1. The Atlanta BEST Program “Beyond the Professoriate: Transforming Pathways for Biomedical Research Careers” Funded by: NIH 1DP7OD018424 Emory Laney Graduate School, in partnership with the Emory Office of Postdoctoral Education and Georgia Tech Nael A. McCarty, Program Director

3. RFA-RM-12-022 Announced March 4, 2013 NIH Director’s Biomedical Research Workforce Innovation Award: Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) (DP7) Objectives: The purpose of this FOA is to seek, identify and support bold and innovative approaches to broaden graduate and postdoctoral training, such that training programs reflect the range of career options that trainees (regardless of funding source) ultimately may pursue and that are required for a robust biomedical, behavioral, social and clinical research enterprise. Collaborations with non-academic partners are encouraged to ensure that experts from a broad spectrum of research and research-related careers contribute to coursework, rotations, internships or other forms of exposure. This program will establish a new paradigm for graduate and postdoctoral training; awardee institutions will work together to define needs and share best practices.

4. The Atlanta BEST Program Nael A. McCarty, Contact PI and Program Director Cora MacBeth, Associate Program Director Keith Wilkinson, Lisa Tedesco, Mary DeLong, Wendy Newstetter, MPIs Steering Committee: Julie Gazmararian, Steve Deweerth, Steve Sencer, Par Marstellar, Giselle Bennett, Cora MacBeth, Todd Sherer, Huw Davies, Marie Thursby, Michael Sacks, Julia Melkers, students TBN Partnerships: GaBio, GRA, Carter Center, CARE, Healthcare Georgia Fdn, The CDC, American Cancer Society, Kaiser Permanente, GTRI, GaTech’s TI:GER, etc.

5. Program Objectives The Atlanta BEST program will establish programmatic alternatives for adapting pre-doctoral and postdoctoral training to meet 21st century scientific workforce needs by engaging in a transformation of the culture of training – in both a top-down and bottom-up approach – by creating new opportunities for both the trainees and the training/mentoring faculty. Specific Aims

6. Program Structure • Year One: Breadth • Trainees’ Personal Career Choices and Leadership Development • Completion of the online IDP specifically designed for STEM trainees • Networking with Emory and GA Tech alumni and representatives • Taking advantage of availability of courses at Emory or GA Tech to develop career skills • Quarterly mentor meetings with the Director of the Internships of the career path(s) of interest • Lecture Series on leadership training • Lecture Series on the Business and Law of the Biotechnology Industry • Leveraged Career Opportunity Programs at Emory and Georgia Tech • Year Two: Depth • Part-time nternship in one of six career tracks

7. Program Structure Career Tracks The BEST program will coordinate and build upon existing expertise and professional development programming at Emory and Georgia Tech to provide career guidance and to create a cohort of expert mentors in a variety of STEM careers that can serve as internship and/or individual career advisors.

8. Track 1 Detail Career Tracks

9. Track 2 Detail Career Tracks

10. Track 3 Detail Career Tracks

11. Track 4 Detail Career Tracks

12. Track 5 Detail Career Tracks

13. Track 6 Detail Career Tracks

14. Typical student experience

15. Timing for First Cohort (compressed)

16. Vision for Intended Outcomes in 5 Years Short-Term Goals: Broaden the potential career choices of trainees by providing exposure to careers outside of tenure-track academic positions, encouraging self-awareness and enabling preparation for a career path that fits best Intermediate Goals: Enable faculty to engage more broadly in training pre-doctoral and postdoctoral candidates, preparing them for career options beyond replication of their own path Long-Range Goals: Identify and disseminate best practices developed from this work; incorporate the findings from this program into new structures for pre-doctoral and postdoctoral training Intended Outcomes: Culture change, from both the trainee and trainer perspectives, resulting in improved training for a diverse array of careers

17. Application Guidelines To be considered for the program, graduate applicants must: be full-time students in a doctoral program, in good standing both with their respective graduate school and in their programs, have completed at least one year of graduate study, have completed their qualifying examinations (this may require program-specific flexibility), and have a strong letter of support from their mentor To be considered for the program, postdoctoral applicants must: have completed at least six months in their mentor’s lab and have a strong letter of support from their mentor Application guidelines and instructions can be found on the best website at gs.emory.edu/sites/best.