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Pathfinder: A Systems Approach to Advancing Workforce Inclusion and Diversity
Pathfinder: A Systems Approach to Advancing Workforce Inclusion and Diversity (hereafter referred to as Pathways) was a NIH ARRA Pathfinder grant funded project aimed at fostering a diverse scientific workforce.
Many factors influence the careers of individuals underrepresented in medicine and science (underrepresented minorities, URM), but only a few of these factors are tracked in current diversity research. Lack of comprehensive data for analysis has limited the ability of institutional leaders to identify and implement successful policies and interventions that increase the diversity and inclusiveness of the workforce in academic medicine. The Pathways study was aimed at addressing this limitation. Specifically the study aimed to:
- Develop a cross/multi-institution, multi-use data repository that:
- supports institutional quality improvement and performance management as they relate to faculty workforce development, and
- provides a resource to address research questions related the factors that hinder and/or support the career development of diverse faculty.
- Develop a tool to analyze career outcomes and progression from a diversity inclusion perspective.
- Develop and implement evidence-based interventions to increase faculty diversity and inclusion.
The Pathways Repository comprised of a range of data about faculty, the environment, and policies and practices of the institutions in which the faculty work. The groundbreaking data collection, conceptual framework and analysis approach allowed us to address, for the first time, how multiple factors interact in hindering or supporting the careers of URM faculty, allowing us to form hypotheses about how environmental factors affect the success of junior faculty, and to identify potential differences between URM faculty and other faculty. We analyzed these data using approaches drawn from epidemiology, social network theory and sociology, extending our understanding of URM career pathways in real time. These comprehensive data informed us about the effects of general policies, as well as diversity policies, on the career success of URM faculty and trainees and offered institutional decision-makers new tools with which to assess and modify institutional policies relevant to URMs, including policies not originally intended to affect diversity.
Team
Joan Y. Reede, MD, MPH, MS, MBA, Dean for Diversity and Community Partnership, Associate Professor of Medicine, Harvard Medical School, Associate Professor Society, Human Development and Health, Harvard School of Public Health (HSPH)
Reede works to recruit and prepare minority students for jobs in the biomedical professions, and to promote better health care policies for the benefit of minority populations. In 2001, she became Harvard Medical School's first dean for diversity and community partnership and is the first African American woman to hold that rank at HMS. Reede is responsible for the development and management of a comprehensive program that provides leadership, guidance, and support to promote the increased recruitment, retention, and advancement of under-represented minority faculty at Harvard Medical School (HMS).
Griffin Weber, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Chief Technology Officer, Harvard Medical School
Weber oversees research and development of new IT initiatives, evaluates emerging technologies, implements enterprise-wide solutions, and initiates collaborative projects with the IT departments of Harvard affiliated hospitals and institutions. His research focus is biomedical informatics, with projects including enterprise web portals, query and analysis tools for large clinical data warehouses, life expectancy modeling, and social networking. He invented the Harvard Catalyst Profiles website, which contains research profiles for 20,000 faculty that are linked together through both Passive Active Networks.
Emorcia Hill, PhD, Director Research and Evaluation, Converge, Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership, Harvard Medical School
Hill has significant experience in the design of research projects, and quantitative and qualitative data analysis. She has also developed and implemented programs to increase the participation of minorities—students and faculty—in academia as well as in the labor force
René Carapinha, PhD, MSW, Research Program Manager, Converge, Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership, Harvard Medical School
Carapinha is a social science researcher. Her research focuses on generative processes of social inequality such as inclusion-exclusion. For her doctoral dissertation research she is doing a cross-national investigation of the gender gap in organizational inclusion-exclusion within multinational organizations. Prior to joining ODICP she worked at the Centre for Aging and Work at Boston College where she researched quality of employment and workplace responses to the global aging workforce. Other areas of expertise include corporate social responsibility, multi-sector partnerships in social development, and social development policy and practice.
Erica Warner, ScD, MPH, Post-Doctoral Research Assistant, Converge, Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership, Harvard Medical School
Warner is a cancer epidemiologist with a focus on breast cancer. Her doctoral dissertation research focused on understanding variation in incidence, time to diagnosis and stage by age at diagnosis and race/ethnicity. She is currently beginning research on the relationship between obesity and risk of fatal breast cancer as well as examining non-traditional breast cancer risk factors and their relationship to intrinsic breast cancer subtypes.
Megan Pasquantonio-Pierce, BS, Program/Research Assistant, Converge, Office for Diversity Inclusion and Community Partnership, Harvard Medical School
Pasquantonio-Pierce graduated with Cum Laude Honors in 2011 from St. John Fisher College with a Bachelor of Science degree in Psychology. She has worked in research since 2009. For the past year she has worked as an intern at multiple educational institutions performing an array of research. These institutions include the University of Rochester and St. John Fisher College both in Rochester, NY. Her primary interest is in social psychology with an emphasis on stereotypes and biases.
Steven Wimberg, Business Analyst, IT-Software Development and System Integration, HMS Project Manager
Wimberg is a Business Analyst in the IT department of Harvard Medical School. He assists Dr. Weber with the technical aspects of the Pathfinder project.
James B. Norman, Technical Manager, IT-Information Technology, HMS
Norman is a Technical Manager in the IT department of Harvard Medical School. He will be helping Dr. Weber manage technical aspects of the Pathfinder project.
