Dr. Doris Rubio is Professor of Medicine, Biomedical Informatics, Biostatistics, and Clinical & Translational Science. She is the Assistant Vice Chancellor for Clinical Research Education and Training, Health Sciences and directs the Institute for Clinical Research Education (ICRE). The ICRE has 7 degree programs and 15 career development programs for clinical and translational science researchers and medical educators. The ICRE is also home to the KL2, TL1, Workforce Development, and Team Science for our Clinical and Translational Science Institute. Dr. Rubio has been particularly committed to the mentorship and development of faculty of color and women in science. With the goal of addressing the limited number of people who are underrepresented in science, she started the LEADS (Leading Emerging and Diverse Scientists to Success) program (R25GM116740), which is a collaboration with nine Minority Serving Institutions to launch the research careers of junior investigators. Additionally, she has a U01 under the NIH’s Diversity Program Consortium and the National Research Mentoring Network to test an intervention across 25 CTSAs for underrepresented biomedical researchers to retain them in research careers (U01GM132133). Among other honors, she has received the Educator of the Year Award from the Association for Clinical and Translational Science (ACTS) in 2016 and the ACTS Award for Contributing to the Diversity and Inclusiveness of the Translational Research Workforce in 2021. She also was awarded the Chancellor’s Distinguished Public Service Award in 2021 given her work on diversifying the workforce both locally and nationally.
Education & Training
- BS, Florida Atlantic University, 1988
- MS, Florida International University, 1991
- PhD, Washington University, 1996
Representative Publications
Mayowski C, Meagher EA, Althouse AD, Patino-Sutton C, Thakar MS, Welch JL, Rubio DM, White GE. Continued impact of COVID-19 pandemic on clinical and translational science early-career researchers. J Clin Transl Sci. 2023; 7(1):e7.
The COVID-19 pandemic had an immediate impact on the lives and work of early-career researchers. We leveraged a cluster-randomized trial and compared survey data collected over two timepoints to explore whether tehse impacts persisted.
Talbert PY, Perry G, Ricks-Santi I, Soto de Laurido LE, Shaheen M, Seto T, Kumar D, Quarshie A, Thakar M, Rubio DM. Challenges and strategies of successful mentoring: The persepctive of LEADS scholars and mentors from minority serving institutions. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Jun 7; 18(11).
Mentoring continues to be a salient conversation in academia among junior and senior faculty and administrators. Mentors provide guidance and structure to junior faculty so they can meet their academic and professional goals. Mentors also convey skills in balancing life and academic pursuits. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive study was to provide additional insight from a training program called Leading Emerging and Diverse Scientists to Success (LEADS) regarding successful strategies and challenges of mentoring relating to lessons learned from the scholars and mentees' perspective.
White GE, Proulx CN, Murrell AJ, Rubio DM. Recruiting underrepresented individuals in a double pandemic: Lessons learned in a randomized control trial. J Clin Transl Sci. 2021; 5(1):e185.
The Building Up Trial is a cluster-randomized trial that aims to address the issue of the leaker career pathway for underrepresented (UR) faculty in biomedical fields. That target sample size for this study was 208 postdoctoral fellows or early-career faculty across 26 predominantly white institutions. Challenges and adaptations are described.
Norman MK, Mayowski CA, Wendell SK, Forlenza MJ, Proulx CN, Rubio DM. Delivering what we PROMISED: Outcomes of a coaching and leadership fellowship for mentors of underrepresented mentees. Int J Environ Res Public Health. 2021 Apr 30; 18(9).
We developed a 1-year fellowship training program, PROMISED, designed to help mentors promote career self-authorship and leadership among their UR mentees. These results provide evidence that career coaching and leadership training offer an effective supplement to traditional mentor training and that mentors can incorporate these skills effectively into their mentoring practice.
Click here for a more complete bibliography of Dr. Rubio’s works.
Research Interests
- Diversifty, equity, and inclusion
- Career development
- Mentoring
- Leadership training