Visiting Scholars RFA

Mountain West CTR-IN VISITING SCHOLARS RFA

PURPOSE
The Mountain West CTR-IN seeks to fund Visiting Scholars to provide additional opportunities for training in clinical and translational research. Visiting Scholar awards will be targeted to New Investigators or Early-Stage Investigators, as defined by the NIH, for detail see: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/new_investigators/. Support of these investigators is central to the mission of the CTR-IN, and the provision of an immersion experience with mentoring by experienced clinical and translational investigators is concordant with the goal of the CTR-IN to increase NIH-funded clinical translational research in the region. This is a competitive application to identify and select candidates.

GOALS and OBJECTIVES
The overall goal of the CTR-IN Program is to provide support to develop researchers who have a high likelihood of subsequently competing successfully for independent funding from the NIH or a comparable agency in clinical or translational research. The objective of this RFA is to support junior investigators in clinical or translational research, and to link them with mentors to assist their development in the field. Below is a short video of recent Visiting Scholar Awardee, Dr. Jennifer Kawi, describing her experience.

ELIGIBILITY REQUIREMENTS
The Visiting Scholar program emphasizes formal mentoring in both basic and clinical science. It will be available to New and Early-Stage Investigators as described at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/new_investigators in any discipline who can demonstrate a path towards clinical or translational research. Eligible candidates will be faculty (at least .5 FTE) at any of the 13 CTR-IN partner universities with interest in health-related research, but who lack sufficient training, experience or guidance in clinical or translational research to compete successfully for NIH funding as an independent investigator. Institutional commitment to supporting the Visiting Scholar’s time during program activities is required.

SUPPORTED ACTIVITIES
Visiting Scholars will receive mentoring and research experience coordinated by the Clinical Research Education, Mentoring, and Career Development Core Key Component Activity (CREMCaD KCA). Funds will be awarded to support reasonable travel, housing, and research supply costs. The Visiting Scholars Program does not include salary support for the CTR-IN Fellow at the host institution. A central component of the Visiting Scholar experience will be time spent in the laboratory, clinic, or other research environment with his/her mentor(s). Proposals to conduct this work with a mentor at a Mountain West CTR-IN partner institution are preferred, and plans to work with mentors in an IDeA State outside the Mountain West are also welcomed. Plans to work with mentors outside of these areas must have strong justification and the CTR-IN is unable to provide support to faculty or institutions in non-IDeA States. Time spent on “exchange” will vary, depending on the amount of release time and availability of the mentors, but a minimum of one month will be required with a maximum of 4 months. Funds should be budgeted for Awardee and Mentor travel to the CTR-IN Annual Meeting to be held in June 2016 at a location within the Mountain West.

Hosts/mentors will be encouraged to travel to the CTR-IN Visiting Scholar’s home institution to present a seminar describing their clinical or translational research in advance of the Visiting Scholar’s stay at the host location. The cost of this visit should be included in the budget. One anticipated benefit of these visits is that the mentor will have a first-hand appreciation of the research environment available to the Visiting Scholar upon her/his return. We expect this will be helpful in establishing and directing the mentoring relationship. The CTR-IN will support the mentor’s travel for these visits.

APPLICATION AND SELECTION PROCESS
The CREMCaD KCA will coordinate the application process for the Visiting Scholar program. Applications and inquiries should be sent to the CREMCaD Director john.mercer@unlv.edu. All materials submitted must follow the font and margin guidance for NIH applications available at: http://grants.nih.gov/grants/funding/phs398/phs398.pdf

To apply for Visiting Scholars Program please click here …

Research Plan: The Research Plan will consist of two pages (maximum) including:
1) background and goals towards developing a clinical or translational research career,
2) activities to achieve these goals,
3) research topic that fits the overall program goals, and
4) identification of appropriate basic science and clinical mentors.

Other Application Requirements:
1) NIH Biosketches of the applicant and mentor(s) (4-page limit),
2) letters of recommendation and support from the mentor(s) (2-page limit),
3) institutional commitment (1-page), and
4) budget and budget justification.

