Meet Our Finalists

This year’s finalists - Sade Williams Clayton, Ph.D., Harrison Daly, Ph.D., Carmen Muñoz-Ballester, Ph.D., and Tanya Paes, Ph.D. - embody the spirit of the award. Their reactions to being nominated unveil a shared passion for research and a dedication to community enrichment. They've expressed immense joy in extending the frontiers of knowledge, the satisfaction derived from mentoring emerging scientists, and the fulfillment that comes from making meaningful contributions. The news of their nominations evoked strong feelings of validation, surprise, and gratitude. They collectively believe in the power of teamwork and collaborative environments as major contributors to their overall success as postdoctoral researchers.

"I was delighted, humbled, and extremely grateful," shares Paes, capturing the mutual sentiment of honor and recognition felt by the finalists. This feeling of gratitude highlights the significance of acknowledging the hard work and dedication inherent in the postdoctoral journey. Muñoz-Ballester emphasizes the sentiment, noting it’s "crucial to feel that what you do has an impact and is valued.” “I think it’s great that NPA has started this initiative to recognize those who tend to go beyond their scientific research and contribute to the betterment of the postdoc experience “ states Daly, validating the NPA’s intent to award excellence in advancing the local and national postdoctoral community.

The stories of our finalists illustrate the dynamic balance between personal accomplishments and their contributions to the community. Daly, for instance, speaks to the challenges and rewards of the postdoctoral experience, emphasizing the value of community building and mentorship. His initiatives to enhance the postdoc experience, particularly for international fellows, underline the importance of support networks in navigating the complexities of scientific research and career development. Williams Clayton, who emphasizes the importance of self-advocacy for postdocs, is most proud of laying the foundation for the Black Postdoctoral Association at her university. Echoing this commitment, Paes reflects, "Providing additional support for research projects, mentoring, and teaching...and advocating for postdocs at my institution and nationally has been extremely rewarding." Muñoz-Ballester, too, shares her enthusiasm for guiding undergraduate students into the world of research, aiming to ignite a lasting passion for scientific inquiry within them.

As they look to the future, the finalists share a common vision of continuing to make a difference. Whether it's Paes’s aspiration to support neurocognitive and behavioral outcomes, Daly’s ambition to lead in drug discovery, or Muñoz-Ballester and Williams Clayton’s aspirations to become professors and establish their research groups, their goals underscore a commitment to advancing science and society. "This nomination...will show my employer that building good work environments and community are a priority to me," Daly notes, emphasizing the sense of community as a player in fostering scientific progress.

Anticipating the Announcement of the Winner

The winner of the Postdoc of the Year Award will be announced at the NPA Annual Conference in March 2024, an occasion that will celebrate the finalists' achievements and the eventual recipient's outstanding contributions. This award not only recognizes the individual excellence of postdoctoral researchers like Williams Clayton, Daly, Muñoz-Ballester, and Paes, but is also a testament to the collective impact of postdocs on the scientific community and beyond.

Helen E. Parker, Ph.D., is a visiting fellow at the National Institutes of Health and editor in chief of The POSTDOCket.

Smrithika Subramani, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research associate at the University of Wisconsin - Madison and deputy editor of The POSTDOCket.

Seattle was selected for this year’s conference due to its unique academic community, innovative spirit, natural beauty, and diverse cultural scene. The city's unique blend of intellectual stimulation and recreational opportunities creates an environment conducive to collaboration, networking, and the exchange of ideas. As postdocs continue to play a vital role in shaping the future of research, Seattle stands out as a destination that can elevate the postdoctoral meeting experience to new heights.

Seattle boasts a rich academic ecosystem with institutions such as the University of Washington, Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, and Seattle Children's Research Institute, serving as global hubs for cutting-edge research. The city is home to leading experts in various fields, providing postdocs with the opportunity to engage with and learn from various academics. This collaborative environment fosters interdisciplinary discussions, potentially leading to novel collaborations and innovative research initiatives. The event is also beneficial for the postdoc offices (PDOs), helping them understand relevant problems and topics of guidance for postdoctoral fellows. It allows representatives from different institutes to gather and provide better solutions and approaches to improve the postdoctoral experience through the rich agenda of the NPA meeting in 2024.

