From academia, to law firms, to corporations, the medical profession, banking, consulting, tech…you name it.  All of these fields welcome new parents to their ranks on a daily basis.  How supported a new parent feels in their particular industry or sector, however, can make or break a new parent’s professional experience in their role.  And every field seems to do things differently.

Today, we’re here to focus on supporting new parents who are in academia.  Dr. Catherine Grimes, a passionate mentor, leader, and scientist at the University of Delaware, has made it one of her professional passions to improve the parental leave mentoring experience – not only for the colleagues in her own laboratory, but in academia writ large.

I had the honor of working with her on a National Institutes of Health (NIH)-funded project specifically on this topic.  And I’m thrilled Catherine was able to share our work at the NIH Sponsored 2024 Biomedical Training Program Directors’ Conference last week, in a poster presentation entitled “Mechanisms to Support Faculty Trainers on Training Grants.”

Today, I’ve asked Catherine to join the Mindful Return blog to share more about her project.  My hope is that everyone reading this takes just one small step to make the world of working parenthood better in your own workplace!!

Mindful Return:  Welcome to the blog, Catherine!  Can you tell us a little bit about yourself and your own working parent story?

Dr. Catherine Grimes: Thanks, Lori for maintaining such an active and useful blog. I very much enjoy the content and am honored to have a chance to share a bit of my story with your vibrant community.

I’m a Mom of two fun kids, ages 11 and 8. My husband, Dan, and I both work in the healthcare and science fields.  Dan is an M.D. who helps to direct a psychiatry residency program here in Delaware, and I’m a Chemistry Professor at the University of Delaware.  My role involves teaching in the classroom, directing a graduate program at the interface of chemistry and biology, and running a research group focused on chemical immunology/Crohn’s disease.

I was fortunate to discover Mindful Return in a short article in a college alumni magazine while I was pregnant with Grace. As a forever student, the program’s approach to parenthood seemed perfect to me, and I very much needed someone to guide me through the transition of motherhood. The Mindful Return community and classes empowered me to find acceptance and limits. You taught me to embrace adventures and enjoy the journey, Lori. You shifted my mindset, and I’m forever grateful to be part of your community.

My kids and husband also appreciate the work we do together, as it allows me to be more present for them and calm in my parenting approach.

Mindful Return: What are some of the key challenges you think parents face when they work in academic settings?

Dr. Catherine Grimes:  I think that the challenges parents face in academia can change depending on their career stage.  As a tenured professor (i.e. similar to making partner, for all the lawyers reading this blog), I recognize that I’m in an extremely privileged space. Even as a professor climbing the tenure track, I had certain advantages. Besides teaching classes (1 per semester), my schedule was my own.  I could set my working hours.  And now, as a tenured professor, I can decide which departmental and national meetings I want to attend.

However, the constant pressure that this job applies is the way it integrates into your life. There seem to be no boundaries.  Which is both a blessing and a curse. Also, related to boundaries, there always seems more to achieve.  That next big experiment, a huge lecture at an exotic conference location, or revamping your teaching style to meet the demands of funding agencies. There will always be more to aspire to, and the colleagues you work with have self-selected to be as Type-A as you are.

So, learning how to “march to the beat of your own drum” is essential for being a mindful professor and protecting your relationships with your family.

Mindful Return:  How did you come to be so passionate about mentoring and supporting the working parents in your lab?

Dr. Catherine Grimes: Hands down, it was the people who mentored me.  From my parents, to my coaches, and to my research mentors. I played basketball growing up and was fortunate to be mentored by my older brothers, aunts, uncles, and fantastic coaches.

Looking back, I can see that they strived to help me perfect my lay-up and boxing-out skills, yes.  But they also encouraged me to grow my independence and confidence. They taught me to “believe” in myself.

My own research mentors cared about my research results, developing me as a scientist and a person. They asked about the results of a chemo enzymatic glycosylation, and how my Dad was doing with his cancer treatment. They treated me as a whole person and valued me.

