2017 Training, Workforce Development, & Diversity (TWD) Program Directors' Meeting on June 18-21, 2017

Five CEC senior faculty presented at the NIGMS Training, Workforce Development, & Diversity 2017 Program Directors' Meeting (TWD 2017) in Baltimore, Maryland on June 18-21, 2017. The CEC faculty presented a brief overview of the CEC on a panel on Sunday, participated in a breakout session on Monday, and led a two-hour plenary on Tuesday. The plenary involved an hour talk highlighting the evaluation approach and structure of the DPC to seed ideas among the other NIGMS training programs for ways that they could shift from an output (counting students served) to outcome (results, like improved career progress) perspective. A half hour was devoted to participants working in small groups on identifying their key activities, measurable outcomes, and hypotheses (attendees of the 2016 DPC annual meeting may recognize this as part of the Most Important Outcome exercise). We then asked participants to report back. Groups were reluctant to step up. However, after one brave group presented their ideas and lightning did not strike, other groups agreed to offer their summaries and we eventually had to cut the discussion off at the end of our time.

BUILD and NRMN were well represented at the TWD 2017 meeting and also had independent presentations. A no host dinner Monday night engaged 40 DPC attendees and a careful participant-observation study concluded that a good time was had by all.