This year, the NPA conference is honored to welcome eminent scientists, Teresa Foy, Ph.D., senior vice president at Bristol-Myers Squibb, and Harmit Malik, Ph.D., professor and associate director of Basic Sciences Division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center, who have made significant contributions in the fields of immune-oncology and understanding adaptive evolutionary changes, respectively. They have made significant contributions to academia as well as industry. Moreover, the whole program of the 2024 conference provides a holistic platform for postdocs and covers a range of topics, including mentoring, networking, career opportunities, and navigating the U.S. immigration system. SciPhD's session on Flamingo will bring a free career planning and execution platform for postdocs and PDO counselors. In light of the increasing trend of postdocs exploring careers outside academia, Wake Forest University School of Medicine is proud to introduce the Mentoring for Careers in Alternative Biomedical Excellence (MeCABE) Postdoctoral Program. These concurrent sessions and workshops promise to be informative and enriching for conference attendees.

Moreover, Seattle is synonymous with innovation and technology, hosting major corporations like Amazon and Microsoft. It also stands as a hub for emerging biotech industries, ranking within the Top 10 U.S. biopharma clusters. The city's thriving tech scene aligns with the research interests of many postdocs, offering a unique chance to explore the intersection of academia and industry. A postdoc meeting in Seattle would provide attendees with insights into the latest developments in technology, creating a bridge between academic research and real-world applications.

Beyond the confines of the conference room, Seattle's breathtaking scenery offers a welcome respite for postdocs seeking a balance between work and relaxation. Nestled between Puget Sound and the Cascade Mountains, Seattle provides a picturesque backdrop for networking events and social activities. Attendees can explore iconic landmarks such as the Space Needle, take a stroll through Pike Place Market, or venture into the lush greenery of nearby national parks during their downtime.

Seattle's cultural diversity is reflected in its vibrant neighborhoods, each offering a unique blend of arts, music, and culinary experiences. Attendees can immerse themselves in the city's rich cultural tapestry, sampling diverse cuisines and attending performances in the thriving arts scene. Exploring Seattle's neighborhoods allows postdocs to connect in a relaxed setting, fostering meaningful interactions outside the formal conference setting. The NPA team will be organizing fun networking events like a morning run around beautiful trails, a scavenger hunt, and other social activities to provide opportunities for attendees to build networks, relax, enjoy, and make the most out of the event.

The upcoming NPA Annual Conference is set to be an enriching experience beyond a conventional academic forum. It aims to foster connections among participants in an atmosphere that's both inviting and relaxed. To this end, Seattle represents more than just a meeting point for postdocs; it's a world where intellectual pursuit and cultural vibrancy coexist. Let's make this gathering a productive and enjoyable experience for everyone. See you in Seattle!

Sarita Mishra, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow working in cancer biology and therapy at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center. Committed to professional development, she contributes to the NPA as a co-chair of the communications subcommittee, aligning with NPA's mission of nurturing and empowering fellow postdocs. Mishra envisions the NPA as a platform for growth and mentorship. #ScienceAndBeyond (www.linkedin.com/in/sarita-mishra09)

Sarita Mishra is on the communications subcommittee for the NPA Meetings Committee.

What started as a weekly writing group consisting of a few trainees — where we set our weekly writing goals and held each other accountable to accomplish them — evolved into a detailed study. We surveyed how the COVID-19 pandemic influenced trainee perceptions of academic writing productivity, and whether it differed across identities. Being trainees in the environmental field, we anonymously surveyed colleagues, sampled across our X (formerly Twitter) networks, and emailed environmental departments at R1 institutions in North America to share our survey. In the end, we reached 342 environmental biology trainees and found some interesting patterns.

First, to get a sense of how identity interacted with scholarly publication totals, we asked how many academic papers each respondent had published prior to 2021. Our results showed that years of training and identity predicted publication totals. Notably, female postdocs had lower pre-pandemic publication output compared to their peers — specifically 1.4 fewer publications than their male colleagues. While this may not seem like a big difference, it is sizable when considering the main metric of academic success is scholarly publications.

Once we factored in the COVID-19 pandemic, the results were even more stark across identities. Female, BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, or Person of Color) and/or first-generation college graduate trainees were more likely to perceive that the pandemic affected their writing habits and productivity. Notably, 85% of BIPOC trainees reported feeling unproductive and unmotivated to write during the pandemic.

The timing of the pandemic also coincided with large-scale social activism in America, such as mass protests against historic racism and police brutality. Although our data do not distinguish between public health and social justice crises, these compounding issues may have contributed to the decreased writing motivation felt by BIPOC trainees.

