| Date | Diversity Activities |
| July 2011 | Jim Aiken presents at annual United Negro College fund (UNCF) research conference. The invitation was extended by Dr. Jerry Bryant, Director, UNCF Science Education Initiatives and member of the Keystone Symposia Diversity Advisory Committee (DAC). |
| June 2011 | Jim Aiken, CEO and President, travels to Washington D.C. with Heather Gerhart, Senior Grants Coordinator/Program Analyst, as part of the annual visitation at NIH and other science research entities. |
| June 2011 | The Keystone Symposia Fellows Circle was held in Dillon prior to the BoD/SAB meetings in Keystone Resort, Colorado. |
| May 2011 | Second Internal Workgroup on Diversity Initiatives session was held for the year. Updates on diversity programmatic efforts were presented by the Director, DLSP and discussion by staff members was elicited. |
| May 2011 | Andy Robertson, Chief Scientific Officer, attends Novartis Health Equity Symposium held by Novartis in Cambridge, MA. |
| May 2011 | Submission of an abstract to the 4th Annual Understanding Interventions Conference at Vanderbilt, Nashville, TN. The abstract was accepted and a poster on the Keystone Symposia Fellows Program outcomes was authored by Laina King, Heather Gerhart and Andy Robertson and presented at the Conference by Laina King and Heather Gerhart. |
| March 2011 | Laina King attends annual Yale University/Edward Alexander Bouchet Conference which honors the life, struggle and work of this brilliant physicist who was the first African American to receive a doctoral degree in the U.S. in 1876 from Yale. Many heads of diversity programs and health disparity research programs were in attendance. |
| February 2011 | Initiation of the DLSP Dissemination Project. The project is designed to develop publication topics and manuscripts on Keystone Symposia initiatives in diversity. The Chief Scientific Officer, Director, DLSP, Sr. Grants Coordinator/Program Analyst and Administrative Assistant begin to meet regularly to present ideas, update manuscripts and develop them for publication. |
| February 2011 | Keystone Symposia/Harvard Data Project begins. Dr. Cariaga-Lo, Assistant Provost at Harvard University, visits Keystone Symposia at its headquarters in Silverthorne, Colorado. She brought other faculty members and a postdoctoral fellow who had attended Keystone Symposia conferences. Laina King had met with her several times previously at national meetings and at her campus office via invitation. The result of the meeting with Jim Aiken, Tanya Muller, and Laina King, was the creation of the Keystone Symposia/Harvard Data Project. This project is focused on mining information from the vast resource of Keystone Symposia post-meeting attendee survey data and using it for guidance in budget allocation for institutional and organizational funding by program heads, of early career scientists seeking tenure and career success. |
| February 2011 | Keystone Symposia holds a Peer to Peer activity at its J5 and J6 meetings in Banff, AB on Micro RNAs. Dr. Eric Olsen at Dallas, one of the organizers, participates in the lunch gathering of URM Peer to Peer attendees. All participants state their appreciation for this activity as they know no other individuals attending the meeting, and none of the other URM attendees registered. |
| February 2011 | Laina King and Andy Robertson meet with Jennifer Kwan in Keystone regarding American Physician Scientist Association (APSA) survey and potential modification of it for use with a diversity survey of MD/PhDs. |
| January 2011 | Dr. Mike Summers at UMBC, and organizer for the NMR (A3) meetings in Big Sky, participates in the KS Peer to Peer activity along with Andy Robertson. Many suggestions and ideas are generated from the participants regarding future Peer to Peer activities at KS meetings. Mike Summers offered detailed observations and suggestions for future activites. |
| January 2011 | Heather Gerhart, Senior Grants Coordinator, submits first year progress report for the NIH Minority Access to Research Careers (MARC) T-36 grant. Year 2 begins. |
