The Emerging Equity Scholars Program: A belonging intervention to address othering in research careers
Key Points
- Impact statement: This paper presents detailed information about an innovative belonging intervention that has the potential to expand how predominately white institutions think about and provide mentorship in ways that support scholars from othered groups to excel and flourish as leaders in their fields.
- The Emerging Equity Scholars program is a mentorship and belonging initiative for early-career scholars from marginalized and historically excluded groups in research careers. It emphasizes holistic support, fostering well-being, equity-centered research, and inclusivity within predominantly white institutions.
- The program consists of five modules, each with a specific theme (e.g., Rest, Reimagine, Grow). Scholars are paired with both a well-being mentor and a research mentor, supporting them in professional and personal development, with an emphasis on well-being practices, community building, and power-sharing.
- The pilot program highlighted the importance of a supportive community for both mentors and scholars, leading to adaptations for future cohorts. It shows promise as a model for systemic change in research institutions by integrating belonging and equity practices into traditional mentorship frameworks.
Abstract
Emerging scholars from groups that have been historically excluded from and are currently othered in research careers are vital to developing innovative approaches to studying and remedying the world’s most challenging equity and social justice issues. In predominantly white institutions, scholars from othered groups may feel tokenized and pressured to conform to the status quo if employers do not commit to support them in thriving. The Emerging Equity Scholars (EES) program is a belonging intervention created for people from othered groups embarking upon professional research careers that was piloted from 2022 to 2023 at RTI International. This paper explains EES’s conception of holistic mentorship, which builds belonging by focusing on well-being, equity-centered research, community building, honoring diverse perspectives and lived expertise, and sharing power and resources. We describe how EES centers well-being by cultivating practices among program participants that support mindfulness, healing, and joy, and discuss EES’s research mentorship strategies that recognize emerging scholars’ knowledge, honor their experiences, and support their exploration of novel research approaches. We conclude with reflections from pilot participants about how EES cultivates a sense of belonging within the program, the broader work environment, and the field of research, and how the EES program will be adapted for future cohorts.
© 2026 RTI International. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.
