Implementation and evaluation of a group peer mentoring and leadership development program for research faculty in academic medicine

Introduction: Research faculty often experience poor mentoring, low vitality, and burnout. We report on our logic model inputs, activities, measurable outcomes, and impact of a novel mentoring intervention for biomedical research faculty: the C-Change Mentoring & Leadership Institute. We present a) a detailed description of the curriculum and process, b) evaluation of the program's mentoring effectiveness from the perspective of participants, and c) documentation of mentoring correlated with key positive outcomes.Methods: A yearlong facilitated group peer mentoring program that convened quarterly in person was conducted twice (2020-2022) as part of an NIH-funded randomized controlled study. The culture change intervention aimed to increase faculty vitality, career advancement, and cross-cultural competence through structured career planning and learning of skills essential for advancement and leadership in academic medicine. Participants were 40 midcareer MD and PhD research faculty, half women, and half underrepresented by race or ethnicity from 27 US medical schools.Results: Participants highly rated their mentoring received at the Institute. Extent of effective mentoring experienced correlated strongly with the measurable outcomes of enhanced vitality, self-efficacy in career advancement, research and work-life integration, feelings of inclusion in the program, valuing diversity, and skills for addressing inequity.Conclusions: The mentoring model fully included men and women and historically underrepresented persons in medicine and minimized problems of power, gender, race, and ethnicity discordance. The intervention successfully addressed the urgencies of sustaining faculty vitality, developing faculty careers, facilitating cross-cultural engagement and inclusion, and contributing to cultivating cultures of inclusive excellence in academic medicine.