| January 2011 | Keystone Symposia poster on Initiatives in Diversity is revised. It carries the molecular structure of melanin. This poster hangs in the poster sessions at the Keystone Symposia meetings and is designed to stimulate critical thinking regarding our initiatives and how scientists can encourage URM science students in their laboratories and programs. The new poster, printed on cloth, saves shipping costs, is durable and rugged. |
| January 2011 | A representative of Proctor & Gamble contacts the DLSP seeking a collaborative relationship to assist them in gaining exposure among URM scientists, and life scientists generally, for the substantial number of research positions they offer each year. |
| Date | Diversity Activities |
| December 2010 | DLSP begins development of procedures and processes for the new Keystone Symposia Early Career Scientist Travel Award. This award is for Assistant Professors and industry equivalent scientists from URM populations. It will allow them to attend Keystone Symposia research meetings. This initiative will go live in Fall 2011 and is supported by the NIH MARC T-36 grant. |
| December 2010 | The URM Network Database is moved from a spreadsheet format to MS Access. Efforts continue to identify architectural next steps. The URM Network Database has greater than 1,150 entrants. Early outcomes of this project include interest from such entities as Novartis, Proctor & Gamble, American Society of Hematology (ASH) and others. |
| December 2010 | Laina King and Andy Robertson begin discussions with scientist representatives of the Alumni of the UNCF-Merck Fellows Program (AUMF) regarding how Keystone Symposia and their organization might collaborate to focus a lens on the 500+ scientists who have completed the program and are established scientists. Further, the discussion is focused on building a bridge between majority culture scientists at Tier 1 institutions, thought leaders and URM scientists at small and large institutions conducting research. |
| November 2010 | Keystone Symposia receives a $50K grant from Novartis NIBR, Cambridge, MA to initiate a partnership with Novartis. The goal of the partnership is to enhance participation by URM scientists in the life and biomedical sciences and to address health disparities in the Keystone Symposia conference activities. The grant is the result of a year of interaction between the Keystone Symposia Director, Diversity in Life Science Programs and the Director of Diversity and Inclusion at Novartis. In August of 2011 the Director, DLSP, CSO and Director of Development met with Amri Johnson, Peter Finan, Joan Bell and others at Novartis at the Cambridge, MA site. |
| November 2010 | Keystone Symposia invites Dr. Jameel Dennis, Keystone Symposia Fellow, to attend ABRCMS in Charlotte, NC with Keystone Symposia staff. This “pilot” activity, like the one at SACNAS, produced excellent outcomes. So much so that DLSP has formalized the procedure for inviting Fellows to engage in our outreach activities along with Keystone Symposia staff. |
| November 2010 | DLSP holds its regular orientation teleconference call for new Fellows. This year Fellows from previous classes were invited to participate. The result was an intense, powerful orientation with all Fellows interacting, learning, motivating and “teaching” others. The process greatly enhanced the building of community within the group of Fellows. |
| November 2010 | Keystone Symposia continues its awarding of 2 scholarships to student attendees at the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS). However, the focus is changed from undergraduates to graduate and postdoctoral students. |
| October 2010 | Representatives of the Native American Cancer Research Center in Denver meet with the Keystone Symposia staff for the second time to discuss mutual interests and to share information. |
| October 2010 | Keystone Symposia admits its 3rd class of 5 Fellows. |
| September 2010 | Ms. Bridget Stacy joins the Keystone Symposia staff as Administrative Assistant for Diversity in Life Science Programs and the Chief Scientific Officer. This moves the support resources for DLSP from 20% to 80%. 20% of her time supports the CSO. |
| September 2010 | Dr. Dana-Lynn Koomoa, Keystone Symposia Fellow at University of Hawaii-Hilo, is invited as a “pilot” activity to attend the September 2010 SACNAS meeting with Keystone Symposia staff. Her participation produced incredible outcomes for both her and for Keystone Symposia. |