Institutional Letter of Support: Since longitudinal support of New and Early Career Investigators is essential to their ultimate success, applications must include a letter of support from an appropriate official at the applicant’s institution. Institutional Letters of Commitment should describe:
1) faculty release time,
2) leveraging of additional resources, and
3) cost sharing.

Process: Applications will be screened by the CREMCaD KCA Director to ensure that they conform to requirements, and the Director will contact applicants whose proposals are incomplete or inappropriate. Applications will be assigned for review to one member of the External Advisory Committee and one member of the CREMCaD KCA. The reviews will be presented to the CREMCaD KCA and its recommendations will be forwarded to the CTR-IN Executive Committee which will provide a recommendation regarding funding to the CTR-IN PI. The decision and review will be returned to the applicant within approximately 6 weeks of submission.
A schematic diagram of the process is available at: https://ctrin.unlv.edu/?page_id=306

Anticipated Number of Awards: Support is available for 3 to 5 Visiting Scholars in the current project year ending June 30, 2016 with the amount of support contingent on the quality and merit of the applications we receive.

Key Dates
Release Date: July 1, 2015
Earliest Application Receipt Date: August 3, 2015 at 5:00 PM PT
Application Due Date: Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis starting August 3rd, 2015, and the opportunity will remain open until March 1st, 2016, or until all funds have been awarded. Decisions will be provided within 6 weeks of application submission.
Notification Date: Not later than 6 weeks after submission
Earliest Anticipated Start Date: One month following notification date
Latest Project End Date: June 30, 2016

NOTE: ALL PROJECT ACTIVITIES UNDER THIS RFA MUST BE COMPLETED BY 06/30/15

Overview
To develop health-related clinical and translational research
• Total anticipated amount to be awarded: $40,000
• Facilities and Administration rates (i.e., indirect costs) will be held to 10% per agreements with CTR-IN partner institutions.
• No carryover beyond the project period will be allowed.
• Anticipated number of awards: 3 to 5
• Eligible organizations: the 13 CTR-IN partner institutions
• Eligible applicants include Early-Stage and New Investigators at these institutions

Application Review Information
Criteria
The following will be considered in making funding decisions:
• Scientific merit of the proposed program,
• Commitment of mentor(s),
• Institutional commitment, and
• Availability of funds.

Review and Selection Process
Applications that are complete and responsive to the RFA will be evaluated for scientific merit. All applications will:
• Undergo a standardized review process including consideration of scientific merit and responsiveness to this RFA,
• Be assigned a priority score and be discussed by the CREMCaD KCA and CTR-IN Executive Committee, and
• Receive a written review (applicants will have the opportunity to discuss the review with the Director of the CREMCaD KCA).

The criteria below will be addressed and considered in the review. Note that an application does not need to be strong in all categories to be judged likely to have major scientific impact. For example, an investigator may propose to carry out important work that by its nature is not innovative but is essential to developing the Visiting Scholar’s career in clinical and translational research.

Significance: Does the proposal address an important gap in the applicant’s progression towards developing a clinical and translational research career that would be filled by visiting the mentor’s institution? If the aims of the application are achieved, how will the applicant’s career be advanced? What will be the potential effect and impact of the proposed activities on the clinical and translational career of the applicant? What are the unique technologies, services, or resources provided by the mentor(s) that will significantly impact the career development of the applicant?

Approach: Is the conceptual framework for the time that the applicant will spend at the mentor’s institution adequately developed, well integrated, well-reasoned, and appropriate to the aims of the proposed program? Does the applicant acknowledge potential problem areas and consider alternative tactics? Is the likelihood of successful completion high given the described environment at the mentor’s institution and the applicant’s abilities? Are the proposed timeline and interim milestones appropriate, feasible, and technically sound?

Investigators: Are the proposed Visiting Scholar and mentor(s) appropriately trained and matched to carry out this work? Is the work proposed appropriate to the experience level of the Visiting Scholar and other researchers? Does the mentee-mentor relationship bring complementary and integrated expertise to the project (if applicable)?

Milestones and Product Development Plan: Are the defined objectives/milestones and future career development plans appropriate and feasible? Feasibility should address the requirement that work be completed before 6/30/16.

