In writing your ITG application, you may find it helpful to outline how faculty and trainees will be supported to ensure a high quality and inclusive research training experience. Sessions, workshops, and programs are held annually to meet the career development needs of trainees through senior investigators across the university who are participating on NIH institutional training grant programs. These, as well as additional resources listed below, may be useful to consider as components of your design.
Please note that training grants have new expectations for faculty mentor training:
See NIH T32 Parent Award Section IV: Program Faculty»
For Faculty:
- Anti-Racist Pedagogy Workshop
Anti-Racist Pedagogy Workshop: This workshop introduces NIH training grant faculty to the scholarship of anti-racist pedagogy. In this interactive session, faculty learn to incorporate anti-racist pedagogy in your classroom and teaching practices. Participants have the opportunity to:
- Consider core concepts and frameworks of anti-racist pedagogy.
- Reflect on the practices of engaging with anti-racist pedagogy.
- Engage with strategies for supporting and applying anti-racist practices and frameworks.
This session is held every spring and is led by Sera Mathew, PhD, Director for Equitable and Inclusive Teaching, University Center for Teaching and Learning, and Lizette Munoz, PhD, Teaching and Learning Consultant, University Center for Teaching and Learning.
2025 Schedule Coming Soon!
- Certificate in Organizational Leadership
The Certificate in Organization Leadership and Ethics (COLE), offered through the Faculty and Staff Development Program (FSDP), is a series of workshops that are designed for faculty and staff supervisors and administrators who want to maximize their ability to have impact as ethical leaders within their unit, department or overall workplace. Workshops are offered on a rotating basis each fall and spring. The nine workshop topics are:
- Mentoring and Leading Others
- Situational Leadership: Adapting Your Leadership Style for Optimal Results
- The Ethical Use of Power
- Solving Problems and Ethical Dilemmas
- Principles and Practices of Servant Leadership
- Leadership and Effective Talent Development
- Building Social Capital by Managing Relationships, Conflict and Incivility in the Workplace
- The Changing American Workplace: Rights, Responsibilities, and Challenges
- Silence (Not Golden): Dissent and Consensus in the Workplace
Workshops can be taken in any sequence over a five-year period. Faculty and staff can take just one or more workshops based on interest.
- Mentoring and Advising Summit
At the University of Pittsburgh, advising and mentoring are integral to the educational mission as we advocate for collaborative and holistic advising interactions. Annual Summits cultivate a strong culture of student success and inclusion as mentors, advisors, coaches, and administrators from around the globe convene to discuss new trends and best practices in mentoring and advising. Revisit past Mentoring and Advising Summits and read about the upcoming Mentoring and Advising Summit here. This is an excellent resource for PIs to connect in with a vibrant community focused on effective and equitable mentoring and advising that can infuse proposals with state-of-the art approaches.
- University Center for Teaching and Learning
The University Center for Teaching & Learning (UCTL) is dedicated to fostering excellence in teaching and enhancing the learning experience for students. The center provides faculty and staff with innovative tools, resources, and professional development opportunities to support effective teaching practices. With expertise in instructional design, technology integration, assessment strategies, and diversity-focused pedagogies, the center supports faculty in providing inclusive and engaging learning environments. By collaborating with educators across disciplines, it aims to advance the university’s mission of delivering high-quality, student-centered learning experiences. PIs might be particularly interested in the variety of workshops and events that UCTL hosts which could be useful to document in various traineeship applications. Not seeing what you are looking for? Submit a request for consultation to discuss your needs.
- University of Pittsburgh Mentoring Academy
The Office of the Provost Center for Mentoring sponsors a Mentoring Academy, demonstrating an institutional commitment to best practices in mentoring, which is presented by facilitators trained through the nationally-recognized Center for the Improvement of Mentored Experiences in Research. This can help address the NIH’s requirements for mentor training. Contact Joseph C. Ayoob, PhD, for more information.
In the Fall and Spring, they have a full slate of training (6.5 hours over 3 sessions) that covers 8 mentoring competencies.
- Session 1 is focused on foundational relationship building competencies (intro to mentoring, effective communication, aligning expectations, and assessing understanding.
- Session 2 is focused exclusively on DEI.
- Session 3 covers promoting professional development, fostering independence, and building a mentoring philosophy/plan.
By request, Dr. Ayoob can also work with you to schedule a department/program-specific training/series at your location.
For Trainees:
- Graduate Courses for Postdoctoral Trainees
- Business Courses - Graduate Level
- University of Pittsburgh Katz Graduate School of Business MBA courses that are specifically designed for postdocs with classes offered in the evenings and weekends, covering essential managerial and communication skills needed in any career.
- Completion of four courses meets the requirements for a micro-credential “Leading People in Organizations.”
- Introduction to Grant Writing for Postdoctoral Trainees
- This course satisfies the professional development requirements of T32-suppported trainees and has, as an outcome, a complete draft of their own grant application.
- Science Communications and Professional Development (EOH 3110)
- This experiential learning course provides graduate students in the environmental health sciences an introduction to major skills in professional development and effective science communication including strategic planning, goal setting and prioritization, network building, building collective resilience and self-accountability practices. Students gain skills in organization and time management, developing a strategic career plan, enhancing their network of sponsors and mentors, crafting long- and short-term personal and professional goals aided by their Individual Development Plan (IDP), mapping networks of support, and identifying any gaps and developing plans to address those gaps.
