Caleb McKinney, PhD, MPS

Caleb C. McKinney, Ph.D., M.P.S. is an associate professor in the Department of Rehabilitation Medicine, associate dean of Graduate and Postdoctoral Training & Development for Biomedical Graduate Education (BGE), and assistant vice president of Master’s Program Administration & Development at Georgetown University Medical Center (GUMC). He is committed to the advocacy and career formation of graduate and medical students, postdoctoral fellows, residents, and faculty. He also serves as Chair of the Board of Directors for the National Postdoctoral Association (NPA), having previously served as Treasurer and Chair of Finance for the Board of Directors and as a diversity officer for the NPA. Dr. McKinney graduated from Cornell University with a B.S. in Biology and a minor in Applied Economics and Management. He then completed his PhD in Microbiology from New York University, the Master’s in Professional Studies program in Design Management and Communications at Georgetown University, and the Harvard Macy Program for Educators in the Health Professions. 

At GUMC, Dr. McKinney studies factors that govern career transitions, with a particular focus on designing and evaluating programmatic interventions that facilitate these transitions. With human-centered design at the core of his programmatic initiatives, Dr. McKinney has led and collaborated in several funded activities geared at enhancing the development of the scientific workforce. In 2019, he received a $50,000 grant from the Burroughs Wellcome Fund to develop a professional development training program that trains junior researchers in project management and communications. Dr. McKinney is also a principal investigator and co-director of the NIH/NIGMS-funded Georgetown University Initiative for Maximizing Student Development (IMSD), a $1.96M predoctoral T32 training program that provides interprofessional and interdisciplinary training and student development activities focused on enhancing biomedical workforce diversity. Moreover, as a GUMC co-investigator for the NIH-funded Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning Consortium to Advance Health Equity and Researcher Diversity (AIM-AHEAD) Data Science Training Core, he designs funding programs for academic and community stakeholders to build workforce development initiatives that curate a pipeline of diverse individuals into data science research focused on mitigating health disparities.

Furthermore, Dr. McKinney leads the graduate and postdoctoral training and development administrative portfolio for Biomedical Graduate Education, which includes Career Strategy and Professional Development, a biomedical graduate career center that provides career advising and professional development programming for master’s students, PhD students, and postdoctoral scholars. His administrative portfolio also includes postdoctoral development, and proposal development support for externally-funded institutional training grants. Dr. McKinney also oversees biomedical graduate student recruitment, marketing, and external partnerships for strategic enrollment. Lastly, Dr. McKinney is a steadfast advocate for student and trainee led initiatives. He mentors and provides administrative support to the Georgetown University Postdoctoral Association (GUPDA), and the Women in Science Education (WISE) and Medical Center Graduate Student Organization (MCGSO) student groups.