The NRMN Master Facilitators Initiative: Building a community of practice to broaden program implementation

One of the roles of the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) is to serve as a hub for mentor and mentee training for biomedical researchers with the goal of diversifying the workforce. To meet this need, a cadre of professionals qualified to lead mentor, mentee, and facilitator training was recruited from across the country and became part of the NRMN Master Facilitators Initiative. These individuals have the expertise to lead trainings across multiple career stages, disciplines, and modes of implementation. To fully leverage their talents, a community of practice was developed so that members could best learn from each other and share resources and expertise. Since its launch in 2015, this group has come to include 41 individuals from 23 institutions across 15 ‘states’ (including DC and Puerto Rico) from diverse disciplinary backgrounds. Collectively they have trained over 9000 mentors, mentees, and facilitators as well as contributed to new curricular materials. Here the authors describe: (1) how and why the group was initiated; (2) strategies for individual and learning community development; and (3) outcomes for both the Master Facilitator learning community and NRMN itself. The core practices and strategies described are applicable to a broad array of interventions that rely upon a functional community of practice to achieve implementation on a national scale.