March 16, 2007

Claflin Award helps women establish scientific careers

A review of the first nine years of the Claflin Distinguished Scholar Awards, which provide research funding to women junior faculty at the MGH, finds the program has helped recipients stay in academic research and establish the groundwork for securing future research funding. The report from a team at the MGH Office of Women's Careers (OWC) and published in the Feb. 27 Archives of Internal Medicine finds that 90 percent of recipients remained at the MGH, and more than half received academic promotions at Harvard Medical School (HMS), an accomplishment that relies heavily on research productivity.

"These findings suggest that even limited bridge funding during particularly vulnerable years of women's careers can help them stay in academic medicine and enjoy future research success," says Nancy Tarbell, MD, director of the Center for Faculty Development and the OWC and the paper's senior author. "This program was a bold initiative to support women faculty, and its success speaks volumes about the MGH's leadership in this critical issue."

The program is named in recognition of Jane Claflin, an MGH honorary trustee who led the hospital's Women in Academic Medicine Committee from 1993 to 1997 and continues as the group's co-chair.

Established in 1997, the awards provide competitive, two-year grants to women researchers who have responsibility for the care of young children. The grant was originally $30,000 per year for two years and was increased to $50,000 per year in 2006. Two awards were made during each of the first four years; the number
of awards increased to four in 2001 and six in 2002.

Of the award's 40 recipients, 36 are still at MGH, and 22 have received HMS
promotions. The grants made from 1997 to 2004 cost the MGH $2.1 million, but recipients from those years still at MGH - 32 of an original 35 — subsequently procured more than $51 million in outside research funding. In response to a survey, awardees from those early years reported numerous research publications, presentations and related honors during the following years and also described the award's direct positive impact on their career development — including improving their impression of the hospital's commitment to their careers and their own outlook on their professional prospects.

One of the 1999 recipients was Karen K. Miller, MD, MGH Neuroendocrine Unit. At the time of her award, Miller had a 2-year-old and was expecting another child. She also had recently received an NIH grant that would not cover the full costs of her study into the effects of testosterone on bone density and body composition in women with anorexia nervosa. Funds provided by the Claflin award allowed Miller to hire a research assistant, whose presence became even more critical when complications around Miller's second delivery kept her away from work much longer than anticipated. In the years since, she has been promoted from instructor to assistant professor and recently received her first major NIH grant as an independent investigator.

"The Claflin award came at a time in my career when it was really critical to continue getting my work done — something that probably would not have been possible without that support — and to produce papers that would be published in high-quality journals," Miller says. "At a time when demands on me personally were particularly high, the award enabled me to get through with my academic career potential intact."

Co-authors of the Archives of Internal Medicine report are lead author Reshma Jagsi, MD, DPhil, now at the University of Michigan Medical School, and Joan Butterton, MD, MGH Infectious Disease, and Rebecca Starr, MBA, MSW, formerly OWC administrative director. The 2007 recipients of the Claflin Awards will be announced in the coming weeks, and a celebration of the program's 10th anniversary is being planned for June 21. For more information on the Claflin Awards Program, contact the Office of Women's Careers at (617) 724-5229.