Additional Review Criteria:
In addition to the above criteria, the following items will be considered in the determination of scientific merit and the priority score:

Institutional Commitment: Evidence of longitudinal institutional commitment will be evaluated, as this will be central to the Visiting Scholar’s ultimate success in competing for independent funding in clinical or translational research.

Protection of Human Subjects from Research Risk: If applicable, are the involvement of human subjects and protections from research risk relating to their participation in the proposed research assessed? IRB approval is required if so.

Biohazards: If materials or procedures are proposed that are potentially hazardous to research personnel and/or the environment, reviewers will determine if the proposed protection is adequate.

Budget: The reasonableness of the proposed budget and the requested period of support in relation to the proposed research. The priority score will not be affected by the evaluation of the budget but the programmatic objectives of the CTR-IN to support a variety of investigators across the region will be considered in the Executive Committee’s recommendations for funding.

Award Administration Information

Award Notices
The applicant will be notified of the decision within 6 weeks of submission. Awards will be made by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, under the parent grant: #5U54GM104944 from the National Institute of General Medical Sciences.

Reporting
Awardees will be required to submit a Progress Report using a format provided by the CTR-IN program not later than 30 days after the end of the Visiting Scholar activity. Standard financial reports will be required per NIH guidelines.

Presentation
Awardees will be required to present their accomplishments at the CTR-IN Annual Meeting that will be held in June 2015 at a site to be announced.

Acknowledgment of Support: Awardees are required to acknowledge the support of the NIGMS and the CTR-IN using the parent award number in all publications and presentations stemming from this support.

Human Subjects Protection
If the research involves in human subjects, the application must:

Describe training or experiences involving human subjects as well as inclusion of appropriate IRB approval with reference to the risks to the subjects, the adequacy of protection against these risks, the potential benefits of the research to the subjects and others, and the importance of the knowledge gained or to be gained. See the following site for further information click here …

If applicable, IRB approval must be obtained at both the applicant and host institutions before an award can be issued.

To download the Word document version of this FOA, click here…

Judith Owens-Manley, Ph.D has been working directly with Community Engagement & Outreach (CEO) Core of the MW CTR-IN since its inception to facilitate respectful, community-engaged health disparities research throughout Alaska.  Her training as a social worker in policy, practice, and research and working for more than two decades as a community-level practitioner grounds her in the need for and applicability of community-level data.  She has worked with a variety of populations in community settings and with organizations on the evaluation of their programs and services.  For the past two decades, her role in higher education was as Director of the Center for Community Engagement & Learning at UAA (now retired),  providing the link between academic courses and faculty research to meaningful work accomplished in the community, including developing students and faculty in the principles of community-based participatory research. She has publications on poverty and domestic violence, refugee resettlement research, and deepening levels of community engagement. 

Dr. Charlotte Gard is an Associate Director of the Mentoring Unit for the Professional Development Core of the MW CTR-IN and an Associate Professor of Applied Statistics in the Department of Economics, Applied Statistics and International Business at New Mexico State University (NMSU). Dr. Gard earned her Ph.D. in Biostatistics from the University of Washington and has more than twenty years of experience as a statistician supporting applied collaborative research. Her primary research interests are in breast cancer risk prediction modeling, maternal and child health, and health disparities. Since beginning at NMSU in 2012, Dr. Gard has mentored more than 100 graduate students across the Colleges of Business; Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences; Arts and Sciences; Engineering; and Health, Education and Social Transformation. Dr. Gard also serves as the NMSU faculty biostatistician for the MW CTR-IN Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design Core, providing biostatistical support to NMSU investigators developing MW CTR-IN pilot grant proposals.

Dr. Jagdish Khubchandani is a Professor of Public Health at New Mexico State University. He received his Doctorate in Medicine from India, MPH from Western Kentucky University, and PhD from University of Toledo. Within the past decade, he has coauthored more than 200 articles in prestigious journals such as the Lancet, Journal of American Medical Association, and the New England Journal of Medicine with emphasis on injury and violence prevention, global health, and social epidemiology. More recently, his research has received widespread attention from media outlets such as CNN, Bloomberg News, NY Times, WSJ, and Huffington Post. He has served as a reviewer on grant application panels for NIH, OASH, OMH, and SAMHSA. Currently, he is an editorial board member for multiple journals in the field of medicine and public health and has also served as an elected Director for the World Association of Medical Editors.