Findings from our survey showed that trainees with certain identities were more likely than others to say their academic writing habits had been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. More positive values from these binomial multiple regression models indicate a higher probability of respondents saying they had been impacted. Key for identities: Postdoc yrs indicates the number of years in training (as a continuous variable); First gen = first in family to graduate from college; female = female; BIPOC = Black, Indigenous, and/or a person of color; chronic condition = chronic health condition or disability; and ESL = English is the second language.

Trainees with English as a second language (ESL) were statistically less likely than their peers to report that the pandemic impacted their writing habits. While international trainees with ESL were unable to travel to see their families during the pandemic, they were already physically distanced from their families even before lockdown. We posited that these trainees could have already been feeling isolated, perhaps explaining why they were less likely to report the pandemic affected their writing habits.

Our study was the first to quantitatively measure the impact of the pandemic on trainees. While our results are derived from surveying environmental biology trainees in predominantly North American institutions, the patterns we found may be relevant to trainees across diverse disciplines (though we do recognize publishing requirements are different across STEM fields and the humanities).

While we are a few years out from the height of the pandemic, current postdocs may be feeling the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic lingering on their CVs, with some of us feeling those impacts more than others. If we truly want academia to become more inclusive, we encourage academic hiring committees to look beyond publications as the most important metric of success. Rather, we hope trainees and postdoctoral candidates are assessed for their multifaceted contributions to community, service, teaching, and mentorship.

Kyra Prats, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher in plant biology at Purdue University, having earned her doctorate from Yale University.

This article is organized to present the RIPEN framework, created by Azmi Ahmad, Ph.D., based on his own experience with leading successful advocacy efforts. This framework lists five criteria that must be met to “RIPEN the conditions for advocacy”: Recognizing allies, Identifying opportunities, Presenting data-backed solutions, Encouraging involvement to raise awareness, and Never giving up! This article examines each condition of the framework, highlighting its importance for the success of advocacy efforts, and backing it up with examples from advocacy success stories led locally and nationally by and for postdocs involved in PDAs, unions, and the NPA Advocacy Committee. We hope this article will inspire and encourage colleagues to initiate, structure, and lead successful postdoc advocacy efforts in a sustainable and impactful manner.

Recognizing Allies

The underlying goals of this step are to (1) identify allies across the spectrum (active opponents, passive opponents, neutrals, passive allies, active allies), then (2) shift the spectrum of allies, by moving the members of a given category to an adjacent category (e.g. from active opponents to passive opponents, and eventually to active allies) (Russell 2012).

Postdocs involved in advocacy efforts have been shifting their spectra of allies in different ways. For example, leaders of the Yale Postdoctoral Association (YPA) and Yale School of Medicine’s Black Postdoctoral Association (YBPA) identified a key active ally in the leader of their Office for Postdoctoral Affairs (OPA), with whom they worked to shift different members of their university administration towards active allyship. This assisted them in getting approval from university leadership to conduct a university-wide postdoc needs assessment to better understand the key concerns of their colleagues. The leaders at YPA, YBPA and OPA collaborated at every step of the Postdoc Experience Survey - design, distribution, marketing & participant engagement, data analyses, results interpretation, and the dissemination of survey findings. Another example comes from the Columbia Postdoctoral Workers Union (CPW), which collaborated with the United Automobile Workers Union (UAW) to strategically organize the first-ever postdoc union at a private university, and get training, resources, and ideas to mobilize their postdoc colleagues (the importance of mobilization is discussed further in the section on encouraging involvement). Upon the creation of the CPW-UAW, the postdoctoral union leaders worked with their UAW collaborators to strategically plan the bargaining process, lay out different bargaining scenarios, and anticipate the upcoming steps in the negotiation process. These efforts culminated in increasing support during negotiations with university leadership in 2020 and improvement of the postdoctoral contract created by the postdoctoral union – to unify the salary and the benefits of postdocs across the institution.

Identifying Opportunities

This stage involves shifting the spectrum of allies to successively include higher-level key decision-makers and pursuing multiple avenues to achieve success. A notable example involves the NPA Advocacy Committee, which addressed a dilemma postdocs face - risking loss of, or inability to receive, employee benefits upon being awarded an external fellowship. In this scenario, postdocs are prevented from accessing employee benefits, leading to significant disparities among postdoctoral scholars from the same institution, and ultimately disincentivizing postdocs from accepting prestigious fellowships. First, the committee conducted a research phase to understand the compensation and benefits policies established by federal agencies (e.g., Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, National Institutes of Health (NIH), National Science Foundation, etc.), and engaged in conversations with institutions that treat postdoctoral employees and fellows differently. The NPA Advocacy Committee learned that federal agencies’ policies lacked clarity on the rules of administering a fellowship award, which contributed to the issue. Within a year, they identified opportunities to clarify the policies on several fronts: (1) they reached out to the NIH as partners, to share their findings and collaborate on policy reform, (2) had their leader join the NIH Postdoc Working Group to keep focus on this issue, and (3) published an article detailing the problem and their efforts (Smith & Kimbis, 2023). The combination of these three approaches led to the NIH policy being updated to state that receiving an NIH fellowship does not prevent institutions from providing postdocs with employee benefits.

