Meredith Bond, Ph.D., of CSU Appointed to National Biomedical Mentorship Task Force

Dean of College of Sciences and Health Professions selected by Association for Academic Minority Physicians to serve on Academic Leadership Forum

Meredith Bond, Ph.D., dean of the College of Sciences and Health Professions at Cleveland State University, has been selected to help guide a new initiative aimed at increasing the diversity of the biomedical workforce by improving mentorship opportunities.

Dr. Bond is one of a dozen distinguished educators from across the United States who have been appointed by the Association for Academic Minority Physicians (AAMP) to the Academic Leadership Forum (ALF). A key goal of the AAMP is to boost the number of underrepresented minorities in the biomedical field. In pursuit of this objective, Dr. Bond and her fellow ALF members will develop best practices for biomedical mentoring programs.

The ALF is part of the National Research Mentoring Network, a National Institutes of Health-funded initiative. Dr. Bond's appointment to the ALF, effective July 1, runs through June 2017.

"I am excited and honored to serve on the Academic Leadership Forum," Dr. Bond said. "Mentoring provides a pathway toward a biomedical workforce that will better reflect the diversity of the population at large, which in turn will lead to fewer health disparities."

Dr. Bond herself serves as a mentor to students in the NEOMED-CSU Partnership for Urban Health, a joint venture between Northeast Ohio Medical University and Cleveland State University for training a diverse health-care workforce attuned to the needs of city neighborhoods. Dr. Bond was the co-principal investigator of an Urban Universities for HEALTH grant from the National Institutes of Health and the American Association of Medical Colleges in support of the NEOMED-CSU Partnership, which has offices in CSU's new Center for Innovation in Medical Professions.