Dr. Mark Greenwood is a Professor of Statistics at Montana State University in the Department of Mathematical Sciences, where he has been since 2004. He holds a BA in Math/Stat from Luther College (1996) and a Statistics MS and PhD from the University of Wyoming (2000, 2004). He does statistical methodology research in high dimensional data analysis and visualization techniques, focused on functional data analysis and cluster analysis. He has written one textbook on intermediate statistical methods and is working on a textbook on linear mixed models. His primary collaborative research areas are in Multiple Sclerosis and knee osteoarthritis research and using proteomics and metabolomics for developing classifiers in those domains. He was the Director of Statistical Consulting and Research Services at Montana State University from 2019-2022 and has decades of experience collaborating on statistical applications across many disciplines. 

Jack Chen, PhD, is an Associate Director of Faculty Mentoring in the Professional Development (PD) Core of MW CTR-IN. He is a tenured Professor in the Department of Biology & Wildlife, Institute of Arctic Biology at University of Alaska Fairbanks (UAF) and a Public Health Lab Scientist/CLIA consultant in Alaska State Public Health Laboratories. Dr. Chen earned his PhD degree in Pathology and Gene Therapy from Osaka University Medical School and completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Virology and Molecular Biology at the University of British Columbia under the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada (NSERC) Postdoctoral Program. Dr. Chen currently teaches Principles of Virology and Infectious Diseases for undergraduate and graduate programs at UAF.

Dr. Chen has been working in virology, public health and infectious diseases field for more than thirty years. His research focuses primarily on human viral pathogens that have broad impact on clinical/public health and maintains a high-impact clinical and translational research program to address regional health disparities. Dr. Chen is a Board certified High-Complexity Clinical Laboratory Director (HCLD) by the American Board of Bioanalysis (ABB) and a certified Molecular Biologist (MB) by American Society for Clinical Pathology (ASCP).

Jay Shen, Ph.D., is Associate Dean of the School of Public Health and Interim Director of Center for Health Disparities Research. His research covers health services research and public health with focuses on clinical outcomes and quality of care, healthcare disparities, effectiveness and efficiency of healthcare delivery in such areas as cardiovascular and cerebrovascular diseases, diabetes, palliative care, maternal health, behavioral and mental health. He has been funded as PI and co-PI by AHRQ, PCORI, CDC, CMS, and NCSBN. He has served on the grant review study sections of AHRQ, NIH, DoD, and the National Science Foundation of New Zealand. He has authored and co-authored over 200 peer-reviewed journal articles, books, book chapters. He earned his SM from Harvard School of Public Health and PhD from Virginia Commonwealth University.

Lorraine Evangelista, PhD, RN, FAAN is recognized internationally for her investigation into the care of patients with heart disease and the effects of this disease on the patients and family members. She has over 125 publications on adherence, self-care, quality of life, and health literacy and has received over 10 million dollars from the National Institute of Health for her research. Lorraine brings significant experience in research, funding, publishing, and mentoring. She comes to us from the University of Texas Medical Branch School of Nursing where she served as Associate Dean for Research & Scholarship and Professor Lena Finke Distinguished Chair for Nursing. Dr. Evangelista earned a Master’s Degree in June 1993 and a Doctorate of Philosophy in Nursing in June 2000, both from the University of California, Los Angeles. She has received several recognitions including being a fellow of both the American Heart Association and the American Association for Nursing.