Presenting Data-Backed Solutions

This step requires doing a lot of work ahead of time to collect data about the population served, in order to identify key needs to be assessed and formulate an informative and clear advocacy strategy. Investing time in this step proved critical and determinant for the Massachusetts Institute of Technology Postdoctoral Association’s (MIT-PDA’s) advocacy efforts. Determined to advocate for higher salaries for postdoctoral scholars, the MIT-PDA gathered comprehensive data on the financial realities facing their peers.

Quantitatively, they analyzed:

1. Salaries of MIT postdocs in comparison to those at other U.S. institutions,
2. Local rent prices in Cambridge, MA, showing the affordability challenge based on the guideline that rent should not exceed 30% of gross monthly income.
3. The local inflation rate versus growth.

They presented these findings in easy-to-grasp graphs. Qualitatively, they collected personal stories highlighting the financial struggles of postdocs, including the challenges of supporting families, managing debt, and the need for secondary employment to alleviate financial strain.

The MIT-PDA advocacy leaders then presented this data to the MIT vice president of research, who advocated and worked behind the scenes to come up with a solution to raise the salaries of MIT postdocs from $55,000 to $65,000 a year –announced in November 2022 (Langin 2023a) – followed by a 3% increase in 2024.

Encouraging Involvement to Raise Awareness

Encouraging involvement and maintaining momentum in advocacy efforts is crucial, especially with the transient nature of postdoc positions and leadership changes. At Brigham & Women’s Hospital (BWH), PDA leaders revitalized their advocacy committee post-pandemic, launching their first annual survey to pinpoint postdocs’ needs. To boost participation, they organized town halls, posted flyers, utilized PDA social media, and engaged department vice chairs to promote the survey, achieving a 40% response rate among 800 postdocs. They shared survey outcomes and subsequent policy improvements with the community, fostering awareness and future engagement.

Motivated by a nationwide trend of academic workers unionizing and inspired by Jane McAlevey’s insights in No Shortcuts on the power and effectiveness of organizing, around 5,000 NIH fellows fought to establish the NIH Fellows United-UAW union. A core team of five organizers led a grassroots campaign, training hundreds of fellows to be organizers. This effort included broad outreach across NIH, holding meetings, and actively involving fellows in union building. The large number of organizers helped divide and manage the workload. This extensive organizing culminated in a landmark vote to establish the NIH Fellows United union, marking a significant milestone as the first trainee union in a U.S. government agency and among the largest unions formed in 2023.

Never Giving Up!

For postdocs involved in advocacy or organizing efforts, resilience is key. Here are strategies to maintain your perseverance:

• Take care of yourself and make space to disengage from advocacy efforts periodically. Taking breaks also allows for reflection, learning from setbacks, and sustaining long-term efforts.
• Remember the significant positive changes advocacy and unionization have often brought to graduate students and postdocs. Personal motivations for involvement can serve as a beacon during challenging times.
• Avoid overcommitting. Balance between advocacy activities and postdoctoral responsibilities is important. Seek support when needed.
• Encourage fellow postdocs to participate in collective actions. A strong community sense not only fosters well-being but also amplifies the impact of advocacy efforts
• Maintain relationships with both intramural and extramural partners. Different perspectives and forms of support can enrich strategies and outcomes.
• Acknowledge that a single problem may have multiple solutions. Patience, openness to compromise, and exploration of all viable options are key in negotiations with allies. This approach facilitates perseverance through difficult discussions. Having this perspective can help through difficult negotiations.

Conclusion

Advocacy efforts led by generations of local and national postdoctoral leaders have had a resounding impact on the postdoc experience and inspired structural change in academia (Langin 2023a, Langin 2023b). Doing so has proved very fruitful to all of us, and some of us are even considering a career transition into advocacy and policy-making! By presenting the RIPEN framework and providing concrete examples of how to meet each of its conditions, we have sought to provide a roadmap to fellow postdoc advocacy leaders willing to invest time in improving the physical, social, professional, and financial well-being of their peers and the research community at large.

