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Article Type

Professional Proficiency

Article Abstract

Related Issue:

The graduate enrollment management (GEM) landscape is rapidly changing as faculty and administrators recognize biases that may affect the graduate admissions process. At the same time, there is growing recognition and increased effort to advance inclusive excellence in higher education. Much of this work has been done at the undergraduate level and is only now beginning to reach graduate programs. The purpose of this article is to (i) discuss evidence for the need for change in the graduate admissions process, (ii) describe the development of a portfolio review protocol for graduate admissions in programs at a research university, and (iii) highlight a pilot program in which programs developed portfolio review processes and made admissions decisions using these protocols.

Author(s)

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Ambika Mathur is Associate Provost, Office of Scientific Training, Workforce Development and Diversity; Dean, Graduate School; and Professor of Pediatrics. She served as Associate Dean, first Director of the Wayne State University M.D./Ph.D. program, first Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs, founding Director of Wayne Med Direct program, and is PI of both the NIH-funded WSU-BEST Program and the NIH-funded ReBUILDetroit Program that support the development of underrepresented students who seek to pursue careers in biomedical research.

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Annmarie Cano is Associate Provost for Faculty Development and Faculty Success and Professor of Psychology at Wayne State University. She leads professional and leadership development, mentoring, and recognition programs for faculty and academic staff. In her previous role as Associate Dean in the Graduate School, she provided oversight of graduate enrollment management and stragegies to improve equity, diversity, and inclusion in the graduate student body. She is the Wayne State co-PI of the NSF-funded Michigan Alliance for Graduate Education and the Professoriate, an NSF program aimed at diversifying the professoriate. She earned her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Princeton University and her master’s and doctoral degrees in clinical psychology from Stony Brook University.

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Marcus Dickson is Professor of Industrial/Organizational Psychology at Wayne State University, where he directs the doctoral and terminal master’s degree programs and the applied research and consulting training program. He received his bachelor’s degree in psychology from West Virginia Wesleyan College and his master’s and doctoral degrees in industrial/organizational psychology from the University of Maryland. His work focuses on leadership across cultures as well as reducing adverse impact in personnel selection.

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Larry H. Matherly is the Division Chief for Basic Science and Director of the Cancer Biology Graduate Program in the Department of Oncology at Wayne State University. He also serves as the Associate Center Director of Basic Science at the Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute. As Director of the Ph.D. Program in Cancer Biology, he oversees all aspects of the training program including recruiting, curriculum, and career development. Since 2006, he has served as PI on a T32 training grant in cancer biology from NIH that supports six Ph.D. students and is currently in its 31st year.

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Caroline Maun is Associate Professor and Interim Chair of the Department of English at Wayne State University. As Graduate Director, she instituted practices and policies to enhance inclusive excellence such as portfolio review of Ph.D. applicants, enhancing alumni networks to recruit underrepresented students, and individualized recruiting visits for applicants. She earned a B.A. in English from Eckerd College, an M.A. in English from North Carolina State University, and a Ph.D. in English from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

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Anne Victoria Neale is Professor and Vice Chair of Public Health Sciences in the Wayne State University Department of Family Medicine and Public Health Sciences, where she is also the Chair of the MPH Admissions Committee. She is the Deputy Editor of the Journal of the American Board of Family Medicine. Neale received AHRQ-funded awards to build the evidence base of primary care and support collaborations among practice-based research networks. She earned a Ph.D. in social psychology from Wayne State University and an M.P.H. from the University of Texas Health Science Center, Houston.

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