What all has happened in 2020?

A brief review from the leadership of AMSNDC






Its Better in the Bahamas!

The 2020 Annual meeting was held in the Bahamas at the luxurious Atlantis Resort and it was a great success! The meeting focused on a number of important and timely topics including: new trends in graduate and professional student training, new initiatives for advancing faculty diversity, and issues related to faculty recruitment and retention.

Victoria Prince, PhD, Dean of Graduate Affairs at the University of Chicago gave a fascinating and engaging talk on “National Trends for Graduate Training”, highlighting the University of Chicago’s successful myCHoice program that offers a wealth of career opportunities and professional development programs for PhD students in STEM fields.

Kerry O’Banion MD, PhD, Director, Medical Science Training Program University of Rochester School of Medicine discussed the keys to his successful MD/PHD program and presented results of an exciting survey showing “Neuroscience is a Critical Component of a Medical Scientist Training Program”.

Michael A. Steinmetz, PhD, Director, Division of Extramural Science Programs at the National Eye Institute gave us an inside look into NIH and NEI funding in his talk entitled “NIH Funding: A Peek Behind the Curtain”.

Michelle Jones - London, PhD, Chief, Office of Programs to Enhance Neuroscience Workforce Diversity (OPEN) at NINDS discussed the Institute’s diversity efforts and programs

and led a spirited discussion that focused on " Strategies for Enhancing the Diversity of Neuroscience Researchers".

Gonzalo Torres, PhD, Chair, Department of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences

City University of New York School of Medicine discussed his highly-successful NIH funded MINDS program that provides mentoring and support of early career URM faculty in his talk entitled “Increasing Retention of Diversity Faculty in Neuroscience: The MINDS Experience".

Philip H. Kass, DVM, MPVM, MS, PhD, Vice Provost of Academic Affairs, University of California, Davisdiscussed his highly-innovative strategies and the university’s successful initiatives for hiring diverse faculty in “New Strategies for Advancing Faculty Diversity”.

Our member panel discussion focused on Recruitment and Retention: Challenges and Accomplishments

Panel Members: M. Friedlander, B. Smith, J. Lipton, A. Fontanini, discussed their strategies for faculty recruitment and retention.

During Summer 2020 we had two virtual events:

On July 6th, Walter J. Koroshetz, MD, Director, NINDS, Joshua A. Gordon, MD, PhD, Director, NIMH and Susan Weiss, PhD, Director, Division of Extramural Research at NIDA joined us for a virtual meeting to discuss the difficulties we encountered in our departments/research programs due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

On July 7 and 14, 2020, in collaboration with the Association of Anatomy, Cell Biology and Neurobiology Chairpersons (AACBNC), AMSNDC partnered with the American Association for Anatomy to host a pair of “Pivot to Fall 2020” webinars on anatomy education strategies amid the Covid-19 pandemic. 

We hope you will join for our 2021 virtual meeting to continue engaging discussions with representatives from NIH, AAMC and other organizations. A draft agenda will be forthcoming soon.

With our best regards,

Bill and Lucia, past and current AMSNDC Presidents

Association of Medical School Neuroscience Department Chairs
AMSNDC is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization.

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