Azmi A. Ahmad, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Internal Medicine at the Yale School of Medicine.

Ishita S. Arora, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral associate between the Office for Women in Medicine and Science and the Department of Psychiatry’s Division of Prevention and Community Research at the Yale School of Medicine.

Stefano Cataldi, Ph.D., is an associate research scientist in the Department of Molecular Pharmacology and Therapeutics at Columbia University.

Jonathan Cottet, Ph.D., is a senior postdoctoral associate in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Elsy El Khoury, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral researcher in the Department of Chemistry at Columbia University.

Bénédicte Gnangnon, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral associate in the office of Professional Development & Postdoctoral Affairs at Boston University.

Travis Kinder, Ph.D., is a research fellow in the Department of Preclinical Innovation at the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences.

Rosa Lafer-Sousa, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Laboratory of Neuropsychology - Unit on Neurons, Circuits, and Behavior at the National Institute of Mental Health.

Marjorie Levinstein, Ph.D., is an IRTA postdoctoral fellow in the Biobehavioral Imaging and Molecular Neuropsychopharmacology Unit at the National Institute on Drug Abuse.

Lydia Majure, Ph.D., is a lead organizer in the UAW Organizing Department, and formerly a postdoctoral researcher in the Helen Wills Neuroscience Institute at UC Berkeley.

Lien Nguyen, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral fellow in the Department of Neurology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital.

Lukas Schmid, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral research fellow in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Mallory Smith, Ph.D., is the assistant director of Foundation Relations at the Fred Hutch Cancer Center.

Emilya Ventriglia, M.Sc., is a doctoral candidate in the Unit on Neuromodulation and Synaptic Integration at the National Institute on Mental Health.

Shen Wang, Ph.D., is a postdoctoral associate in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

While annual graduate degree recruitment programs are taken for granted, postdoc recruitment has been rare because postdocs are hired year-round due to variability in dissertation defense dates. In addition, graduate program admission is a collaborative decision, predicting the size of the student cohort based on the current and anticipated funding of multiple investigators within the department. Postdoc hiring, on the other hand, is usually one investigator's decision, and thus, more sensitive to individual faculty funding. Thus, academic investigators and institutional postdoctoral offices, faced with an unprecedented shortage of competitive candidates, have now turned to recruitment events to find postdocs to fill their open positions.

Organizing recruitment events, however, requires valuable time and resources, which can prevent smaller institutions or institutions without the proper funding and staff from hosting them. Additionally, for the prospective postdocs, attending in-person recruitment events is a significant investment of time away from research and family responsibilities, and financial commitment that can be a barrier to disadvantaged candidates. The pandemic resulted in a shift from face-to-face to virtual events, reducing the costs associated with organizing events and providing ease of communication and connection between potential collaborators. Another benefit is that virtual events are accessible to a larger and more diverse applicant pool, including international candidates. In response to hefty costs and the shift to virtual recruitment events, institutions with features in common, such as their geographic location, have started seeking the aid of their local colleagues and the convenience of technology to host collaborative events. These multi-institutional events bring additional value as they offer a one-stop shop for information and professional development.This helps prospective postdocs understand what faculty mentors are looking for and learn ways to strengthen their application.

Since 2021, three Chicago-area universities (Northwestern University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Illinois Chicago) have come together to host a virtual Chicagoland Postdoc Recruitment Initiative. The virtual event occurs over two days with panels and workshops to introduce prospective postdoctoral fellows to the institutions and to provide professional development. The applicants are also matched with several faculty members, with whom they do informational interviews over the next two weeks. Not only do these Chicago-area institutions set aside their competitive motives to host the initiative, but they have also been generous in sharing their process with other institutions by giving informative workshops at national meetings, such as the NPA Annual Conference and the AAMC GREAT Group Meeting.

Inspired by the Chicagoland Initiative, seven Philadelphia-area institutions came together to organize the Philadelphia Postdoc Preview, which took place on February 7 (Part I) and March 7 (Part II), 2023. The Philadelphia Postdoc Preview included the following Philadelphia-area institutions: Children's Hospital of Philadelphia, Drexel University, Fox Chase Cancer Center - Temple Health, Monell Chemical Senses Center, Thomas Jefferson University, Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs at the University of Pennsylvania, and The Wistar Institute. This initiative required immense coordination since the seven institutions varied in the number and research focus of their postdoctoral populations. However, these diverse qualities make for a wide range of opportunities for potential postdoctoral candidates.