| September 2010 | Andy Robertson, Laina King and Gustavo Miranda Carboni, a researcher at UCLA, present a second workshop “Getting the Most Out of a Small Scientific Meeting” at the annual Society for the Advancement of Chicano and Native Americans in Science (SACNAS). |
| September 2010 | Laina King, Andy Robertson and Chris Atwood meet with scientists and senior administrators at Novartis Institutes for Biomedical Research, Cambridge, MA by invitation. The outcome of the meeting was the establishment of a collaborative partnership to explore innovative programming in the area of diversity and an initial planning grant award. |
| August 2010 | Robert Winn, M.D., Assistant Dean of the University of Colorado School of Medicine, HSC Aurora, presents to the Keystone Symposia staff in Silverthorne, CO on issues and strategies for enhancing participation of URM scientists. An African American, he is a cancer researcher with a substantial program. This was part of the Keystone Symposia Internal Work Group on Diversity activity. |
| August 2010 | Winds of Change, a national publication, has an article on the Keystone Symposia Fellows Program. It features Fellows in the program. |
| July 2010 | Dr. Andrew Campbell, researcher at Brown University, invites Laina King to sit on its external review committee for their Initiative to Maximize Student Development (IMSD) program. |
| July 2010 | Diverse Issues, a national publication, has a 4 page article on the issues surrounding low participation rates of URM students in life science. The article features the Keystone Symposia Fellows Program, and includes quotes by Dr. Clif Poodry at NIH. |
| June 2010 | Five Keystone Symposia Fellows complete the program and receive certificates at the June SAB meeting post oral presentations before the full Scientific Advisory Board and Board of Directors. |
| June 2010 | Keystone Symposia inaugurates the Fellows Circle. Dr. Margaret Liu, scientist facilitator and Board of Directors member, facilitates a half day session on research career and challenges with a focus on those typically encountered by scientists from URM populations. |
| April 2010 | Nature publishes the article, “Keystone Takes Minority Views on Board,” by Kendall Powell in the April 1, 2010 issue of the Journal. |
| March 2010 | Andy Robertson initiates contact with the American Indian College Fund based in Denver and begins discussions. Yvonne Psaila, Director of Marketing develops a second ad campaign for placement in the Winds of change publication which is distributed nationally at Native American colleges, academic programs, community programs and other sites. |
| March 2010 | Diversity in Life Science Programs (DLSP) initiates a review of the landscape of existing network data bases on URM scientists nationally for the purpose of informing its efforts in URM network data base development. |
| March 2010 | Keystone Symposia holds teleconference Irene Hulede, Operations Manager for the Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS), sponsored by the American Society of Microbiology (ASM), to discuss continued collaboration including the Keystone Symposia/ABRCMS Travel Awards, mentoring of ABRCMS research award winners and guidance by Keystone Symposia for award winners in selecting specific Keystone Symposia conferences to attend. |
| March 2010 | Keystone Symposia awarded a $1.37M NIH MARC T-36 Grant to expand initiatives in diversity. The grant titled, Empowering Visible Ethnic Minority Scientists and Trainees at Keystone Symposia, was authored by Andy Robertson and Heather Gerhart, Grant Coordinator and Program Analyst. |
| February 2010 | Andy Robertson invites Linda Burhansstipanov, Grants Director and Brenda Seals, Executive Director of the Native American Cancer Research Corp. (NACRC) to the Keystone Symposia headquarters to give a presentation on the work of the NACRC and to discuss how Keystone Symposia might collaborate with the NACRC. |
| January 2010 | Dr. Jerry Bryant, a microbiologist and Director of the UNCF-Merck Initiative and UNCF Science Education Initiatives, delivered an invited presentation at the January 2010 Scientific Advisory Board (SAB) meeting in Keystone, Colorado. |
