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Practical recommendations to improve retention of underrepresented minorities in science and medicine: an early career perspective

Neuropsychopharmacology volume 48, pages 1837–1839 (2023)Cite this article

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Racial minorities are dramatically underrepresented among biomedical fields, including psychiatry and psychology [1]. While NIH-funded investigators with independent grants in 2022 remained at a stable 3–6% for Black/African American or Hispanic investigators [2], the proportion of URM NIH-supported trainees has more than doubled (~15%), suggesting early phases of scientific training (i.e., graduate, postgraduate, and early faculty) are prime targets for retention of URMs in the scientific workforce.

Lack of race-based representation hinders the quality of scientific work, leadership, clinical care, and has broader impacts on policy and global health. Unfortunately, one-size-fits all, systems-level initiatives require ample resources and invested senior stakeholders, often rendering them ineffective [3, 4] and delayed [5]. Mentorship strategies, however, are readily implemented and directly impact URM representation broadly and in the scientific workforce [3, 6, 7].

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Amanda Satterthwaite and Dr. Lénie Torregrossa for their thoughtful comments and for sharing their experiences on a version of this manuscript. As young female scientists who have experienced and witnessed acts of racism, sexism, and other forms of discrimination, mentor support has been a key ingredient to keep us in academic research careers and to show the impact that we, too, can have in making the scientific community more hospitable for diverse future generations. We thank our mentors near and far that have supported and encouraged us and the amazing mentees that have inspired us to do and be better.

Funding

Funding

This work was supported by National Institutes of Health (NIH) grant KL2TR002245 to HBW. ABM-T has no funding to report.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Psychological and Brain Sciences, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Alexandra B. Moussa-Tooks

  2. Program in Neuroscience, Indiana University Bloomington, Bloomington, IN, USA

    Alexandra B. Moussa-Tooks

  3. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Nashville, IN, USA

    Alexandra B. Moussa-Tooks & Heather Burrell Ward

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  1. Alexandra B. Moussa-Tooks
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  2. Heather Burrell Ward
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Contributions

ABM-T is an Assistant Professor at Indiana University Bloomington in Psychological and Brain Sciences and former Assistant Professor in the Vanderbilt Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, where HBW is currently an Assistant Professor. Both have roles in the training of psychologists and physician-scientists. ABM-T previously served as faculty in the Vanderbilt Psychology Internship for Psychosis program and has been an active member in DEI committees at both institutions as a trainee and faculty. HBW is current Director of the Research Track of the Vanderbilt Psychiatry Residency. They have both contributed equally to the conceptualization, writing, and examples provided in this work given these experiences.

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Correspondence to Alexandra B. Moussa-Tooks.

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Moussa-Tooks, A.B., Ward, H.B. Practical recommendations to improve retention of underrepresented minorities in science and medicine: an early career perspective. Neuropsychopharmacol. 48, 1837–1839 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41386-023-01734-w

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