Mentoring Women Graduate Students Seeking a Career in Substance Use Disorder Research

Introduction: As compared to men, women, particularly those of color, are less likely to receive funding from the National Institutes of Health, be published in high-ranking health service/medical journals, or obtain full-time academic positions. Only 3% of full-time faculty are women of color. A “leaky pipeline” exists among women researchers, who have difficulty recruiting women into research careers. As a result, women interested in a career in SUD research have a more difficult path than do men. Under-representation of women among researchers has likely contributed to insufficient research examining gender-related issues in SUD treatment. Our goal was to develop, implement, and pilot test a model for mentoring women graduate students, particularly those of color, within an extracurricular semester-long program. Specific mentoring program (MP) objectives were to increase intention to apply for full-time research careers post-graduation, increase self-confidence in “hard” and “soft” research and professional development skills, and expand the professional network of mentees.

Methods: During Spring 2021, we implemented an MP for women PhD health service/policy students at a large state research university, prioritizing recruitment among students interested in SUD research and students of color. The MP consisted of readings and written assignments, virtual internal cohort meetings for debriefing, and virtual speaker panels with women SUD researchers from around the nation. Topic areas included writing research articles for peer review, writing grant applications, work-life balance, research dissemination, research project management, addressing sexism in the workplace, research ethics, comparison of career settings (e.g., academic, other nonprofit, government), research organization, the job application process, and preparing job application materials. We evaluated the MP using mixed methods, including descriptive analyses of pre-post surveys, thematic analysis of individual qualitative interviews, and thematic analysis of reflection papers.

Results: Five PhD student mentees participated in the MP, three of whom were women of color, all from health service/policy-related disciplines. Three core women mentors implemented/oversaw the program and twenty external women researchers participated in guest speaker panels. At MP conclusion, all mentees demonstrated increased desire for and confidence in applying to full-time research positions, four intending to focus on SUD research. Mentees demonstrated increased self-confidence with respect to research article writing and dissemination, as well as the job application process. All mentees felt the MP should be restricted to women PhD students, although opinions varied regarding whether students from a diversity of disciplines should be included (e.g., from anthropology). Mentees felt the MP should include no more than ten students, with most mentees suggesting five. All mentees felt the external speaker panels were critical for improving their self-confidence and desire to apply for research careers, although mentees wanted more women of color on the speaker panels. Additional suggestions for improvement included the following: more one-on-one meetings with core mentors, a deeper dive into the grant writing process, more opportunities for individualized feedback on draft job application documents, structured rather than unstructured internal cohort meetings, and additional guidance with reaching out to external researchers. All mentees desired to continue the MP should another semester be offered.