Evaluating the Atlanta BEST Program

Evaluating Atlanta BEST

Evaluation Lead: Julia Melkers
Doctoral Research Assistant: Rebekah St. Clair
(ROCS alum)

This (now completed) project involved an evaluation of the NIH-funded Atlanta BEST Program: Beyond the Professoriate: Transforming Pathways for Biomedical Research Careers, a collaborative career development project of Emory University and Georgia Tech. Atlanta was in the first cohort of NIH funded BEST programs, intended “to enhance training opportunities for early career scientists to prepare them for a variety of career options in the dynamic biomedical workforce landscape.” Overall the purpose of the project was to support doctoral trainees and postdocs in the career search and decision process. Informed by Social Cognitive Career Theory, the evaluation was multi-methodological in design, involving surveys, interviews and observations.

To learn more about the NIH-BEST Consortium, click here: https://commonfund.nih.gov/workforce

Publications
* = student author

Dahl, Tamara, Rebekah St Clair*, Julia Melkers, Wendy C. Newstetter, and Nael A. McCarty. “The Atlanta BEST program: A partnership to enhance professional development and career planning across two dissimilar institutions.” In BEST, pp. 25-46. Academic Press, 2020.

Clair*, Rebekah L. St, Julia Melkers, Julie Rojewski, Kevin Ford, Tamara E. Dahl, Nael A. McCarty, Stephanie Watts, and Deepshikha Dia Chatterjee. “Doctoral trainee preferences for career development resources: the influence of peer and other supportive social capital.” International Journal of Doctoral Studies 14 (2019): 675-702.

St. Clair*, Rebekah, Tamara Hutto, Cora MacBeth, Wendy Newstetter, Nael A. McCarty, and Julia Melkers. “The “new normal”: Adapting doctoral trainee career preparation for broad career paths in science.” PloS one 12, no. 5 (2017): e0177035.