Over the past ten years, there has been a significant increase in the number of women and persons of color entering research careers related to mental health intervention, prevention, and services research. However, there has been relatively little growth in the number of women and persons of color awarded advanced programmatic grants or appointed to executive academic positions in the mental health interventions and services sciences. In order to be successful in these endeavors, junior and mid-level scientists need to blend specific scientific/technical knowledge and skills with executive leadership skills tailored to the specific needs of mental health interventions and services researchers.

The primary goal of this Phase I project was to develop and evaluate a suite of training tools and mentoring strategies (workshops, training materials, web-based training, etc.) to enhance the research and executive leadership capacity of mental health intervention and services researchers who were women and/or persons of color. Barriers that hinder career development in junior and mid-level researchers of diversity were examined, as were keys to success. These findings were used to develop a comprehensive plan for training modules, resources, and outreach strategies to combat these barriers.

Phase I findings were used to seek Phase II funding for further development of the training materials and to evaluate the usefulness and effectiveness of different combinations of delivery mechanisms. The goal of that research was to identify the delivery method of the suite of training tools and mentoring strategies (in person workshops, training materials, web-based training, etc.) found to most enhance the research and executive leadership capacity of mental health researchers of diversity.