Expanding the landscape of opportunity: Professional societies support early-career researchers through community programming and peer coaching

Abstract

Weaving the future of the field of comparative psychology is dependent on the career advancement of early-career scientists. Despite concerted efforts to increase diversity in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics, scholars from marginalized groups are disproportionately underrepresented in the field-especially at advanced career stages. New approaches to sponsorship, mentoring, and community building are necessary to retain talent from marginalized communities and to create a culture and a system where all individuals can thrive. We describe the unique and supportive role of senior women scientists united through a professional society in initiating peer coaching circles to facilitate the success of a diverse cohort of early-career women scientists. We offer our experiences with the Weaving the Future of Animal Behavior program as a case study that illustrates the cascading impacts of professional societies investing in the success and career development of marginalized scholars. We focus on our peer coaching circle experience and share the products and outcomes after 2 years of meeting. Peer coaching transformed us from a group of loosely organized, anxious individuals into a collective of empowered agents of change with an enhanced sense of belonging. We end by presenting recommendations to institutions seeking to expand the landscape of opportunities to other marginalized scholars. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2021 APA, all rights reserved).

Figure 1

Growth Network Note. Some of the institutional support that we received to help members of our POP circle thrive, and the individuals and institutions who were affiliated with these support mechanisms. There is overlap in membership of individuals who helped fill these needs. Thus, there were natural institutional alliances, which likely aided in maintaining momentum and providing continuous support throughout the life cycle of the group. This diagram is adapted from Claire Horner-Devine’s Counterspace Consulting LLC.

Figure 2

POP Circle Structure Note: Schematic of the mechanics of a POP Circle session, illustrating the three rotating roles and the 10-minute rotation between each POP Circle member’s focal ‘work time’, alongside the three core tenets which have contributed to a sustainable and supportive group dynamic amongst participants.

Figure 3

POP Circle Initial and Current Themes Note. Initial themes on starting POP Circles compared to current themes, illustrating how members of our POP Circle started as strangers but transitioned to supporters and friends with a high level of trust. This transition allowed us to take collective action and become agents of change in our own careers but also in much broader impacts on our professional society and our field of research. The first word cloud represents themes from our first 8 months of meeting. The second word cloud represents themes from after 21 months of meeting.