A dual approach to addressing gaps in scholar diversity in aging research

ABSTRACT

The number of people with Alzheimer’s disease and related dementias (ADRD) in the United States is steadily increasing, with minoritized populations having a disproportionate burden of disease. One strategy to address the racial and ethnic disparities in aging is to diversify scholars in the field of aging, to increase dynamic solution development and create cultural congruence among researchers and participants. The National Institute on Aging has a committed effort to increase and diversify the number of scientists who conduct aging and ADRD research, placing a call for Centers to focus on this effort. In response to the National Institute on Aging call, the Carolina Center for Alzheimer’s Disease and Minority Research, housed at the University of South Carolina, proposed a dual approach to addressing these gaps through a joint national conference and mentorship program for underrepresented minoritized faculty. After one year of the program, the participating scholars were surveyed, and successes and growth points of the program were identified to help guide the improvement of this dual approach to addressing gaps in scholar diversity in aging research.

KEYWORDS:

• Training
• aging
• academy
• underrepresented minority
• junior faculty
• diversity

Acknowledgements

We would like to thank the Carolina Center on Alzheimer’s Disease and Minority Research and all of its partners in the support and development of the National Conference on High-Impact Alzheimer’s Disease Registry Research and High-Impact Alzheimer’s Disease Registry Research Workshop for Scholars of Color. We thank each and every one of our mentors for their dedicated time to the development of a diversified network of aging scholars.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Supplementary data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed online at https://doi.org/10.1080/02701960.2024.2343876

Correction Statement

This article has been corrected with minor changes. These changes do not impact the academic content of the article.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the National Institutes of Health: National Institute on Aging under Grant numbers [R13 AG074603 and P30 AG059294].