attainment from 4 (1 of 25) to 14% (6 of 44) for this group. These achievements follow the introduction and coordination of academic and co-curricular practices through the National Institutes of General Medical Sciences-funded Brown University Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) Program. At the center of these outcomes is the alignment of IMSD practices with recent diversity initiatives launched by the university. The outcomes described result from long-term commitments to building a culture that includes: (1) development of relationships that serve underrepresented students, (2) provision of a personalized education program of support and skills-based learning that supplements discipline-based research and coursework, and (3) investments in processes that build a culture that values and benefits from diversity. These practices may yield similar outcomes and success for students when applied elsewhere.

Improving Underrepresented Minority Student Persistence in STEM.

Members of the Joint Working Group on Improving Underrepresented Minorities (URMs) Persistence in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM)-convened by the National Institute of General Medical Sciences and the Howard Hughes Medical Institute-review current data and propose deliberation about why the academic "pathways" leak more for URM than white or Asian STEM students. They suggest expanding to include a stronger focus on the institutional barriers that need to be removed and the types of interventions that "lift" students' interests, commitment, and ability to persist in STEM fields. Using Kurt Lewin's planned approach to change, the committee describes five recommendations to increase URM persistence in STEM at the undergraduate level. These recommendations capitalize on known successes, recognize the need for accountability, and are framed to facilitate greater progress in the future. The impact of these recommendations rests upon enacting the first recommendation: to track successes and failures at the institutional level and collect data that help explain the existing trends.

Addressing the challenge of diversity in the graduate ranks: good practices yield good outcomes.

In this paper, we examine the impact of implementing three systemic practices on the diversity and institutional culture in biomedical and public health PhD training at Brown University. We hypothesized that these practices, designed as part of the National Institutes of Health-funded Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) program in the Division of Biology and Medicine, would have a positive effect on underrepresented minority (URM) recruitment and retention and objective measures of student success. These practices include: 1) develop strategic partnerships with selected undergraduate institutions; 2) provide a personalized education program of student support and skill-based modules to supplement discipline-based course work; and 3) transform institutional culture by engaging faculty in supporting diversity-related goals and practices. Data comparing URM numbers and key academic milestones before and after implementation of IMSD practices support the initial hypothesis and effectiveness of these practices at Brown. Program components are broadly applicable as best practices for others seeking to improve URM recruitment and achievements of graduate students traditionally underrepresented in the sciences.

Partnered research experiences for junior faculty at minority-serving institutions enhance professional success.

Scientific workforce diversity is critical to ensuring the realization of our national research goals and minority-serving institutions play a vital role in preparing undergraduate students for science careers. This paper summarizes the outcomes of supporting career training and research practices by faculty from teaching-intensive, minority-serving institutions. Support of these faculty members is predicted to lead to: 1) increases in the numbers of refereed publications, 2) increases in federal grant funding, and 3) a positive impact on professional activities and curricular practices at their home institutions that support student training. The results presented show increased productivity is evident as early as 1 yr following completion of the program, with participants being more independently productive than their matched peers in key areas that serve as measures of academic success. These outcomes are consistent with the goals of the Visiting Professorship Program to enhance scientific practices impacting undergraduate student training. Furthermore, the outcomes demonstrate the benefits of training support for research activities at minority-serving institutions that can lead to increased engagement of students from diverse backgrounds. The practices and results presented demonstrate a successful generalizable approach for stimulating junior faculty development and can serve as a basis for long-term faculty career development strategies that support scientific workforce diversity.

SHP-2 is a dual-specificity phosphatase involved in Stat1 dephosphorylation at both tyrosine and serine residues in nuclei.

Signal transducer and activator of transcription (STAT) proteins are both tyrosine- and serine-phosphorylated, mediating signal transduction and gene regulation. Following gene regulation, STAT activity in the nucleus is then terminated by a nuclear protein phosphatase(s), which remains unidentified. Using novel antibody arrays to screen the Stat1-specific protein phosphatase(s), we identified a SHP-2-Stat1 interaction in the A431 cell nucleus. SHP-2 and Stat1 nuclear localization and their association in response to either epidermal growth factor or interferon-gamma (IFNgamma) were confirmed by immunofluorescent staining and affinity precipitation assays. The SHP-2 C-terminal region containing protein-tyrosine phosphatase activity interacted with the C-terminal SH2 transcriptional activation domain of Stat1. In SHP-2-/- mouse fibroblast cells, Stat1 phosphorylation at both the tyrosine residue Tyr(701) and the serine residue Ser(727) by IFNgamma was enhanced and prolonged. Consistently, purified GST-SHP-2 dephosphorylated Stat1 at both tyrosine and serine residues when immunoprecipitated phospho-Stat1 or a peptide corresponding to the sequence surrounding Tyr(P)(701) or Ser(P)(727) of Stat1 was used as the substrate. Overexpression of SHP-2 in 293T cells inhibited IFNgamma-dependent Stat1 phosphorylation and suppressed Stat1-dependent induction of luciferase activity. Our findings demonstrate that SHP-2 is a dual-specificity protein phosphatase involved in Stat1 dephosphorylation at both tyrosine and serine residues and plays an important role in modulating STAT function in gene regulation.