Enhance Diversity Study Faculty Survey, Los Angeles, California, 2017-2022

The Enhance Diversity Study (EDS) was part of the longitudinal evaluation of the training and mentoring interventions implemented by institutions receiving grants through the National Institutes of Health (NIH) initiative, BUilding Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD). Interventions, launched in 2015, were designed to understand effective approaches to mentoring, faculty development, student engagement, research capacity building, and infrastructure development at undergraduate institutions.

Study participants were faculty at one of the institutions with a BUILD program, with focus on those in departments broadly related to biomedical research. The cohort was initially created from those who completed the survey in academic year 2016-2017. As faculty participated in BUILD programs, they were added to the study if they had not been in the initial cohort. The sample was refreshed in 2020-2021 to include recently hired faculty. Once participants were enrolled in the study, they were surveyed annually each Spring through 2022.

Surveys focused on elements of academic career trajectories that are relevant to the BUILD interventions. Related to Hallmarks of Success, these reflected psychosocial predictors such as mentor competency and science identity; short and medium-term outcomes included mentoring, research engagement, publications, and pedagogy presentations; and longer-term outcomes such as participation in professional organizations and grant submissions/awards. In 2017 and 2020, EDS used the Faculty Survey administered by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA). For other time points, surveys were developed specifically for the study to include measures important for the evaluation.

In addition to surveys, the data available in this study include information about BUILD program participation by academic term. The BUILD programs were wide-reaching, including professional skill development (mentoring, pedagogy, and research), mentoring opportunities, and pilot and lab grant funding. These data can be used to determine whether survey respondents participated in any BUILD programs and the type and date of such participation.

Finally, summary demographics are provided. Using demographic information across surveys and from institution records, researchers created standardized indicators based on NIH classification of under-represented groups for faculty racial and ethnic, gender, and sexual minority identities.