research career mentoring in communication sciences & disorders during a period of species...

Research Career MentoringResearch Career Mentoring in Communication Sciences & Disorders in Communication Sciences & DisordersDuring a Period of Species EndangermentDuring a Period of Species Endangerment

Christopher A. Moore, Ph.D.Professor and Chair

University of Washington

Fresno Kangaroo Rat

Manatee

Galapagos Tortoise

Indian Tiger

Least Tern

Kimodo Dragon

Consideration of CSD Mentoring & Training Using an Endangered Species Model

Western Lowland Gorilla

Horned Puffin

Threats Can Present Opportunities

• There are administrative opportunities to create a research-centric program - including doctoral research training

• There are comparatively few programs providing sustainable academic research training in CSD.

• The opportunities for new or rising CSD programs are relatively rich compared to more densely populated disciplines (e.g., chemistry).

• An investment of 14 faculty positions can anchor a new program.• Students, demand for graduates, and career paths are all in

place.• NIDCD support is unparalleled.

Identification of a Species as Endangered

For most species, the problems and solutions are complex interactions of multiple factors.

• Recruitment• Retention• Training

• Propagation• Nurturing

• Survival

Identification of a Species as Endangered

• Propagation rate is exceeded by mortality• Annual shortfall of new PhDs in CSD is about

100 with respect to faculty openings.

Even assuming that all new PhDs go into academic research, the shortfall is dire.

Identification of a Species as Endangered

• Numbers alone will not perpetuate the discipline. The propagation of CSD as a discipline depends on a healthy population of academic researchers.

• Distinct from master clinicians or accomplished teachers, these researchers provide the foundation for new knowledge in treatment and advanced instruction.

• Who’s tending the pipeline?

Identification of a Species as Endangered

• The less-quantifiable, far more insidious threat – degradation of research training• Responding to increasing need, faculty are increasingly

hired with lower levels of research training experience (post-docs are rare in CDS)

• Teaching loads rise with shortages, reducing time allocated to research training

• It’s not too late for junior faculty.• Formalized continued mentorship (local or external)• Formalized expectations, including continued

training, as needed

Optimizing Habitat

• How can academic research programs improve the recruitment, retention, and training of our successors?

• Make pigs sing; annoy pigs• We know of many other strategies that aren’t working, and

some that help individuals, but not the discipline or dept.• Can you

Should youWhy would you want to:provide administrative guidan$e, vi$ion, and mu$cle to make strategic (i.e., lab group) hires to create effective research habitat.

Incubation by Acculturation

• Inevitably raises self-expectations; establishes a model of performance and protocol

• Reduces organizational demand on individuals

• Provides redundancy in identifying areas of training importance, thereby reducing gaps

• Establishes a long-term community

IncubatingFuture Research Faculty

1. Explicit attention to research training as the primary objective for those seeking the research doctorate

2. Exploiting all available resources to enhance research training

3. Removing threats, barriers, and distracters from research training.

Training Elements

• Culture

• Mentoring

• Curriculum

• Funding

Specific Training ElementsCulture

• Creating a more general culture of expectation

• Joining with established research groups

• Promoting participation in the larger culture (e.g., presentations at scientific meetings specific to the student’s research area

Specific Training ElementsMentoring

• Use a Strong Mentoring Model• Include students in mentors’ work

• e.g., manuscript review, human subjects approvals, purchasing, analysis)

• Build toward solid, early independence (it’s unlikely there’s a post-doc in his/her future).

• Create expectations that build toward career goals at a high level (e.g., scientific presentations, journal publications, grantwriting, technical skills)

• Within each research group, stay product-focused

Specific Training ElementsCurriculum

• Departmental core-discipline curriculum• e.g., speech acoustics, speech physiology,

bioacoustics, psychoacoustics, spoken language production, speech perception, speech, language, and hearing development

• Research forum as an incubator• Grant writing (e.g., require an F31 app)• Lab rotations have advantages and

disadvantages

Specific Training ElementsGrants

• Training Grants (T32 or F31) andResearch Grants (e.g., R01, R15, R21)

• Enforce a common research focus within a research group

Specific Training ElementsGrants

NIH 20-year survey of research training: Institutional trainingIndividual training awardsResearch assistantships

Specific Training ElementsGrants

• Matching educational goals with research support• e.g., using doctoral students as clinic

supervisors only when their research area or career focus includes supervision.

Threats

Specific Threats

• High teaching and supervisory expectations

• Reduced research exposure

• Part-time enrollment denies the student the opportunities afforded by a cohort.

• Overprotection

Specific ThreatsCultural Insufficiency

• Science in a vacuum• A viable cohort is essential

• Abandoning the basic sciences• Ever-increasing M.S. certification

requirements

• Clinical doctorate (AuD, SLPD)

• Diverting basic research support and students into advanced clinical training

Possible Actions When a Cohort is Too Small to Thrive

• Merging with healthy populations• Cross-breeding to take advantage of established

disciplines’ strong traditions, habitats, and cultures of research rigor

• With other departments• Across universities

• Capitalizing on the strengths of other species (e.g., psychology, physiology, neuroscience)

How small is too small?

• Too small to provide a sense of community• Too small to justify the resources (attention,

teaching load, space) necessary to provide the community

• Doctoral students are too rare to yield a regular pattern

• Too small to offer doctoral-level coursework; overly reliant on independent study.

Training PitfallsProgrammatic

• Still-growing programs• No generation is expendable

• Building research programs that rely too heavily on hired (i.e., non-student) researchers.

• Future mentors without adequate research training

Strategies

• Getting by

• Ramping up

• Building a Whole Department

Alternatives

Raphus cucullatus ( - 1681)

camoore@u.washington.edu