PRIDE Peer Mentor Development Program: Lessons Learned in Mentoring Racial/Ethnic Minority Faculty

Abstract

Introduction: Mentorship is crucial for academic success. And yet, there are few mentoring programs that address the needs of underrepresented, racially/ethnically diverse junior faculty conducting health-related research in the United States.Methods: To expand mentoring capacity for these racially/ethnically diverse faculty, we developed a Peer Mentor Develop­ment Program (PMDP) to prepare near-peers, who have similar characteristics and personal experiences, to provide support to participants in an NIH-PRIDE funded Insti­tute. The PMDP program is designed based on the 8-year experience of the Mentor Development Program of the NYU-Health and Hospitals Clinical Translational Science Institute. Annually, up to six alumni are selected into the PMDP, participate in the 12-hour program over 4 days, are paired with 1 to 3 scholar participants to mentor and join monthly PMDP conference calls during the ensuing year.Results: We describe the program, partici­pant experience and lessons learned from our first 18 peer mentors in three PMDP cohorts. Additionally, all 18 peer mentors completed a post-evaluation survey to as­sess the program. Overall, peers agreed that participating in the PMDP enhanced most of the specific skills targeted. Participants rated 53%-86% of skills as “more than be­fore” participating in PMDP, demonstrating the appreciation and impact of the program.Conclusions: The PMDP may be a model for higher education and academic medi­cine programs committed to mentoring and retaining racially/ethnically diverse faculty and ultimately contributing to reducing entrenched health disparities between majority and minority populations.Ethn Dis. 2020;30(2):321-330; doi:10.18865/ ed.30.2.321