Professional Needs Assessment Survey: Results and Recommendations

1. Professional Needs Assessment Survey:Results and Recommendations Mary Beth Genter, PhD, DABT; Gary Carlson, PhD Chair and Co-Chair, SOT Professional Needs Assessment Task Force Marybeth.genter@uc.edu; gcarlson@purdue.edu

2. Today’s agenda • Review the duties and membership of the Task Force • Provide an overview of the results of each section of the survey • Discuss PNATF recommendations

3. Professional Needs Assessment Task Force (PNATF) • Appointed in 2008 • Charge: “To define key areas where the Society can assist members in addressing the long-term needs of theprofession” • Included in this charge: To identify and prioritize future training needs of Toxicologists, including continued training in the use of new technologies and knowledge bases” • Original Chair: Dr. Daniel Acosta, Jr. • Original/Previous TF members: Kerry Blanchard, Barbara Davis,Kevin Kerzee, Elaine Knight, Jim Lamb, Jim Popp; Larry Curtis, Patti Ganey (SOT Council Contacts)

4. Current TF members • Dr. Gary Carlson (Purdue University) • Dr. Betty Eidemiller (SOT Staff Liaison, Data Task Force) • Dr. Mary Beth Genter (University of Cincinnati) • Dr. Tom Kawabata (Pfizer, Inc.) • Dr. Kevin Kerzee (Battelle) • Ms. Marcia Lawson (SOT Staff Liaison) • Dr. Jim Popp (Stratoxon LLC) • Dr. Tim Reilly (Bristol-Myers Squibb Company) • Dr. Mari Stavanja (Celanese Corporation) • Dr. Mike Waalkes (NIEHS; Council Contact)

5. Professional Needs Assessment (PNA) Survey • Target: SOT Full, Associate, and Postdoctoral members • Developed in collaboration with Career Resource and Development, Continuing Education, Education, Membership, and Research Funding Committees • Survey design and execution were conducted in conjunction with the SOT Data Task Force • Was available for members to complete during October 2009 • Extensive data analysis was undertaken by TF and SOT Staff • Implementation of recommendations will occur in collaboration with the partners identified above

6. Survey Content • Survey covered broad topic areas: • Demographics of Respondents • Overview of Existing and Proposed SOT Programs • Professional Training/Development • Work and Life Balance • Future of Toxicology

7. Survey Content • Survey covered broad topic areas: • Demographics of Respondents • Overview of Existing and Proposed SOT Programs • Professional Training/Development • Work and Life Balance • Future of Toxicology

8. PNA Survey Results: Demographics • Completed by 660 SOT members (14%) • 520 live in USA • 552 received their toxicology training in the USA • 576 are currently working in the USA

9. Employment Demographics *includes military

10. Survey Respondent Demographics (%)

11. Specialty Section, Regional Chapter, and Special Interest Group (SS/RC/SIG) Memberships

14. Years of Professional Experience in Toxicology • For all job sectors EXCEPT Industry, most respondents were in the 20+ years category • Academia: 47.6% • CROs* 44.4% • Consulting 64.5% • Government 42.2% • Industry: 35.2% had 10-20 years of experience, 34.9% had 20+ years of experience *CRO=contract research organization

15. Current Job Status • In all job sectors, the majority of respondents indicated that they plan to stay in their current employment • Reasons: • On desired job track and anticipate continuing to progress in current employment path • Have achieved satisfactory and secure level in current position

16. Major concerns of individuals considering a job change (121 responses) • Concerns about downsizing (most important for CROs) • Concerns about viability of current position (most important for CROs and industry) • Limited opportunities for career progression (most important for academia, consulting, and industry) • Limited opportunities for salary advancement (most important to academia; somewhat important across remaining sectors)

17. Major reasons why individuals are changing jobs (39 responses) • Have lost or anticipate losing current position in the next year (academia, government, industry) • Very concerned about downsizing (industry) • Opportunities for career progression with current employer are limited (all sectors) • Opportunities for salary advancement with current employer are limited (all sectors) • Desire for a different job function (gov’t)

18. Questions or Discussion?To ask a question, click the “Raise Hand” icon, located on the right side of your screen, beneath the participant listORType your question in the “Chat” field

19. Survey Content • Survey covered broad topic areas: • Demographics of Respondents • Overview of Existing and Proposed SOT Programs • Professional Training/Development • Work and Life Balance • Future of Toxicology

20. Meeting/Continuing Education (CE) participation • Nearly 50% of respondents had attended 4 or 5 of the last 5 SOT Annual meetings • 38% had attended zero Regional Chapter meetings in the past 5 years • 31% had taken zero CE courses over the past 5 years; 28% had taken 1-2 courses, and 21% had taken 3-5.

