The Gilliam Fellowships for Advanced Study program was created in 2004 in honor of the late James H. Gilliam, Jr., a charter Trustee of HHMI and chair of its Audit and Compensation Committee. Mr. Gilliam was a respected business and civic leader who spent his life nurturing excellence and diversity in science and education. The goals of the Gilliam program are to ensure that persons from populations historically excluded from and underrepresented in science are prepared to assume leadership roles in science, including as college and university faculty, and to foster the development of a healthy and inclusive academic scientific ecosystem. The program awards grants to pairs of dissertation advisers and their graduate students and encourages the grantee institution and the adviser to hold themselves accountable for facilitating institutional change to create environments that advance diversity and inclusion.