Florida State University (FSU) is one of 6 universities among the first cohort of the NIH Faculty Institutional Recruitment for Sustainable Transformation (FIRST) Program. FSU aims to develop, implement, and evaluate a program, Fostering Institutional Resources for Science Transformation: The FLORIDA-FIRST Health-Science Brigade is transforming culture at FSU to generate a self-sustaining scientific community dedicated to diversity, equity, and inclusive excellence. We propose leveraging institutional resources to recruit a FIRST Cohort of 6 early-career, biomedical researchers who demonstrate a commitment to diversity and inclusive excellence and who contribute to clusters of research excellence in chronic disease prevention and management (Cluster 1) or mental health (Cluster 2) and to implement a systems-level approach and generate evidence of its effectiveness for supporting individual faculty research and career development (micro), within their cohort and collaborative networks (meso), that can be replicated through sustainable changes to university culture (macro).

The Florida First Research Team

The Core Leadership include Frank ("Frankie") Y. Wong, College of Nursing; Pamela K. Keel, Department of Psychology, College of Arts and Sciences; Sylvie Naar, College of Medicine; Eugenia Millender, College of Nursing; and John ("Jack") P. Barile, Social Science Research Institute, University of Hawai'i at Mānoa.

Hiring Model