FIRST Scholar Onboarding

To-do Lists

• Prior to Arrival
  • Review UT Southwestern New Research Faculty Onboarding
  • Review UT Dallas New Faculty Checklist
• First Week

  General start up for new faculty hires

  • Meet or make an appointment with department/center chair and administrators
  • Complete HR onboarding
• Second Week
  • Meet with FIRST MPIs for welcome and orientation to FIRST. This meeting will be scheduled by the FIRST administrator. The MPIs are:
    • UT Southwestern: Helen Yin, Ph.D.
    • UT Dallas: Francesca Filbey, Ph.D.

  The MPIs will orient you with regards to items essential for a starting first-time faculty, including many of the items particularly relevant for FIRST faculty listed below.

• 0-3 Months
  • Attend FIRST Scholars Round Table meetings (every 4 weeks during the academic year). Some of the roundtable meetings will include:
    • Meet with FIRST Leaders and other FIRST Scholars. Self-introductions, short scientific talks and future plans. 
    • Meeting with the Faculty Development core to leard about faculty development opportunities and mentoring plan 
      • Core leaders: Jane Johnson, Ph.D. (UTSW) and Theodore Price, Ph.D. (UTD)
        
    • Meet with the Evaluation Core directors to understand the surveys required by the NIH FIRST Program as part of the FIRST Consortium researchs tudies. We will use a mixed method evaluation approach that consists of quantitative surveys and qualitative interviews. These will be conducted by professionals in the Evaluation Core. Please contact Carolyn Smith-Morris, Ph.D. (UTSW) and James Harrington, Ph.D. (UTD) for more information.
  • Assemble your mentoring committee. All tenure track junior faculty will have a mentoring team. Discuss with your Chair/Center Director who should be on your Committee. FIRST uses a tiered-mentoring model. 
    • For UTSW junior faculty, it is recommended that the Committee should have a chair and two other scientific mentors. For FIRST, we recommend that you also identify a near-peer mentor.
    • For UTD junior faculty, UTD Faculty Success will assign a senior mentor. For FIRST, we recommend that you identify a near-peer mentor and a UTSW mentor.
    • We recommend the following meeting cadence:  
    • • Year1: first month, 3 months, 6 months and 12 months 
      •  Year 2-until tenure, minimum of one mentor meeting every six months and more frequently as needed.
    • Please contact Genevieve Konopka, Ph.D. (UTSW) and Meghna Sabharwal, Ph.D. (UTD) for more information.
  • Complete FIRST IDP (Individual Development Plan), to be shared with the Mentoring Committee at least once a year.
    • Drs. Konopka and Sabharwal (FIRST mentoring directors) will review your plan and IDP
• 3-6 Months
  • Enroll in the one-day in-person SMART (Scientific Management Accelerating Research & Tenure)
  • Join relevant field-specific centers and institutes at UTSW and UTD. For example, O’Donnell Brain Institute and Simons Comprehensive Cancer Center
  • Submit small grants, foundation grants, etc. as opportunities arise, to start your grant submission journey. 
• 6-12 Months
  • At end of first year in rank, the FIRST leadership will solicit feedback of what worked and what didn’t. The Evaluation Core will conduct evaluation surveys and structured interviews to obtain quantitative and qualitative data for our FIRST research study.
  • Promotion and Tenure:
    • UTSW faculty to attend the Demystifying P&T Symposium and the small group Tenure Track Faculty workshop offered by the Office of Faculty Development to become aware of the P&T and Tenure process. You will revisit these in subsequent years, by year 4 or 5 in rank.
    • UTD faculty Promotion and Tenure
• 2-3 Years
  • Submit multiple manuscripts from your lab for publication, with your name as corresponding author or co-corresponding author
  • Feedback to Faculty Development Core (what worked, what didn’t)
  • FIRST Scholars Retreat (every other year when we reach a critical mass of FIRST Scholars). External Advisory Committee board members will be in attendance.
  • Enroll in the SOAR (Intensive R-Grant Writers Workshop) 6 months prior to when you plan to submit your first R01.
• 5-6 Years
  • Assess your portfolio and discuss with department chair the plan for promotion to Associate Professor with tenure
  • Continue to publish research papers
  • Apply to the LEAD (Leadership Program for Junior Faculty) Program
  • UTD LEAD