21. Use of SOT Services • 41% of respondents had used the online Job Bank • 7% had used Mentor Match • 49% had used data from SOT Salary Surveys

22. Questions or Discussion?To ask a question, click the “Raise Hand” icon, located on the right side of your screen, beneath the participant listORType your question in the “Chat” field

23. Survey Content • Survey covered broad topic areas: • Demographics • Overview of Existing and Proposed SOT Programs • Professional Training/Development • Work and Life Balance • Future of Toxicology

24. Satisfaction with Professional Development Activities • Match to current needs: • Emerging areas coverage @ Ann Mtg 90% • Networking opportunities @ Ann Mtg 90% • Specialty Section activities 86% • Job Bank: job search tools 84% • SIG activities 83% • Mentor Match mentoring opportunities 83% • Applied toxicology at annual meeting 83% • Job Bank: recruiting tools 82% • MM: opportunities to be mentored 80% • RC meetings 79% • CE courses state of the art 72% • Career developm’t sessions @ Ann Mtg 68% • Web-based seminars 61% • Match to future needs • 86% • 87% • 81% • 79% • 82% • 83% • 78% • 80% • 79% • 78% • 65% • 62% • 57%

25. Professional Training/Development • There were many positive comments about the content of CE courses offered at the Annual Meeting and expanding means of delivery of CE content • Where there were negative comments about CE courses, they were almost always related to the courses being “too basic”

26. Professional Training/Development • Desired content for CE Courses • Regulatory toxicology guidelines—where can one get the basics and how does one stay current? (64%, 338 of 524) • Development of new scientific and technical skills (63%, 328) • Maintenance of scientific and technical skills (53%, 276) • Global regulations (46%, 243) • Consulting opportunities (40%, 211) • Science writing (32%, 167) • Management skills (28%, 149) • Extensive suggestions were provided re additional mechanisms for providing CE

27. Specific comments about CE • Overwhelming support for more (free) web-based seminars • “Team with the American College of Toxicology…. also with ACS, Society for Risk Analysis and SETAC” • This strategy could enhance multidisciplinary training and retraining of toxicologists • Also a strategy for teaching toxicology to non-toxicologists • Frequent mention of the need/desire for training course for those studying for the American Board of Toxicology exam (DABT) • Frequent mention of multi-day educational workshops, hands on training

28. Specific comments about CE • CE courses at annual meeting: “Cost is getting too high, combined with cost of coming a day earlier…..” • CE could be enhanced if SOT membership brought with it access to top toxicology journals via the website, free with SOT membership • SOT should support short courses or partner with organizations who offer short courses • There is a real need for SOT to influence introduction of key business/management classes into PhD programs • Tapping into Regional SOT chapter programs and Specialty Section presentations would provide additional sources of CE

29. Suggestions for Additional CE Topics • Regulations/regulatory • Computational toxicology, bioinformatics, systems toxicology • Product development • Communication skills • Applied statistics • Study design • Globalization

30. Continuing Education Beyond the Annual Meeting ! • 21 courses currently available • From the 2009, 2010, and 2011 Annual Meetings • 30 day unlimited access after registering • Free access to Graduate Student and • Postdoctoral Members • Free access to toxicologists in developing countries • English transcriptions available for select courses • Visit www.toxicology.org/ai/ce/ce_video/index.asp • for more information

31. Other Professional Development Issues Raised • Networking at the Annual Meeting was very important to many respondents; desire for increased opportunities was expressed • Mentor Match: Highly regarded by those who know about it, but the program is not as visible as it could be

