JMIR Publications

ABSTRACT

Women-identifying and women+ gender faculty (hereto described as women+) face numerous barriers to career advancement in medicine and biomedical sciences. Despite accumulating evidence that career development programming for women+ faculty is critical for professional advancement and well-being, accessibility of these programs is generally limited to small cohorts, only offered to specific disciplines, or otherwise entirely unavailable. Opportunities for additional, targeted career development activities is imperative in developing and retaining women+ faculty in the medical and biomedical sciences. To develop a collaborative of Big Ten Academic Alliance (BTAA) institutions to support gender equity for women in medicine and biomedical sciences. The new collaborative had two initial goals: 1) hosting an inaugural conference and establishing a foundation for rotation of conference hosts across BTAA schools, and 2) creating an infrastructure to develop programming, share resources, conduct environmental scans, and provide networking opportunities. In 2022, leaders from The Ohio State University College of Medicine Women in Medicine and Science (OSUCOM WIMS) envisioned, developed, and implemented a collaborative named CommUNITYten: Big Ten Academic Alliance for Women in Medicine and Biomedical Science. For Objective #1: Conference program development occurred through an iterative and collaborative process across External (BTAA representatives) and Internal (initial host institution) Task Forces, with working groups and industry partners. We developed a fiscal model to set registration fees, track an estimated budget, and solicit funding for the conference from academic and industry sponsors. We collected post-conference surveys from all attendees to understand speaker/workshop effectiveness and to obtain suggestions for future events. For Objective #2: We developed an IRB-approved environmental scan survey to collect data on gender equity needs and existing programming across the BTAA institutions. In June 2024, OSU hosted the inaugural CommUNITYten conference in Columbus, Ohio, featuring 5 keynote presentations, 9 breakout sessions, and networking opportunities across one and a half days of curated programming. Nearly 180 people attended the conference with representation from 10 BTAA institutions, industry companies, staff, and trainees. Post conference surveys showed 50% of respondents were likely to attend another in-person conference, and attendees suggested future conference topics. The environmental scan survey will be launched in Fall 2024. We successfully established the BTAA CommUNITYten collaborative and hosted the inaugural conference. Establishing key stakeholders from each BTAA institution, obtaining sponsorship, and detailed conference planning and partnerships were critical in ensuring realization of this collaborative. The inaugural conference brought together leaders, faculty, staff, trainees and industry partners from across the country and met the initial goal of networking, sharing resources, and building community for women+ in medicine and biomedical science. These efforts lay a robust foundation for the BTTA CommUNITYten collaborative to foster ongoing collaboration, innovation, and progress in the years to come.