Kiona Ogle (Program Director), Kimberly Samuels-Crow (Program Coordinator), and Rohan Boone (graduate student) participated in the annual meeting for all graduate programs supported by the prestigious NSF National Research Traineeship (NRT) program. The meeting was held in Evanston, IL and included opportunities to discuss strategies to recruit and retain a more diverse population of students to STEM-oriented graduate programs, inspire faculty engagement, and improve science communication training.