Carol Martin, MPA, Program Manager, Harvard Catalyst: Program for Faculty Development and Diversity (PFDD)
Martin, as part of the PFDD seeks to emphasize the recruitment and retention of a diverse clinical / translational workforce as a top priority throughout Harvard Catalyst in governance, programming, training and resource allocation.
Advisory Committees
Executive Advisory Committee
The Executive Advisory Committee provides guidance and assistance regarding policy and access.
Barbara Bierer, MD, Senior Vice President for Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Professor of Medicine (Pediatrics), HMS
F. Richard Bringhurst, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Senior Vice President of Research, MGH
William Chin, MD, Professor of Medicine, Executive Dean for Research, HMS
Jules Dienstag, MD, Carl W. Walter Professor of Medicine, Dean for Medical Education, HMS
Joseph Loscalzo, MD, PhD, Hersey Professor of the Theory and Practice of Physic, Head, Dept. of Medicine at Brigham & Women's Hospital, HMS
Barbara McNeil, PhD, MD, Ridley Watts Professor of Health Care Policy, Head of the Department of Health Care Policy, HMS
Lee Nadler, MD, Virginia and D.K. Ludwig Professor of Medicine, Dean for Clinical and Translational Research, HMS
Nancy Tarbell, MD, C.C. Wang Professor of Radiation Oncology, Dean for Academic and Clinical Affairs, HMS
Research Advisory Committee Members
The Research Advisory Committee provides guidance regarding conceptualization, methodology, and analysis.
Eric G. Campbell, PhD, Associate Professor and Director of Research, Mongan Institute for Health Policy, Massachusetts General Hospital, Harvard Medical School
Nicholas Christakis, MD, PhD, Professor of Medical Sociology, Department of Health Care Policy, Harvard Medical School (HMS)
Felton J. Earls, MD, Professor of Social Medicine, HMS, HSPH
Ichiro Kawachi, ChB, MB, PhD, Professor of Social Epidemiology, Chair, Department of Society, Human Development, and Health, HSPH
Gary King, PhD, Albert J. Weatherhead III University Professor, HU, Director, Institute for Quantitative Social Science, Department of Government , Faculty of Arts and Science
Isaac Kohane, MD, PhD, Lawrence J. Henderson Professor of Pediatrics, Children’s Hospital Boston Director, Countway Library of Medicine, HMS
Judith Singer, PhD, James Bryant Conant Professor of Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education, SV Provost, Faculty Development and Diversity, Harvard University (HU)
Vikas Sukhatme, MD, PhD, Victor J. Aresty Professor of Medicine, Chief Academic Officer, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC)
David Thomas, PhD, Professor of Business Administration, Organizational Behavior, Harvard Business School
James Ware, PhD, Frederick Mosteller Professor of Biostatistics, Dean for Academic Affairs, Emeritus, HSPH
David Williams, MPH, PhD, Florence Sprague Norman and Laura Smart Norman Professor of Public Health, HSPH
User Advisory Committee
The User Advisory Committee provides guidance regarding research questions, hypothesis generation, data sources, prioritizations of interventions based on relevance and feasibility, and collaborate on intervention implementation and assessment.
Elliott Antman, MD, Professor of Medicine, Director Postgraduate Education Program in Clinical & Translational Science, BWH
Liza Cariaga-Lo, EdD, Assistant Provost for Faculty Development & Diversity, HU
Maureen Connelly, MD, Assistant Professor of Population Medicine, Faculty Affairs Dean, HMS
Jessica Dudley, MD, Chief Medical Officer, Brigham and Women’s Physicians Organization
S. Jean Emans, MD, Professor of Pediatrics, Director, Office of Faculty Development Children’s
Karen Emmons, PhD, Profesor, Society, Human Health and Behavior, Associate Dean of Research, HSPH
Anthony N Hollenberg, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Director, Clinical Investigator Training Program, BIDMC
Anne Klibanski, MD, Laurie Carrol Guthart Professor of Medicine, Co-director, Massachusetts General Hospital / MIT Clinical Research Center
Eleftheria Maratos-Flier, MD, Professor of Medicine, Director, Office for Academic Careers & Faculty Development, BIDMC
Jordan W. Smoller, MD, Associate Professor of Psychiatry, Director, Harvard Catalyst Translational Genetics Consortium, Massachusetts General Hospital
Stephanie Wasserman, Director, Sponsored Programs, BIDMC
Data Use and Security Review Committee
Barbara Bierer, MD, Senior Vice President for Research, Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH), Professor of Medicine (Pediatrics), HMS
Harry Orf, MD, Associate Professor of Medicine, Senior Vice President of Research, MGH
Scott Edmiston, JD, Data Privacy and Security Manager, Clinical & Translational Science Center, HMS
Leslie Joseph, General Counsel, Mt.Auburn Hospital
Alan Long, Vice President for Research and Academic Affairs, Massachusetts Eye and Ear Infirmary (MEEI)
Randy Mason, MBA, Vice President for Research Operations, BIDMC
Susan Vomacka, Director of Administrative Services, Human Resources, HMS
Griffin Weber, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor of Medicine, Chief Technology Officer, HMS
Sabune Winkler, Director Regulatory Affairs Operations, Harvard Catalyst Clinical and Translational Science Center at Harvard Medical School