Despite the competition to recruit postdoctoral fellows to Philadelphia, the institutions involved in the Philadelphia Postdoc Preview came together using postdoc-centric goals for the event, such as raising awareness of opportunities at each institution, calling attention to multi-institutional research projects, and highlighting the benefits of living and working in Philadelphia, especially as a dual career couple. The five-hour virtual Philadelphia Postdoc Preview highlighted the culture and research at each institution and provided information on how to navigate the different institutions’ websites to find opportunities and what the postdoctoral application process entails. Three panels included current and former postdoctoral fellows from all seven institutions, who discussed living and working in Philadelphia, being an international postdoc, and navigating the dual career couple process. The Philadelphia team had another touchpoint with candidates a month after their first event. All registrants were invited to a two-hour session where each institution had a breakout room. The candidates had the opportunity to interact with each institution's administrators and HR representatives to learn more specific information about faculty, research, open positions, and employment benefits.

The preview attracted 155 registrants from graduate students, current postdocs, and university administrators, of which 86% attended Part I of the event and 23% attended Part II. Approximately 40% of the participants were looking for immediate placement, while the rest were looking to apply in 6-12 months. Planning committee members followed up with numerous participants, connected them with faculty at their institutions, and encouraged them to apply for open positions. While recruitment can be a lengthy process, thus far, six participants accepted postdoctoral positions at our institutions. Due to the inaugural event's success, the Philadelphia Postdoc Preview was held for a second time on February 6, 2024 (Part I) and February 20, 2024 (Part II).

The preview's collaborative nature benefits prospective postdocs, faculty, and administrators alike. Prospective postdocs had a one-stop shop for information about multiple institutions in a large city, saving time and allowing side-by-side comparisons, which can be especially beneficial for those conducting a dual career search. Faculty members obtained a database of potential applicants, allowing them to concentrate recruitment efforts directly on those interested in particular research disciplines. The administrative team at each institution benefitted from sharing the resources, responsibilities, and costs of planning the event while attracting a greater attendee number since the event focused on multiple institutions. They also gained collaborators, built connections that lasted beyond the event and were instrumental in other postdoc administration discussions around institutional policies and supporting postdoc communities.

The planning committee members collaborated on workshops at the NPA Annual Conference and AAMC GREAT to share resources and information about the preview with the postdoctoral community to continue paying it forward. These workshops helped postdoc administrators think beyond geography, such as cancer centers and other research-focused institutions, minority-serving institutions, and national laboratories, in finding collaborating institutions. As a result of the workshops by both Chicagoland and Philadelphia Postdoc Preview teams, more institutions have collaborated to host postdoc recruitment events. These events provide professional development opportunities that help prospective postdocs prepare their application packages and stand out from the competition while finding the best possible fit. We encourage prospective postdocs to attend many such events as one-stop shops to discover and compare multiple institutions and opportunities in a short period of time. This will allow them to be selective in finding a position that fits their needs and the needs of their family and ensure they LOVE their postdoc journey.

Beckett Schneider is an undergraduate English student at Drexel University. A current copywriter and content strategist at Drexel's Office of the Provost, Schneider worked as a communications and marketing assistant at the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs from April 2023 to September 2023 as part of Drexel's cooperative education (co-op) program.

Natalie Chernets, Ph.D., is the director of postdoctoral affairs and professional development at Drexel University. She is a member of the Group on Research, Education, and Training (GREAT) Postdoctoral Training Section Committee of the American Association for Medical Colleges.

Olivia Chesniak, Ph.D., is the academic programs officer at Children's Hospital of Philadelphia Research Institute.

Ana-Rita Mayol-Cabassa, Ph.D., is the administrative director of the Biomedical Postdoctoral Programs at the University of Pennsylvania Perelman School of Medicine.

Valentina Parma, Ph.D., is director of academic affairs and assistant member at the Monell Chemical Senses Center.

Amanda Purdy, Ph.D., is the associate chief academic officer and director of the Postdoc and Graduate Student Program at Fox Chase Cancer Center.

Uma Sajjan, Ph.D., is the director of postdoctoral affairs at Lewis Katz School of Medicine at Temple Health.

Kristy Shuda McGuire, Ph.D., is the dean of biomedical studies at The Wistar Institute.

Lisa Kozlowski, Ph.D., is the associate dean for student and postdoctoral affairs in Jefferson College of Life Sciences.