 

Rei Serafica, Ph.D., MSN, APRN, PMHNP-BC, CNE is an Associate Director of the  Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core of the Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research Infrastructure Network (MW CTR-IN) Program. Dr. Serafica is a tenured Associate Professor in the School  of Nursing at the University of Nevada,  Las Vegas.  He is  a board-certified Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner and a Certified Nurse Educator. Dr. Serafica earned his undergraduate and graduate studies in nursing from Gardner-Webb University, his advanced graduate certificate in Psychiatric Mental Health Nurse Practitioner from the University of Nevada, Reno, and his Ph.D. in Nursing (Research and Education) from the University of Hawaii at Manoa. Dr. Serafica’s research trajectory centers on acculturation as it relates to chronic disease of immigrants. His research has led to the development of a new concept: dietary biculturalism, where he explores the phenomenon of unhealthy traditional food consumption by immigrants that elevates their risk of developing food-related chronic illnesses as much as when they consume an unhealthy Western diet during the post-migration phase. Dr. Serafica’s collaborative research team is assessing food insecurity and low sodium diet adherence  as it relates to quality of life and mental health status including psychological distress,  in patients with hypertension within the primary care setting. Dr. Serafica serves as an associate editor to the Journal of Transcultural Nursing and has published several articles and presented in multiple national and international conferences.

Dr. Jeffrey Ebersole, PhD joined the School of Dental Medicine as a professor of Biomedical Sciences and associate dean for research, and teaches microbiology and immunology to predoctoral students. An accomplished researcher, Dr. Ebersole leads multiple studies focused on the immunobiology of oral infections, emphasizing in vitro, and in vivo studies of host-pathogen interactions using animal and human models of oral disease(s). His CV lists more than 300 publications, reviews, and book chapters about the microbiology and immunology of oral diseases, and directed a major Center of Biomedical Research Excellence grant from the National Institute of Health for 13 years. Prior to joining UNLV, Dr. Ebersole was the Alvin L. Morris Professor of Oral Health Research, director of the Center for Oral Health Research, and associate dean for research in the College of Dentistry at the University of Kentucky. Dr. Ebersole earned his bachelor’s in biology from Temple University, his Ph.D. in microbiology from the University of Pittsburgh, and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in the department of Immunology at The Forsyth Institute.

Chantal A. Vella, PhD, FACSM, is a tenured professor in the Department of Movement Sciences and the Director of the Exercise Physiology Research Laboratory at the University of Idaho. Dr. Vella graduated from the University of New Mexico with a PhD in Exercise Science. Her post-doctoral fellowship in Endocrinology and Metabolism focused on factors associated with glucose regulation in patients with type 2 diabetes. Dr. Vella’s education and research expertise give her a unique perspective on chronic disease prevention across the lifespan. Her primary research focus is understanding the health benefits of physical activity and health consequences of sedentary behavior. She is interested in understanding the independent effects of physical activity and sedentary behavior on cardiometabolic disease risk factors such as obesity, inflammation, insulin resistance, and the gut microbiome.

Rachel Boren, PhD, is the Associate Director for the Tracking & Evaluation Core. Dr. Boren earned her doctorate in Educational Research, Statistics, and Evaluation from the University of Virginia, where she was trained in program evaluation and research methods in education and the social sciences. She has worked as an evaluator in higher education for over a decade for programs that focus on university student success, K-12, healthcare, and workforce development. She is currently the Director of the SOAR Evaluation and Policy Center at New Mexico State University in the College of Health, Education, and Social Transformation. There, she oversees her SOAR team as evaluators on many grants in and outside of the university for funders at the federal, state, and local levels. She is on the NMSU Institutional Review Board and has a background in mixed methods research and survey design.

Nancy Pandhi, MD, MPH, PhD, serves as the CTSC Liaison for the MW CTR-IN Program. She is Associate Chair, a practicing family physician and tenured Professor in the Department of Family and Community Medicine at the University of New Mexico. In addition, she is Director of the UNM Clinical and Translational Science Center.

The aim of Dr. Pandhi’s community-engaged mixed methods research program is improving the delivery of ambulatory care to vulnerable populations through participant-centered engagement approaches implemented at the individual, team, and organizational levels. She is a founding member of the Health Experiences Research Network and serves on its national steering committee. She co-led the first U.S. project applying these rigorous internationally vetted methods for examining lived health experiences and translating them for educational and clinical quality improvements. At the University of Wisconsin, she co-founded the Primary care Academics Transforming Healthcare collaborative to bring together multidisciplinary change leaders and physicians and bridge primary care clinical transformation and rigorous scientific study.  Dr. Pandhi received her B.A. at the University of Chicago, MD at Virginia Commonwealth University, and MPH and PhD at the University of Wisconsin.