| January 2010 | Andy Robertson initiates a networking activity with research scientists and science administrators whereby each time he is scheduled to fly out of DIA he meets with individuals at the University of Colorado at Denver HSC/Aurora, Colorado State University or other individuals in the Denver/Boulder metroplex as part of Keystone Symposia’s outreach to the “local scientific community.” Such efforts compliment regular outreach by Laina King to researchers and individuals in the same geographic area. |
| Date | Diversity Activities |
| December 2009 | Amgen advised Keystone Symposia of intent to provide $15,000 for each of 2 years to support the Keystone Symposia Fellows Program and other diversity initiatives underway. This funding resulted from the work of Dr. Jo Viney at Amgen, VP James Taylor at Amgen and Dr. Chris Atwood, Director of Development at Keystone Symposia. |
| December 2009 | DLSP contacts the winners of Keystone Symposia/Annual Biomedical Research Conference for Minority Students (ABRCMS) and provides mentoring and guidance regarding Keystone Symposia conference selection, connection with organizers of the conference selected and sharing of this information with Dr. Cliff Houston, founder of ABRCMS and professor at UTMB-Galveston, and Amy Chang, Director of Education Programs at the American Society of Microbiology the sponsor of ABRCMS. |
| December 2009 | Andy Robertson, CSO was notified by representatives at NIH of their “intent to fund” the NIH-T-58 grant proposal written by him and Heather Gerhart in December 2008. |
| November 2009 | Laina King asked to make remarks during the Postdoctoral Workshop session at ABRCMS conference in Phoenix, Arizona. |
| October 2009 | Gustavo Miranda-Carboni, researcher at UCLA, Andy Robertson, Laina King and Heather Gerhart present first Keystone Symposia workshop at the annual meetings of the Society for the Advance of Chicano and Native American Students (SACNAS) conference in Dallas. The title of the workshop was “How to Get the Most Out of a Small Scientific Meeting,” and was attended by approximately 170 and with an average post conference survey score of 63.48%. Keystone Symposia had an exhibitor booth for the 4th year at the conference. |
| September 2009 - June 2010 | The Keystone Symposia Scholarship Program headed by Jeff Lehman in the program Implementation Department awarded 46 scholarships to URM scientists’ attending our conferences during September 2009-June 2010. A total of 219 travel awards were made to graduate students, postdoctoral students, and industry trainees from emerging nations. |
| September - October 2009 | Review, analysis of KS Fellows application process, identification of additional quality control measures, evaluation of what was learned for utilization with future application process. Development of evaluation document to share with applicants was a mentoring and teaching mechanism for applicants and those who inquired about the program. Sharing of outcomes analysis with DAC assessment of why there was such a large degree of interest nationally in this unique program. Further analysis of KS expectations of Fellows admitted to the program. Involvement of 2008-2009 Inaugural Class Fellows in the assessment of the process. |
| September 2009 | Diversity Advisory Committee (DAC) meeting via teleconference call. Such meetings provide an oversight function for the Keystone Symposia and its initiatives in diversity. |
| September 2009 | Keystone Symposia initiates a “Peer-to-Peer” activity at each of its research conferences. A formal letter is sent from the Director of Diversity in Life Science Programs (DLSP) to all scientists who indicate ethnic membership in a U.S. designated underrepresented minority (URM) population at the time of registration. These registrants are asked if they wish to meet with other URM scientists prior to the keynote address as a way of enhancing connectedness at the conference and post the conference. |
| September 2009 | The Keystone Symposia Fellows Program Admissions Committee admitted 5 applicants for the 2009-2010 year--the first year post the pilot year of the program. |
