SEEDS Distinguished Lecturer, JoAnn Trejo

J Trejo

On Feb 16, JoAnn Trejo, UC San Diego, presented two talks, "Regulation of Protease-activated Receptor Signaling and Trafficking" and "Diversity in Science: The Importance of Mentoring". Download her excellent article on mentoring.

Research Lecture

Lunch with graduate students and postdocs

Consultation with Dr. Sandra Lemmon

Evening mentoring event at Dr. Mary Lou King's home

Evening mentoring event over dinner
Below read participant answers to the following questions.
What was the most significant thing you learned today?
Was this event useful to you, and if so, how?
Was this event what you expected? Please elaborate.
Did this event provide solid hints for your grant writing? Please elaborate.
How might this event be improved in the future?

What was the most significant thing you learned today?

• How to survive a career in science
• Negotiating salary and promotion Grantsmanship points
• Tips on negotiating with your chair
• Scientific approach to manage a scientific environment with diversified subjects
• Tips about grant writing
• Strategies for dealing with laboratory/mentor/colleague issues
• I learned lots about JoAnn but also about the other faculty. (ie. Their concerns, problems, research)
• This event is good, not only to learn about the speaker but also to meet other faculty.
• Cooperation, collaboration, collegiality
• Negotiations, salary, space promotions.
• Hints on how and when to negotiate.Also, know your rights before meeting to negotiate.
• Excellent tips on how to run a lab
• Great personal experience of a successful female faculty.
• Emphasis on building an independent career.
• How to negotiate and things I should watch for when applying for positions.
• Lab administration skills.

 

Was this event useful to you? Please elaborate.

• Yes, because it helped me to know the people that are working at UM in different fields
• Yes
• Yes
• I feel it helped to build a good insight in the vision of scientific management.
• I really thank you for arranging this event and would like to participate in this type of event in the future
• Yes
• Yes, very much
• Yes, exchange of ideas and thoughts is always eye opening
• Yes, chalk talks.
• Talk about grants, specific aims, have some mechanism in place such as experienced people available to discuss your grant when you’re writing it.
• Absolutely
• Very
• Yes
• Yes, it will certainly help me in my career development.
• I learned about several things I should watch out for when applying for jobs and negotiation

 

Was the event what you expected? Please elaborate.

• Yes, it had all the elements.
• It could be used as tools to have a successful scientific career (ie. Grant writing, paper submission, dealing with people in your surrounding)
• Great opportunity to learn about how university determines salary and promotion
• Better.
• The atmosphere was relaxed and friendly.
• We got to talk about a lot of things very freely
• One cannot expect- it is a more specific event though it covered very specific questions.
• In general it was great
• It was much better than I expected.
• The casual environment and warm guests made the meeting comfortable.
• All people were approachable and came up with useful ideas
• Yes, I liked to hear about the experiences of women faculty.
• I wished when I was ready to get my position or just after I started, I learned things that I am learning at these events
• More than what was expected
• Yes, there was a good interaction between the people present.
• We could discuss our concerns.
• I wish we had this more often and would have more time to discuss specific issues.
• Yes
• Yes even better.
• Great advice on writing grants
• Yes, I actually liked it better this time.
• I think the setting of everyone sitting by the same table at dinner helped communication and interaction

Did this event provide solid hints useful for your grant writing? Please elaborate.

• Yes, the basics of making a solid informative and well written grant that is to the point.
• It was great
• Yes, the importance of significance paragraph, specific aims page
• No.
• Yes, the main emphasis and highlight on the one which needed to be to make a successful grant writing
• Yes, seeing the hectic grant thing from a relaxed point of view made things look more manageable, specifically on how to approach aims in a simpler way and make them more attractive
• No.
• Yes, I applaud the idea of mentoring young scientist.
• Short presentations like power point with a few senor members, questions.That will help
• Yes, it is always useful to hear the opinion of other people, especially when these people are more experienced than you are.
• There is always new information that you can apply.
• Yes
• Yes, chalk talks and reviews of small sections are a great idea
• Some what, we actually came up with some ideas to develop mentoring events related to grant writing and reviewing process

 

How might this event be improved in the future?

• Get students involved.
• Also try and get more post docs!
• This is the best SEEDS event that I have seen so far
• The way it operated was good.
• I appreciate it whole heartedly for arranging close interactions with dinner.
• Probably with an agenda so one can bring specific ideas in advance
• I think it is good like it is.
• Another event could be what we talked about, something related with writing grants
• I would like to see more scientist-clinicians collaborations.
• Forced from the above, from the highest level.
• That will increase a likelihood of getting funding at this time when translational research is so high at the NIH scale
• Maybe issues to be discussed (specific issues) could be suggested before hand and actual suggestions would be written to be “voted” from everyone Excellent event.
• I always learn a lot
• Talk about individual’s career plan. (ie. What salary do you make? What should you aim for next year?)
• As I participated in 2 of these dinners, I feel like its important to select a guest that will communicate easily like Dr. Trejo. Very nice guest with great advice to give.