Jeffrey Chaichana Peterson received his PhD from the University of New Mexico and trained as a Minority Research Fellow for the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention/Association of Schools of Public Health/Prevention Research Centers. Currently, he is a Research Professor in the University of Montana’s School of Public and Community Health Sciences and the Associate Director of the Mountain West CTR-IN’s Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core. He works in the area of implementation science and advocates for community-based, participatory, and culture-centered approaches to translate evidence-base research from academia tot he front lines of public health practice. In his career, he has worked with diverse populations including the urban homeless, migrant farm workers, Latina pregnant or parenting teens, American Indian communities, and transgender sex workers, among other vulnerable populations.

Beth Tigges, PhD, RN, PPCNP-BC, FAAN is the Director for the Tracking & Evaluation (T&E) Core of the MW CTR-IN Program. She is a tenured Professor and Regents’ Professor at The University of New Mexico (UNM) College of Nursing in Albuquerque, New Mexico. She has experience with mixed methods evaluation of large and complex research centers, particularly those emphasizing infrastructure development, team science, mentoring, and institutional change.  She is the founding Director of Tracking and Evaluation for the University of New Mexico NIH-funded Clinical and Translational Science Center (2010–present), and past Co-Chair of the national NIH-NCATS CTSA Program Evaluators’ Group (2017-21). She leads the evaluation for the following NIGMS-funded grants:  UNM Center for Brain Recovery and Repair; UNM Autophagy, Inflammation, and Metabolism Center of Biomedical Research Excellence; and the UNM study, Effectiveness of Innovative Research Mentor Interventions among Underrepresented Minority Faculty in the Southwest. She has a background in instrument development and psychometrics, and has designed and/or conducted eight community-based studies, including the U.S. National Children’s Study in New Mexico. Dr. Tigges received her B.S. in Nursing from Penn State, her M.S. in Nursing from Yale University, and a PhD degree from Columbia University in public health and social psychology.

Robert “Scott” Seville, PhD, will serve as the Associate Director of the MW CTR-IN Pilot Projects (CP3) Core and is the Chair of the Concierge Network. He is currently a Professor of Zoology and Physiology in the College of Arts and Sciences at the University of Wyoming. Currently, he serves as the Lead Concierge for MW CTR-IN Concierge Network. Previously, he served as the Associate Dean for the University of Wyoming Outreach School where he had oversight of UW facilities, staff and programs across Wyoming including managing UW Academic Regional Centers located on each Wyoming community college and the Wind River Indian Reservation. He received his Master’s and PhD degrees, and Postdoctoral training in Zoology/Physiology/Parasitology from the University of Wyoming, Laramie, in Wyoming followed by a NSF/NATO Fellowship in Parasitology.

Dr. Seville’s research has focused on the taxonomy, systematics, and parasite-host co-evolution using gastrointestinal protozoan parasites (coccidia) in wild hosts as a model system. Additionally, he brings experience in leading and managing NIH-funded activities as the Program Director/Principal Investigator, Outreach/Education Core Director, and previously Program Coordinator for the IDeA-funded Wyoming INBRE program. In these leadership roles, he has been responsible for working with the INBRE leadership team and the University of Wyoming Office of Research and Economic Development in managing ~$35M in support from NIGMS IDeA Programs with a number of research, education programs and projects focused on addressing health disparities in rural and American Indian communities in Wyoming.

