Session: Invited Symposia: Using Research and Mentoring to Promote Early- and Mid-Career Diverse Scholars: RWJF’s New Connections Program (Society for Social Work and Research 15th Annual Conference: Emerging Horizons for Social Work Research)

New Connections is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation that works with early- and mid-career scholars from groups historically underrepresented in RWJF research and evaluation activities. New Connections provides research funding, career development opportunities and mentoring to researchers and evaluators who are members of racial and ethnic minority or low-income communities as well as those who are first-generation college graduates. Many New Connections’ grantees are actively involved in social work research. During the current panel, three New Connections’ grantees will present their current research. The panel will also feature a discussion with New Connections’ grantees on the pathways leading them to apply for and receive New Connections’ funding. Panelists will discuss their professional trajectories since receipt of the New Connections award.