Abstract
The National Directors of Graduate Studies biennial meeting is a forum for directors from pharmacology and physiology graduate programs to discuss challenges and best practices for programs that are preparing trainees to be successful in the biomedical workforce. The 2017 meeting was held on the campus of Stony Brook University in Stony Brook, NY. Over the course of the 3-day event, several themes evolved, including graduate education training and curricula, diversity and career development, and scientific rigor and communication. Overall, presentations and discussions highlighted the challenges and opportunities for training PhD biomedical scientists and featured best practices from across the country.