The Power of New Connections

New Connections gave me the chance to make the leap from newly minted PhD to grant funded junior faculty member. As a New Connections grantee, I was directed and guided on a professional path of excellence, scholarship and collaboration. The grant allowed me to conduct my own research and develop manuscripts, all wonderful outcomes. Yet the most intangible outcome of my experience is the most precious— the feeling and energy captured in a room filled with Black, Hispanic, and Native American PhD’s. That force, those feelings, and the fostered collaborations that emerged from those meetings can be described as the power of New Connections.

I want to see the geniuses from our nation’s ghettos, barrios and reservations become academic scholars, so I became one to set an example for others— that we can do this. For me, the New Connections Research and Coaching Clinics and Research Symposiums have been an incredible professional development opportunity. For the past five years, I’ve looked forward to these events. The meetings were invaluable during my first few years on the tenure-track. Conversations were cathartic even therapeutic. We all needed a forum to freely share our professional visions (without the sense that this would count against tenure applications).

I met a lot of people at these events but the closest bonds were built with Round II and III grantees (what I consider my cohort). These friendships have produced some great research collaborations as I have written papers and applied for grants with other members of my cohort. It has been great to watch the New Connections program grow.
I used to walk into the room at a New Connections event and know almost everyone there. Lately, the exact opposite has been true. Many of the members of my cohort have already obtained tenure and their slots at these events are going to new PhD’s. I feel pride tinged with nostalgia for my old connections. I wondered how our time moved so quickly but also knew that it was now my job to provide that nurturing environment for the newest cohort of New Connection grantees and network members. At the last New Connections Research Symposium one of the mentors told me that I have to start mentoring.

My first thought was that I am too young (and too junior) to be a mentor and then I remembered what drove me into academia in the first place. Throughout my undergraduate and graduate education I never had a Black professor. I complained about this in my doctoral program and a professor said to me, “You can keep complaining about the problem, or you can be a part of the solution.” Since I consider myself a problem solver—it was clear what I needed to do. I chose to be that change- I want to see in the world.

Recently I met with a young post-doctoral student about her goals. She described all of the amazing work she wants to do with her degree and the impact she wants to have on the world. It was refreshing to meet a young woman visibly excited about her future. She was prepared to take the academic world by storm, one manuscript at a time. She was clear about her checklist:

PhD

CV

Enthusiasm

Research project, manuscript, grant proposal
 

Potential collaborators - priceless
 

At the last New Connections Coaching Clinic at the American Public Health Association (APHA) Annual Meeting I met Bertha Hildalgo who was new to the New Connections Network. We happened to be at the same roundtable at one of the New Connections sessions and vowed to stay in touch. The following day we sat next to each other as counselors for the APHA statistics section.

Deciding this was more than coincidence, we agreed to collaborate on a statistically-speaking column. This time I would be the project mentor. Through several conference calls and lots of emails we developed a column and submitted it to the APHA statistics section for a new peer review process where papers are reviewed by a committee of four statisticians before being submitted to the journal.

I am a biostatistician and I think of everything as a math formula. Here’s my luck equation:

Luck = Preparation + Opportunity
Preparation: Bertha and I had just attended the New Connections Research and Coaching Clinic
+ Opportunity: The statistics section asked members to write columns for the statistically speaking section of the American Journal of Public Health.
= Luck: Six months after meeting each other Bertha and I have a statistically-speaking column accepted at the American Journal of Public Health.
 

Now that’s the power of New Connections!
 

Melody S. Goodman, PhD
New Connections 2007 Grantee