68 Visiting endowed chair: a new model to support Hispanics junior investigators

OBJECTIVES/GOALS: Analyze how the Endowment HIREC ‘s Mentoring and Career Coach Model A productive mentoring relationship is essential to advance researchers into being independent and bring extramural funds. METHODS/STUDY POPULATION: Provide Hispanic researchers mentoring and career coaching to strengthen their pathway as researcher. The HiREC’s Career Coach and Mentoring Component (CCMC) is an innovated approach to support long-lasting research mentoring relationships in our institution. This approach was developed to advance research to eliminate health disparities, promote multidisciplinary translational research in a Minority Institution and sustain research infrastructure and services, career, and workforce development initiatives. Promising Faculty are target and early and mid-career investigators interested in pursuing a research career. To implement the CCMC with the Visiting Endowed Chair a HiREC Advisory Leadership Group in Mentoring will be established, with researchers from Puerto Rico, and US mainland. RESULTS/ANTICIPATED RESULTS: Three Hispanic mid-career women from the School of Medicine and one from the School of Health Professions from the University of Puerto Rico received a HiREC Advanced Research Award of $50,000. The awardees achieved their goals; completed their research plan, research infrastructure needs, peer-reviewed publications, and submission of a competitive grant. They also provided successful perspectives on mentoring relationships in a Minority institution. Each one showed the mentor’s and mentee’s experiences as fundamental for their research advancements, productivity, leadership, and successful results. HiIREC’s mentoring component with the Visiting Endowed Chairs improves a healthy work environment and expands the research agenda for each awardee sustaining the institutional research culture. DISCUSSION/SIGNIFICANCE: A productive mentoring relationship is essential to advance researchers into being independent and bring extramural funds. Four mentees received formal, long-term guidance and endowment funds for their research infrastructure requirements with successful outcomes. HiREC contributes to building up an institutional mentoring program

A Multiinstitutional, Multidisciplinary Model for Developing and Teaching Translational Research in Health Disparities

Abstract available at publisher's web site

Training LEADers to Accelerate Global Mental Health Disparities Research (LEAD) program: A research training program protocol

Background: There is a critical need to address mental health needs across the globe, especially in low and middle-income countries where mental health disparities are pervasive, including among children. The global mental health disparities suggest an imperative for culturally and contextually-congruent mental health services models that expand upon the existing services and interventions for these groups. Rigorous research is a key tool in providing the scientific evidence to inform public policy and practice efforts to effectively address these needs. Yet, there is a limited number of researchers, especially those from diverse backgrounds, who study these issues. In this paper, we describe the “TrainingLEADers to Accelerate Global Mental Health Disparities Research” (LEAD) program, a research training program funded by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities and focused on global mental health disparities research for early career researchers from under-represented minority groups.Methods: The LEAD program is designed as a two-phase training program for advanced pre-doctoral students, postdoctoral fellows, and junior faculty from diverse backgrounds in the U.S., including groups underrepresented in biomedical, behavioral, clinical and social sciences research, interested in global mental health disparities research. Trainees are matched with mentors and participate in an intensive 12-week program.Discussion: The LEAD program seeks to provide a robust platform for the development, implementation and expansion of evidence-based culturally and contextually-congruent interventions and services models addressing global mental health disparities across the life cycle, especially in low-resource communities in the global context. By producing a sustainable network of well-trained investigators from underrepresented backgrounds, LEAD will potentially contribute to the shared lessons and efforts relevant to addressing global mental health disparities and improving care for vulnerable populations in low-resource settings

Developing a Training Program to Diversify the Biomedical Research Workforce

The National Institutes of Health has made considerable investments to diversify the biomedical research workforce. Towards this goal, the authors partnered with representatives from several minority-serving institutions (MSIs) to develop training for the next generation of researchers. To ensure the most effective training program, the authors conducted a needs assessment with junior and senior investigators from the partnering MSIs. In 2016, the authors conducted focus groups and interviews with 23 junior investigators as well as in-depth interviews with 6 senior investigators from the partnering institutions with the goal of identifying specific areas of training and support that would help junior investigators at MSIs develop and sustain research careers. The data were transcribed and coded, and thematic analysis was conducted. The authors determined four areas in which training and support were needed: training in the "informal curriculum" (skills not covered in traditional clinical research courses), protected time for research training, opportunities to create career-advancing work products, and networking opportunities. The themes that were identified informed the development of the LEADS (Leading Emerging and Diverse Scientists to Success) program. The program consists of 10 instructor-led online modules each lasting approximately one month in duration with weekly synchronous sessions. Scholars are expected to be able to devote at least 20% of their time to the program

Challenges and Strategies of Successful Mentoring: The Perspective of LEADS Scholars and Mentors from Minority Serving Institutions

Mentoring continues to be a salient conversation in academia among junior and senior faculty and administrators. Mentors provide guidance and structure to junior faculty so that they can meet their academic and professional goals. Mentors also convey skills in balancing life and academic pursuits. Therefore, the purpose of this descriptive study was to provide additional insight from a training program called Leading Emerging and Diverse Scientists to Success (LEADS) regarding successful strategies and challenges of mentoring relating to lessons learned from the scholars and mentees’ perspective. The LEADS program provided multiple training platforms to increase skills and knowledge regarding research to promote expertise in grant writing and submission for funding opportunities among diverse scientists. These findings reinforce the knowledge about the value of a mentor in helping define the research pathway of their mentee and underscoring the importance of mentoring

Enhancing regional capacity in chronic disease surveillance in the Americas Medidas para reforzar la vigilancia de las enfermedades crónicas en las Américas

Existe la necesidad de reforzar la capacidad regional para la vigilancia de las enfermedades crónicas en las Américas. Los objetivos de este artículo son 1) ofrecer nuestro apoyo decidido a favor de la vigilancia de las enfermedades crónicas, 2) presentar una revisión descriptiva y un resumen de las actividades de vigilancia y los problemas en torno a las mismas en las Américas, 3) confeccionar una lista de recursos y fuentes de consulta para obtener más información, y 4) ofrecer unas recomendaciones para reforzar la capacidad regional. Este artículo se basa en una revisión personal de informes, sitios de Internet y apuntes personales procedentes de diversos proyectos, reuniones y actividades relacionados con la vigilancia de las enfermedades crónicas en las Américas, y en un análisis a profundidad de los materiales recopilados. Se ha determinado que las agencias sanitarias internacionales, los gobiernos de diversos países, las organizaciones no gubernamentales y los profesionales de la sanidad pública han dedicado grandes esfuerzos a la construcción y al desarrollo de las capacidades de vigilancia de las enfermedades crónicas en la Región. Para seguir apoyando el aumento de dichas capacidades, se hace necesario establecer una red de redes (una metarred) cuya misión debería ser la vigilancia de la vigilancia. Siete aspectos importantes para el aumento de esta capacidad son la estrategia, la colaboración, la información, la educación, la novedad, la comunicación, y la evaluación