When the
Professional Development Office opened its doors in
2001, the resource set out to
better prepare biomedical graduate students and
postdoctoral fellows for leadership positions and a
varied job landscape. The office — a joint initiative
of the schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public
Health — wanted to provide JHMI's graduate students
and fellows some basic research survival skills,
such as writing grants and giving oral presentations.
Fast forward eight years, the office still abides by
its original mission but has recently
expanded its scope to include junior faculty. It has also
added a Research Leadership course, which
was piloted this fall.
The seven-session course seeks to prepare its
participants to manage a laboratory or project,
develop a budget, hire a staff and mentor students and
trainees. The course also has sessions on
Productivity and Career Advancement; Time Management; and
You and Your Organization, which
explores such topics as group culture and collaboration.
Twenty-three postdoctoral fellows enrolled in the
pilot. Postdocs on federal training and
fellowship awards were the initial target group, as both
the National Institutes of Health and the
National Science Foundation recently added language in
training/fellowship applications encouraging
mentoring and career development. The current and future
sessions are open to all postdocs and
clinical fellows, regardless of their source of support.
Donna Vogel, the office's director since 2007, said
that the course's faculty strive to offer the
planning, managerial and people skills needed to run a
research enterprise successfully.
"That is what we are really all about here —
providing our emerging scientists with the knowledge
and the skills they need to become successful in an
independent career in science. And we take a
broad view of what that means," said Vogel, who speaks on
career issues and professional skills to
individual programs on the health campus and to outside
groups.
Before joining Johns Hopkins, Vogel spent most of her
career at the NIH. From 2001 to 2005,
she worked at the National Cancer Institute as the first
director of its Fellowship Office, dedicated
to enhancing the professional experience for postdoctoral
fellows. In 2005, she retired from the
federal government and became deputy director of the
Ellison Medical Foundation in Bethesda.
Vogel said that, based on the feedback received from
the fall pilot group, the office will extend
research leadership to graduate and health professional
students. Selected topics will be added to its
existing semiannual Intersession course. Previously called
Communications and Your Research Career,
the expanded course, which will debut in July, will be held
over five days and be called simply Your
Research Career.
Vogel said that her office is working with colleagues
in the Office of Faculty Development to
collaborate on courses for that constituency.
In addition to the new Research Leadership course, the
Professional Development Office offers
a full curriculum of workshops and formal courses in the
areas of skill development and career
planning. Specifically, it hosts courses and tutorials in
scientific communication, including "grantcraft,"
scientific writing and oral presentations. It also offers
workshops in resume/CV writing, networking
and interviewing.
Students, fellows and junior faculty can approach the
office anytime for confidential career
consultation. The office also hosts an annual biomedical
career fair and throughout the year invites
guest speakers from a wide range of scientific disciplines
to talk with students and trainees.
Vogel said that while many Johns Hopkins graduates go
on to academic careers, an increasing
percentage seek out what she calls "diverse careers in
science."
"We encourage the training and knowledge you need to
succeed as an academic, but we serve
people who are looking for all kinds of careers in
science," she said. "Everyone needs grant-writing
skills, the ability to find sources of funding. People will
come here to learn about both federal and
nonfederal sources of grants. Times are tough, and these
days you have to cast a wider net."
Derek Haseltine, assistant director of the office,
said that some students approach the office
at a crossroads in their academic or early professional
career.
"Some are ready to leave altogether, and we try to put
things into perspective for them and
place them in a position of knowledge. In that sense, you
could say we're also a retention tool,"
Haseltine said. "Some come to us and just want a status
update on their career. It's literally all over
the map."
The office was established in 2000 by James Hildreth,
then associate dean for graduate
student affairs, and championed by the leadership of
Medicine, Nursing and Public Health. Hildreth's
primary goal in creating the PDO was to achieve two things:
prepare students and fellows to enter
traditional and nontraditional careers, and foster an
environment at Johns Hopkins that would nurture
innovative training programs beyond the established
curriculum.
Courses and activities for students and postdocs are
free and can draw up to 100 participants.
For faculty, the intensive, small group classes range from
five to 20 participants. Faculty courses cost
between $400 and $650. Senior postdocs may take a faculty
course at a 50 percent discount.
For more information on the office and a schedule of
events and courses, go to
www.jhu.edu/~pdo.