- Biostatistics Courses in the School of Public Health:
- Pitt has graduate level biostatistics courses that are appropriate for T32-supported trainees. Contact oacdgradcourses@pitt.edu for more information.
- Introduction to Statistical Methods (BIOST 2041): Discusses techniques for the application of statistical theory to actual data. Topics include probability theory, estimation of parameters, and tests of hypothesis for both the discrete and continuous case.
- Biostatistical Methods (BIOST 2039): This course is an introductory biostatistics methods course for biostatistics graduate students, other quantitative public health students, and health career professionals who will make use of statistical methods in research projects, interpreting literature and possibly develop new biostatistical methods in the future. This class is intended for students needing a more research-oriented approach than that provided in BIOST 2011 and an approach with a greater emphasis on mathematical foundation than provided in BIOST 2041. Students in BIOST 2039 are expected to have a working knowledge of calculus, including multivariable differentiation and integration. Topics covered in this course include exploratory and descriptive analyses, probability, estimation and hypothesis testing. One and two sample problems will be considered for both continuous and discrete variables. ANOVA, regression, correlation and nonparametric methods will be discussed. R will be used extensively for data analysis.
- Business Courses - Graduate Level
- Orientation Events
These orientations are designed to be a call to action for doctoral students and postdoctoral trainees to take ownership of their career planning and professional development in the same way that they are responsible for their scholarly development. Receive a broad overview of career development resources available at the University, as well as start to build a framework for future career planning.
- Orientation to Career Development for Doctoral Trainees: A Developmental Approach to Professional Training
- Sessions are offered within each school of the health sciences as part of their seminar series.
- Postdoctoral Orientation to Career Development Seminar
- Postdocs appointed in any of the six schools of the health sciences (dental medicine, health and rehabilitation sciences, medicine, nursing, pharmacy, and public health) are required to attend this seminar within the first three months of their appointments. Details are included in their appointment letter, and they will receive a personal email invitation from the Center for Postdoctoral Affairs in the Health Sciences within the first month of their appointment. These interactive 2.5-hour orientations are held monthly from 1-3:30pm.
- Orientation to Career Development for Doctoral Trainees: A Developmental Approach to Professional Training
- Research Study Design Workshops
- Foundations of Quantitative Study Designs
- This workshop will walk you through the conceptualization and design process of a quantitative study to ensure that you have a well-though-out study design that is critical for successful analysis and interpretation.
- Introduction to Mixed Methods Research
- In this workshop, hear an overview of mixed methods research including its definition, rationales for using it, underlying philosophical assumptions and basic designs.
- In this workshop, hear an overview of mixed methods research including its definition, rationales for using it, underlying philosophical assumptions and basic designs.
- Foundations of Quantitative Study Designs
- Resources
- The Writing Center at Pitt offers in-person and virtual writing coaching appointments to Pitt graduate students, postdocs, and faculty. Trainees can get advice on dissertations, manuscripts, the narrative portions of grant applications, and professional writing such as cover letters, resumes, and CVs. Writing consultants can work with trainees at any stage of the process—from beginning a writing project to the final read through before submission, and all points in between. Visit their webpage to learn more and schedule an appointment.
- The Department of Communication has an Oral Comm Lab that provides individual and small-group instruction to help students and postdocs refine their ability to articulate ideas and gain an understanding of the art of public discourse.
- Wellness resources for trainees:
- Pitt graduate students have access to the Pillars of Well-Being resources to help them thrive.
- Pitt postdocs have access to a wide range of wellness resources through Pitt's Wellness for Life program.
- Workshop Series
- Essential Professional Skills Series
- This intentionally-designed series blends OACD programming with top-rated virtual content to give Pitt trainees access to an expanded set of sessions covering skills that all doctoral students and postdoctoral trainees should learn as an essential part of your professional development (see this stage in the ADAPT model for more information). This series covers a range of topics critical to your success and the foundational content applies across all disciplines.
- Career Development Series
- This intentionally-designed series blends OACD programming with top-rated virtual content to give advanced doctoral students and postdoctoral trainees at Pitt access to an expanded set of sessions covering a variety of career development skills, career options, and key transitional steps that will help you identify, prepare for, and succeed in landing the next step of your career (see the career-specific stage and the career transition stage of the ADAPT model for more information).
- Health Sciences Research Series
- A series of research-specific workshops are scheduled annually to meet the career development needs of postdoctoral trainees through senior investigators across the health sciences. Sessions are all currently being held via Zoom.
- Pitt PACT Speaker Series
- Pitt Alumni Connecting with Trainees, or PACT, is a way for Pitt trainees to engage with former graduate students and postdoctoral trainees from the University of Pittsburgh's Schools of the Health Sciences who are involved, lead by example, and are ready to help guide you to even greater accomplishments. Through this new program, the OACD provides opportunities for you to meet with alumni who are out there succeeding in a diversity of career paths available to you!
- Essential Professional Skills Series