I am essentially emulating that approach in my mentoring practice. I want to develop people who happen to be scientists. And I’m blessed that I can train them in rigorous scientific training and life skills. For the working parents in my lab, I have to credit you, Lori. I saw how you empowered me as a new parent. I wanted to give that to the graduate students working with me. If we want a diverse scientific community, I we have to accept that people start families at different ages. I realized that this was a phenomenal opportunity to “pay it forward” and contribute in a small way to shifting the culture of science.

Mindful Return:  Tell us about the “Trail Guide” project you brought to life.  What gave you the idea?  What was the process for creating it?  What did you hope the guide would accomplish?

Dr. Catherine Grimes: When one of my first students shared with me that she was having a child, I sort of freaked out.  To be honest, I was scared. I wasn’t sure how we were going to mange this transition.  I didn’t know the rules.  I wasn’t sure if I could use federal dollars to support her during maternity leave.  And I didn’t even know if graduate students got maternity leave!

My lab operated on a very tight budget in a very competitive climate.  I wasn’t sure how a pause in our research process would affect our ability to keep our federal funding.  It was those exact thoughts that ran through my brain as my student shared her exciting news.

Unfortunately, I did not find the information to my questions from my own institution nor colleagues at other institutions.  It seemed there were no general guidelines for helping a graduate student and their mentor navigate these scenarios.  Rather, each student-mentor pair had to figure this out on their own. I certainly didn’t feel prepared to mentor my student through this life-event.  We needed a change.

Mindful Return: How did you manage to get NIH funding for this important work?

Dr. Catherine Grimes: Fortunately, I’m lucky to help direct an National Institute of Health (NIH) graduate training program (https://www.nigms.nih.gov/training/instpredoc/Pages/predoctrainingdescription.aspx) that aims “to develop a diverse pool of well-trained scientists with the technical, operational, and professional skills necessary to conduct rigorous and reproducible research, and transition into careers in the biomedical research workforce.”  As part of this federally-funded T32 mechanism, I was responsible for assuring we mentored all students.  And to facilitate this goal, the NIH provided an opportunity for supplemental funding around mentoring.

Although the NIH provides some funds to graduate students who experience life events, the funding is very minimal and only for very specific terms. Like all things with our government, NIH wants to assure the funding dollars are stretched as far as possible.

A few of my excellent colleagues at UD including Lori Genova, Mary Watson, and Emil Hernandez-Pagan, wrote a supplement to the NIH, which included goals for diverse mentor training for faculty, and an opportunity to work with Mindful Return to develop a trail guide to facilitate discussions between graduate students experiencing life events and their mentoring team.

It was this team approach that convinced NIH to fund our proposal and allowed us to do this impactful work.  It was fantastic to have you on campus, Lori, to meet with the graduate trainees who have (or are about to have) a child.  We benefited from your lecture designed to help trainees and trainers learn to discuss “leave of absence” plans.  We also worked on strategies for developing extended individual development plans (IDPs) for this new parent cohort, and you helped us assess all campus resources available to UD graduate students.

Furthermore, the Graduate College participated in your visit, and any materials that are deemed universally useful will be used by all training programs on campus. I really feel like we have done something that will help graduate students across the University.

Mindful Return:  How do you hope this project will help new parents not only at the University of Delaware but throughout academia?

Dr. Catherine Grimes:  I hope that seeing this example empowers them.  That they feel ready to take on both their roles as graduate students and parents. I hope that others are able to use the general discussion format of the trail guide and the readily adaptable discussion points to facilitate useful discussion that guide both mentors and mentees. That they can see that the skills of being a parent and scientist can reinforce and strengthen one another.

Mindful Return:  Anything else you’d like to share?

There is obviously more work to be done. We need to continue to lead with kindness, building communities in which we celebrate each other.  Thank you for teaching me, Lori. I’m proud to be an alum of Mindful Return.

Want more practical tips on working parenthood?  Check out my book, Back to Work After Baby: How to Plan and Navigate a Mindful Return from Maternity Leave