UNM FIRST: Administrative Core

PROJECT SUMMARY – ADMINISTRATIVE CORE The University of New Mexico (UNM) is the flagship and largest university in New Mexico, which is one of four majority-minority states. It is also one of the poorest and most under-resourced states in the nation. New Mexico has a large Hispanic (49.3%) and American Indian (11%) population. UNM is a Hispanic-Serving

Institution and a Carnegie Very High Research Activity University with over 16,000 undergraduates and 6,000 graduate students. The ethnic/racial diversity of the student population closely reflects that of the state, and women make up 57.4% of undergraduate and graduate enrollments. UNM has an extraordinary group of NIH-

funded researchers who are internationally renowned for research in neuroscience and data science, each with great potential to train and elevate the next generation of diverse scientists. Diversifying the biomedical faculty at UNM will align with NIH’s goal of diversifying the biomedical workforce at all levels in order to accomplish its

mission of discovery and innovation toward improving human health. Furthermore, it will catalyze inclusive excellence, and provide role models for female and URM trainees and a relatable path toward career advancement in STEM. Cluster hiring of faculty, which will be new for UNM, appears to be an effective way to

build a faculty cohort and diversify the professoriate. Thus, the UNM FIRST program will implement a cluster design model of faculty hiring, mentoring, and professional development that is embedded within UNM’s ongoing commitment to inclusive excellence. Recruitment and hiring strategies designed to promote diversity

and reduce discrimination will be used. Hiring will occur across six departments. Our long-term goal is to employ a cluster/cohort hiring model that increases the diversity of biomedical faculty at UNM, which in turn will significantly increase our percentage of URM faculty who are Principal Investigators with NIH funding. The

central hypothesis is that the UNM FIRST program will successfully hire, promote, and retain a diverse faculty cohort, and the policies/practices resulting from this program, such as the creation of the Institutional Innovation Implementation Board, will be adopted by UNM and ultimately make significant improvements in

inclusive excellence. The Specific Aims of the UNM FIRST Administrative Core are: to lead the process of recruiting and hiring the diverse UNM FIRST faculty cohort in the neuroscience and data science areas (AIM 1), to distribute start-up research funding and provide administrative support to the UNM FIRST faculty cohort

to facilitate success in obtaining NIH funding (AIM 2), and to provide ongoing support for UNM faculty, department chairs, and UNM leadership to implement new innovative campus-wide policies and processes to increase hiring, promotion, and retention of female and diverse faculty and otherwise lead to a more inclusive

institutional culture (AIM 3). The proposed work is highly significant, given the focus on using evidence-based approaches to increase diversity among faculty in the areas of neuroscience and data science.