| August - December 2009 | Outreach visits and presentations are made by Laina King to researchers, faculty, graduate students and postdocs at University of Colorado at Denver HSC/Aurora, Brown University, University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill, North Carolina Central University-Durham, Scripps Institute of Oceanography (SIO)-La Jolla and University of California-San Diego. |
| July 2009 | Creation and design of KS Fellows Program application for admission templates including KS statement of mission and vision; and list of application requirements completed by DLSP. First applications mailed by request to interested individuals 20 July 2009. Development and analysis of Admissions Committee application review procedures and process. |
| July 2009 | Keystone Symposia announces September 1, 2009 deadline date for application submissions for the Keystone Symposia Fellows Program year 2009-2010. |
| July 2009 | KS holds internal review meeting on scholarship and award programs including the Global Travel Awards, KS Scholarship Program, KS Fellows Program and Regional Registration Only Awards. Decision made to include the term “Bicultural” in the list of ethnic membership options in scholarship applications. |
| July 2009 | Keystone Symposia held internal meeting on KS Scholarship Programs/Funding Mechanisms. Decisions made on nomenclature, strategic mission and focus. |
| June 2009 | Laina King presents KS URM and gender participation data to BoD and SAB. |
| June 2009 | The first KS Fellows conclude formal part of inaugural Fellows year and program. Plaques presented. |
| May 2009 | Keystone Symposia’s Marketing Department headed by Yvonne Psaila develops the first ad for placement in the Winds of Change annual publication. |
| May 2009 | Laina King developed 5 year plan to enhance URM participation. KS staff provides significant input to on-going actions of the plan. |
| May 2009 | Dr. JoAnn Trejo, UC-San Diego invited to join the KS SAB as an ad hoc member. |
| May 2009 | KS Internal Work Group on Initiatives in Diversity. Video from MIT First Annual Congress on Diversity shown. Mike Summers, UMBC presentation on video. |
| May 2009 | Heather Gerhart and Laina King attend 3rd Annual Understanding Interventions Which Broaden participation in Research Careers conference - Bethesda, MD. Dr. Tuajuanda Jordan HHMI-Chevy Chase present and Dr. Cliff Poodry from NIH. Multi-level networking, discussion with Dr. Alberto Roca, SACNAS Board regarding postdoctoral student network he is developing. |
| April 2009 | Dr. Ismana Carney contacted Keystone Symposia regarding potential collaboration on a grant-funded project addressing advance science degree attainment by Native American students. KS provided a letter of support for the NSF grant application. |
| April 2009 | KS workshop proposal accepted for October 2009 annual SACNAS meetings in Dallas/Fort Worth. |
| March 2009 | KS Cardiovascular Risk conference in Ashville, NC. Meeting had been focus of many efforts to inform URM graduate and postdoctoral students regarding this conference. |
| February 2009 | Laina King attends annual American Council on Education (ACE) conference and 3rd Annual National Association of Diversity Officers in Higher Education (NADOHE) conference in Washington D.C. Spoke with President Freeman Hrabowski, UMBC, and other individuals working in the diversity field as well as STEM and life sciences. |
| January 2009 | KS Fellows attend KS SAB meeting in Keystone. |
| January 2009 | Andy Robertson and Heather Gerhart write and submit NIH, MARC T-36 Training Grant |
| Date | Diversity Activities |
| December 2008 | Laina King made invited presentation at American Society for Cell Biology-Minority Affairs Committee (MAC) meetings, networking activities, invited remarks by Laina King at UNCF Fellows dinner-San Francisco. |
| November 2008 | Admission of 3 research scientists into the pilot KS Fellows Program. |
| October 2008 | 2nd KS Internal Work Group Meeting on Initiatives in Diversity |
| October 2008 | Andy Robertson, Laina King and Dana Wood attended ABRCMS conference in Orlando. KS awarded 2 scholarships to award winners, multi-level networking, initial discussions with Dr. Cliff Houston, Founder of ABRCMS regarding possible collaborations. |
