# University of Maryland First Program

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE · 2022 · $145,851

## Abstract

A lack of diversity in STEM continues to be a persistent problem, limiting our capacity to address
pressing problems facing individuals, institutions, communities, and our society as a whole.
Although many initiatives exist on our campuses to promote diversity and include
underrepresented populations at the student level, diversity in the STEM professoriate remains
low. For lasting change to occur and to truly include URM faculty in our institutions of higher
learning, we need to identify approaches that can be implemented by universities to transform
hiring, faculty engagement, and tenure and promotion processes. Modeled on the Meyerhoff
Scholars Program, the UM FIRST initiative will work toward effecting institutional, departmental,
and faculty-level changes to foster inclusive excellence at both the University of Maryland School
of Medicine (UMSOM) and the University of Maryland Baltimore County (UMBC).
The goals of the Evaluation Core team are to work collaboratively across UMSOM and UMBC,
as well as with the NIH FIRST Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC) to assess, monitor, and
track program activities. Using a mixed methods approach, the Evaluation Core will assess the
impact of the UM FIRST Initiative in addition to providing ongoing feedback throughout the project
to inform modifications in the UM FIRST activities.
The evaluation will examine several primary and intermediate outcomes of UM FIRST. The
primary outcomes of interest include: examining the change in percent of new faculty hires
representing URM groups at the institution and department level; examining the change in
percent of URM faculty retained at the institution and department level, and; examining the
impact of the UM FIRST initiative on academic productivity of UM FIRST cluster hires. The
intermediate outcomes of interest include: an increase in URM representation among new
faculty applicant pools at the institution and department level; the successful hiring of UM FIRST
faculty cluster hires across UMBC and UMSOM; documented change in written institution hiring
policies; documented change in written APT policies; a significant increase in institution DEI
culture and climate; an increase in institutional commitment to DEI among leadership, STEM
faculty and their departments, and among UM FIRST faculty cluster hires and their mentors,
and; the successful implementation of UM FIRST Faculty Development Core activities.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10494947
- **Project number:** 1U54CA272205-01
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF MARYLAND BALTIMORE
- **Principal Investigator:** Jessica Brown
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $145,851
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2022-09-09 → 2027-08-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10494947

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10494947, University of Maryland First Program (1U54CA272205-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10494947. Licensed CC0.

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