Tony Ward, PhD, will serve as the Director for the new upcoming Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core in Years 6-10 of the MW CTR-IN Program. In addition to teaching within University of Montana’s School of Public and Community Health Sciences, Dr. Ward’s research focuses on investigating the relationship between air pollution and respiratory health, working with rural and American Indian (AI) and Alaska Native (AN) populations throughout our region. Concurrently, he is the Co-PI on two NIEHS-funded R01s investigating the impact of residential wood burning on respiratory health in both children and elderly populations living in rural and tribal areas located in the southwest, northern Rocky Mountains, and rural Alaska Native communities. He is also the Co-PI on a NIH funded Science Education Partnership Award (SEPA) project that educates rural and AI/AN students in schools throughout Montana, Idaho, and Alaska about air quality/respiratory health. Moreover, Dr. Ward is the Chair at the University of Montana, School of Public and Community Health Sciences in Missoula, Montana, and the State of Montana Director of the CEO Core for the AI/AN Clinical Translational Research Project (CTRP). Dr. Ward received his Masters degree in Environmental Science and Industrial Hygiene from the University of Houston, Clear Lake in Texas, and his PhD degree in Environmental Chemistry from the University of Montana, Missoula, in Montana along with a Postdoctoral.

Dr. Ward has experience conducting Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) in rural and underserved communities, including AI/AN communities. His experience with the AI/AN CTRP will be a valuable asset for his role as the CEO Core Director for the CTR-IN, providing synergy for both of the IDeA Programs.

Chad Cross, PhD, MFT, PStat(R) is the Co-Associate Director for the Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Research and Design (BERD) Core for the MW CTR-IN Program. In this role, Dr. Cross provides expertise in scientific research, biostatistical analysis, and Core leadership. Dr. Cross has been a faculty member at several universities (currently at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas), worked for approximately 10 years in federal service (US Environmental Protection Agency and the Veterans Health Administration), and worked in private industry as a scientific subject matter expert and statistician.

Dr. Cross is trained as a multidisciplinary scientist. He received is PhD in Ecological Sciences (focus in Quantitative Ecology and Statistics) from Old Dominion University in Norfolk Virginia. He additionally holds several master’s degrees: Computational & Applied Mathematics/Statistics (Old Dominion University), Medical Entomology & Nematology (University of Florida), and Counseling (University of Nevada, Las Vegas). His undergraduate training was at Purdue University, where he earned two bachelor’s degrees, one in biological sciences and the other in wildlife science. Dr. Cross has several active areas of research. These include: (1) Public Health: Investigations in population health related to chronic and infectious diseases, with special emphasis on quantitative methodology and use of large databases; (2) Epidemiology & Biostatistics: Applications of statistics and epidemiological principles to problems in the health sciences – for example clinical trials, multivariate models, and population sampling strategies; (3) Medical Entomology & Parasitology: Applied research and field work in arthropod-borne and parasitic diseases, including population-based estimation of disease burden and the intersection of medical entomology and forensic science; (4) Quantitative Ecology: Applications of statistics to problems in the environmental and ecological sciences – for example Bayesian models for estimating avian fatality around wind turbines and mark-recapture sampling; and (5) Psychometrics: Applications of statistics to problems in the psychological sciences – for example randomized controlled trials for interventions and pattern recognition for finding clusters of patients with shared pathology.

Ruben Dagda, PhD, is the Associate Director of the Professional Development (PD) Core for the MW CTR-IN Program. In this role, he coordinates the Advance to Funding (ATF) Program and the Grant Writing Workshops (GWW). He received his PhD degree in Pharmacology from the University of Iowa and received his Postdoctoral training at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine. Dr. Dagda is also an Associate Professor of Pharmacology at the University of Nevada Reno

In this role for the ATF Program, he assists research investigators in the review of their grants prior to submission to the NIH to provide constructive feedback from our many expert reviewers to increase their probability of extramural funding. Hence, the ATF Program functions very much like a “study section”. He is also in charge of coordinating the GWWs, which assist research investigators in improving their knowledge and skills in the preparation of grants to make them more competitive for extramural grant funding. He is currently investigating the molecular mechanisms that lead to mitochondrial dysfunction and oxidative stress in cell culture, tissue and animal models of Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Dagda has authored multiple research manuscripts and review articles in the areas of toxicology, toxinology, mitochondrial function, and neurobiology. At the University of Nevada Medical School (UNSOM), he is committed to the training and education of undergraduate, graduate students and postdocs in his lab. His main research goals are to elucidate the prosurvival signaling pathways that regulate mitochondrial function, transport and turn-over in neurons and how aging and neurodegenerative diseases negatively impact these processes. The end goal is to develop novel small molecular drugs that can reverse neurodegeneration and elevate mitochondrial function in age-related neurodegenerative diseases.