| October 2008 | Andy Robertson, Laina King and Heather Gerhart attend annual SACNAS conference in Salt Lake City. Engaged in multi-level networking, reviewed student research posters. |
| September 2008 | First face-to-face meeting of DAC, Breckenridge, CO |
| September 23-28, 2008 | First implementation of initial suggestions of Keystone Symposia meetings from focus group. Andy Robertson holds informal session on “How to Get the Most Out of a Meeting.” Laina King, Andy Robertson and Heather Gerhart present poster at poster session, “Diversity - Perspectives and Limitations: How you as a scientist can help.” |
| August 11-12, 2008 | Laina King invited to tour basic science laboratories at National Jewish, Univ. of Colorado at Denver-Aurora by Phil Sanchez, Ph.D. and Ernesto Salcedo, Ph.D. Jesus Rivera-Nieves, M.D. invites Laina to tour his research lab at Univ. of Colorado at Denver HSC and discuss networking strategies to enhance participation at Keystone Symposia meetings |
| July 2008 | Formal report on the first focus group is generated |
| July 2008 | Invited focus group participants arrive at Keystone Lodge for evening reception and all day meetings July 7 and 8. Informal reception held evening of July 7. |
| June 2008 | Laina King, DLSP presents report during Board of Directors meeting at Keystone Lodge titled, Perspectives and Initiatives: A Report on Diversity Activity. The focus group effort is discussed as part of the qualitative research effort on diversity enhancement |
| Early June 2008 | Letters of invitation with corresponding email messages and telephone calls go out to invitees |
| Late May 2008 | Identification of focus group invitation list from subgroup of Keystone Symposia Underrepresented Minorities scholarship recipients |
| April 2008 | Conference call between DAC and Keystone Symposia staff to discuss the NIH T36 grant application outline |
| April 2008 | Keystone Symposia appoints Dr. Laina King, Director of DLSP to a new full time, exempt position to lead and coordinate diversity activities |
| February 2008 | A. P. Sloan Grant funded |
| December 2007 | Conference call between DAC and Keystone Symposia staff to discuss recruiting for the position Director, Diversity in life Sciences and grant development for the A.P. Sloan proposal |
| November 2007 | Andy Robertson and Dana Wood attend ABRCMS. |
| October 2007 | Andy Robertson and Heather Gerhart attend SACNAS meetings in Kansas City, MO. |
| October 2007 | Submission of A.P. Sloan grant application |
| September 2007 | Established Keystone Symposia/ABRCMS Travel Awards - 2 awards (student registration and up to $1,000 in travel subsidy) per year. Recipients are determined by a blind drawing from among student attendees at ABRCMS who have received an award for their oral or poster presentation at the meeting. Keystone Symposia has committed to 4 years (8 awards). |
| July 2007 | Conference call between DAC and Keystone Symposia staff to discuss Diversity Initiative Plan Outline, including actions, targets and objective measures |
| April 2007 | Initial development of A. P. Sloan grant application to support diversity initiative, including idea of focus group |
| April 2007 | Andy Robertson and Heather Gerhart visit NIH & HHMI to share Keystone Symposia Diversity plan and invite Dr. Tuajuanda Jordon to participate on Diversity Advisory Committee |
| Spring 2007 | Diversity Advisory Committee recruitment |
| Mid-fall 2006 | Andy Robertson CSO and Phillippa Kassover, Director of Development meet with Alfred P. Sloan Foundation in New York, NY. |
| Fall 2006 | Andy Robertson CSO and Heather Gerhart, Grants Coordinator/Program Analyst attend conference on diversity, University of Washington - Seattle |
| April - September 2006 | Email dialogue between Mike Summers and Andy Robertson |
| March 2006 | Publication of Summers and Hrabowski article in Science. CSO review and contact of Dr. Summers. Article, “Preparing Minority Scientists and Engineers.” 31 MARCH 2006 VOL 311 SCIENCE; Page 1870-1871. |
| 2001-2002 | Keystone Symposia received a $50,000 grant from the David and Lucile Packard Foundation to support participation of URM scientists attending our conferences |
Download the poster presented on the Keystone Symposia Fellows Program at the 4th Conference on Understanding Interventions (2.9MB)