Career Development

Career Development Resources for Research Investigators

This page was initiated by the ACNP Women’s Task Force and is dedicated to providing helpful/informational resources offered by members and meeting attendees.

If you have resource materials related to women’s career issues and are willing to share, please contact Erin Shaw, eshaw@acnp.org

American Medical Women’s Association (AMWA): AMWA offers interviewing, networking, career development, negotiating, and career planning resources. Job search, placement and other “dual career” assistance for partners, and workshops on balancing work with family or personal obligations are offered.

American Association of Medical Colleges (AAMC): AAMC provides several professional and leadership development opportunities. Some of the AAMC professional development groups offer mentoring for new members.

AAMC offers a variety of professional and leadership development opportunities through the over 20 councils, groups, and forums. AAMC hosts an annual meeting each year and many of these councils, groups, and forums also host individual or collaborative meetings. They offer workshops on grant funding, communication skills, and leadership development. AAMC also has leadership development programs, including several for women and underrepresented minorities in academic medicine. Some of these groups and meetings are open to postdoc participation. See www.aamc.org/members for information about the various groups and www.aamc.org/meetings for a listing of learning offerings.

AAMC provides workshops/seminars on obtaining grant funding, communication skills, leadership development, international issues, and balancing career and work. The association has provided travel awards to aid in presenting research or attending conferences. The workshops provided cover implicit gender bias that affects hiring, promotion, resource allocation, and other peer reviewed processes, issues of internationals, and underrepresented minorities.

Executive Leadership and Academic Medicine (ELAM): Established in 1995, the Hedwig van Ameringen Executive Leadership in Academic Medicine® (ELAM) program offers an intensive one-year fellowship of leadership training with extensive coaching, networking and mentoring opportunities aimed at expanding the national pool of qualified women candidates for leadership in academic medicine, dentistry and public health.

National Neuroscience Curriculum Initiative: The mission of the NNCI is to create educational resources that will make cutting-edge psychiatric neuroscience clear, relevant, and accessible to a broad audience. Resources include: a series of Clinical Commentaries in Biological Psychiatry; a collection of brief TED-style talks; a narrative podcast, Ten to the Fifteenth; and a range of classroom teaching resources. All website materials are free.  The NNCI is also offering a novel online neuroscience course, BRAIN 2021. The course is designed using a hybrid format of self-study materials, online group discussion, small group exercises, and a formative assessment experience. CME is available. It’s a great way to catch up on everything cool that’s happening in the field!

National Institute on Alcohol Abuse and Alcoholism NIAAA’s The Healthcare Professional’s Core Resource on Alcohol: The Core Resource was built with busy clinicians in mind. It centers around 14 user-friendly, practical overviews designed to overcome known barriers to better care for patients with alcohol problems. Each article provides instructions at the end for earning CME/CE credit which is available for physicians, physician assistants, nurses, pharmacists, and psychologists.

National Postdoctoral Association – Guidebook to Advancing Postdoc Women

NIH Office of Research on Women’s Health (ORWH), Scientific Career Development Resources

Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Training Opportunities for Residents and Fellows 

Elsevier Publishing Campus – Training. Advice. Live Discussion. Networks.

Mentorship – Mentor/Mentee Guidelines established by the College

Nature Careers Podcast – How the pandemic widened scientists’ mentoring networks

Nature Career Column – Six mentoring tips as we enter year two of COVID

Society for Neuroscience – Jacob P. Waletzky Award

U.S. – Japan Brain Research Cooperative Program (BRCP)

Career Development Committee Blogs

Early Career Scientists: The Importance of Having a Business Plan – written by Mercedes Perez-Rodriguez, M.D., Ph.D.

The work-life balance beam: Advice from someone who quit gymnastics at age seven – written by Karen K. Szumlinski, Ph.D.