October 19, 2020

Top Tier: Postdoctoral Committee

Meeting Minutes

Monday, Oct 19 2020

Present: Barbara St Pierre Schneider, Alexander Barzilov, Hong Sun, Kenneth Varner, Dave Schwartz, David Cappelli, Jessica Word, Elena Gandia Garcia, Joel Snyder, Kim Dawes, Rafael Oganesyan, Zihui Ma, Jennifer Rennels, Qing Wu, Kim Dawes, Valarie Burke, Emily Lin, Susanna Newbury,

Excused: Laura Kruskall, Nevena Cvijetic,

Absent: 

• 1. Committee Charge - Sub-committee sign-up

     1. Distribute and promote the new PostDoc Handbook (Valarie)

        1. Postdoctoral Handbook update

           1. Share the new Postdoc Handbook:

              1. UNLV Today

              2. Grad Faculty email

              3. Emails to current Postdocs and current Postdoc Advisors

     2. Create a repository of successful proposals for faculty interested in obtaining postdoc funding

• • • 1. Chair, Barbara St Pierre Schneider, Professor, Nursing

      2. Hong Sun, Associate Professor, Chemistry & Biochemistry

      3. Qing Wu, Associate Professor, Personalized Medicine, College of Sciences; Epidemiology and  Biostatistics, School of Public health

      4. David Cappelli, Professor and Associate Dean Community Engagement, Dental Medicine

      5. Alexander Barzilov

      6. Valarie will ask Bri about GA 

• 1. 3. Increase network and involvement with the National Postdoctoral Association - i.e. perhaps obtain funding from UNLV to attend the national conference. (Valarie)

     4. Implement comprehensive communications plans to highlight the impactful work being done by postdoctoral scholars. 

• • • 1. Chair, Nevena Cvijetic, Graduate College

      2. Rafael Oganesyan, Program Manager, Office of Undergraduate Research

      3. Kim Dawes, Benefits Specialist, Human Resources

      4. David G. Schwartz, Associate Vice Provost, Office of Faculty Affairs

      5. Suzy Newbury, Associate Professor of Art History, Dept. of Art

      6. Jessica Word

      7. Jennifer Rennels, Professor, Psychology

• 1. 5. Collaborate with Research and Economic Development and OSP to increase the number of grant proposals that fund doctoral students and postdoctoral scholars. 

• • • 1. Chair, Valarie Burke, Assistant Dean of Graduate Student Services, Graduate College 

      2. Elena, Gandía García, Associate Professor-in-Residence, WLC

      3. Mathew Sunil, Varre, Doctoral student & GPSA Student Rep, GPSA

      4. Joel Snyder, Professor and Director of the Neuroscience Ph.D. Program, Psychology

      5. Zihui Ma, Assistant Professor in Residence, Hospitality. 

      6. First Name, Last Name, Title, Department

      7. First Name, Last Name, Title, Department

      8. First Name, Last Name, Title, Department

      9. First Name, Last Name, Title, Department

• 1. 6. Committees for Spring 2021

• • • 1. Publish annual post-survey reports and de-identified results.

      2. Chair, Valarie Burke, Assistant Dean of Graduate Student Services, Graduate College 

      3. Jessica Soria, GA for Graduate College Student Services

• 1. 7. Additional projects and engagement at the will of the Committee and as need arises.

  2. From September’s Meeting - committee discussion/Ideas:

• • 1. Postdocs looking for their own funding (Joel)

    2. How to write a postdoc fellowship

    3. Showing how postdocs can be funded (Joel)

    4. Challenges 

       1. Paying postdocs well - to be competitive and recruit them to UNLV

       2. President/campus postdoc incentive

          1. Awarded a grant, UNLV offers an allocated amount toward salary too

    5. Moving Evals to Folio?

• • • 1. Cons: Time consuming, doesn’t follow PD after they leave UNLV

      2. Pro: Great experience for PD who want to go into academia; training opportunity; CV required; download/take with you what you load into Folio; has different categories - to use it as a database

      3. Can we have postdocs just opt in to use?