33. Questions or Discussion?To ask a question, click the “Raise Hand” icon, located on the right side of your screen, beneath the participant listORType your question in the “Chat” field

34. Survey Content • Survey covered broad topic areas: • Demographics • Overview of Existing and Proposed SOT Programs • Professional Training/Development • Work and Life Balance • Future of Toxicology

35. Work and Life Balance • Survey respondents were asked how important it is for SOT to provide resources in the following areas (~555 responses each) • Flexibility/adaptation (balancing work & family) • 31% very important, 29% somewhat important • Career progression throughout life • 54% very important, 34% somewhat important • Career progression and geographic mobility • 35% very important, 43% somewhat important • Retirement planning, health care, long-term care • 29% very important, 30% somewhat important

36. Work and Life Balance • “Need a sabbatical match program” • More and better opportunities for postdocs • Lobby for better benefits for postdocs • Provide grant writing/funding opportunities independent from their mentors • How does one establish a consulting service?

37. Questions or Discussion?To ask a question, click the “Raise Hand” icon, located on the right side of your screen, beneath the participant listORType your question in the “Chat” field

38. Survey Content • Survey covered broad topic areas: • Demographics • Overview of Existing and Proposed SOT Programs • Professional Training/Development • Work and Life Balance • Future of Toxicology

39. Future of Toxicology • 17 choices: rank as Important, Somewhat Important or Not Important • Top 7 “Important” topics: • Integration of newer technologies into risk assessment • Issues related to genetic variability in humans that impact human risk assessment based on animal studies • Participation of toxicologists in translational research and medicine • Funding for toxicological research • Content of academic training programs—match to future workforce needs • The evolving paradigm of toxicology testing (based on the 2007 NAS report Toxicity Testing in the 21st Century) • Gene-environment interactions in humans and animal models

40. Future of Toxicology, con’t • Of the 17 topics listed, which THREE are of greatest importance to the future of toxicology?

41. Comments: • “Moving from academia to industry early in my career, I was really lacking in 3 knowledge areas” • regulations; how are tox data used/applied • Risk assessment, communication, cross talk between assessment and management • How to integrate as a scientist into the business world • Clearly, comments such as these suggest that training to be a toxicologist must become much more multidisciplinary • There were numerous comments about the mismatch between what academia teaches and what private sector and governmental employers need in their employees

42. Questions or Discussion?To ask a question, click the “Raise Hand” icon, located on the right side of your screen, beneath the participant listORType your question in the “Chat” field

43. Recommendations based on PNA Survey Results • Need for SOT to routinely evaluate and prioritize career development activities to best meet the needs in the shifting marketplace • SOT leadership should review PNATF suggestions to reinvigorate and align programmatic activities relative to current and future SOT Member needs • Membership should be made more aware of valuable but under-utilized resources, such as Mentor Match • SOT should work with other societies and disciplines to enhance training of toxicologists • SOT should carefully monitor and prioritize what is cutting edge in “career development” • SOT needs to provide an increased understanding of the global marketplace and employment opportunities • SOT should consider presenting both scientific and professional development CE opportunities in a variety of venues and formats • SOT should consider re-energizing some Regional Chapters and making some RC programs available to the membership at-large.

44. Other PNATF Activities • Participation in SOT Education Summit (10/2011) • Education Summit Roundtable will be presented at the SOT Annual Meeting • Wed. 3/14/12, 12:00 noon–1:20 pm • Job Outlook Survey • Results will be communicated in the near future

45. In Summary…….. • PNA Survey was a success, in that the response rate (14%) is acceptable, and robust data were obtained, especially via the free text fields. • The work of the TF will conclude effective May 2012, so plans to further evaluate and implement suggestions will be handed over to various SOT Standing Committees: CE, CRAD, Scientific Program, Regional Chapter Collaboration and Communication, and Education Committees. • Standing Committees have already begun to work on many of the issues raised by the PNA survey

46. Final Questions or Discussion?To ask a question, click the “Raise Hand” icon, located on the right side of your screen, beneath the participant listORType your question in the “Chat” field

47. Professional Needs Assessment Task Force Webinar Thank you for participating!! Please provide feedback on the survey.