Brach Poston, PhD, is an Associate Director of the Educational Resources in the Professional Development (PD) Core of the Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research Infrastructure Network (MW CTR-IN). He is an Associate Professor in the University of Nevada, Las Vegas’ Kinesiology and Nutrition Sciences Department.  He teaches Neurophysiology of Movement, Scientific Basis of Strength Training, and Advanced Strength Methods within the undergraduate program, and Neurophysiology of Movement and Biomechanics of Strength within the graduate program.

Dr. Poston’s research focuses primarily on the use of non-invasive brain stimulation (transcranial direct current stimulation and transcranial magnetic stimulation) to improve motor skill and learning in Parkinson’s disease, aging, and young adults. He also conducts research on strength training and muscle fatigue as well as concussion in boxing and mixed martial arts.

Before coming to UNLV, Dr. Poston was a project scientist at the Cleveland Clinic Lou Ruvo Center for Brain Health in Las Vegas. Prior to this position, he completed a post-doctoral research fellowship in the Human Motor Control Section, Medical Neurology Branch of the National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke at the National Institutes of Health. He also received postdoctoral training at Arizona State University in neural and motor control.

Dr. Poston earned his Ph.D. in Integrative Physiology from the University of Colorado-Boulder, a Master’s in Exercise Physiology from the University of Nevada Las Vegas, and a Bachelor’s in Physical Education from Southwest Missouri State University. He has received research funding from NIH/NINDS, Mountain West CTR-IN, and the Michael J. Fox Foundation. Poston has also served on several NASA human performance grant review panels and will become Director of the Interdisciplinary Neuroscience Ph.D. program at UNLV in 2022.

Juli Petereit, MS, PhD is the Associate Core Director of the Biostatistics, Epidemiology and Research Design (BERD) core for the MW-CTR-IN Program. In addition, she is the Director of the Nevada Bioinformatics Center and Co-Director for the Data Science Core for Biomedical Research, NIH IDeA NV INBRE at the University of Nevada, Reno (UNR). Dr. Petereit received her PhD in Biomedical Engineering and MS in Applied Mathematics from UNR in 2016 and 2010 respectively. 

As a bioinformatics scientist, Dr. Petereit supports researchers at UNR as an expert in small- and large-scale statistical analyses, quantitative analyses, statistical inference, (social/gene) network modeling, analysis of complex statistical data, analysis of large-scale high-throughput omics data, and other advanced bioinformatics and biostatistical applications. She serves an interdisciplinary research community and is involved in numerous research projects ranging from survey studies in social behavioral science to studies examining protein levels across multiple experimental conditions.

Dr. Petereit has been involved with the Nevada Bioinformatics Center since March 2017 and has continued to contribute her unique skill set towards providing comprehensive support for the MW CTR-IN Program’s need for study design, biostatistics, and data management. She is committed to integrating biostatistics support into the fabric of MW CTR-IN clinical and translational research culture by providing state-of-the-art bioinformatics and (bio)statistics services for individual research projects by conducting custom and standardized data analytical protocols (for bioinformatics, biostatistics, and biomedical data science), developing statistical & computational pipelines to ensure reproducible research, and assisting in pre-proposal support and extramural grant applications.

Akshay Sood Bio

Akshay Sood, MD, MPH

Akshay Sood, MD, MPH is the Associate Director of the Professional Development (PD) Core for the Mountain West CTR-IN Program. As the Associate Director for the PD Core’s Mentoring Unit, Dr. Sood’s focus is on the Mentorship Program. Dr. Sood obtained his Master’s in Public Health from Yale University and completed his fellowship training in Pulmonary, Critical Care and Occupational Medicine at Yale University – School of Medicine.

Dr. Sood is currently the Assistant Dean of Mentoring and Faculty Retention for the School of Medicine Office of Faculty Affairs and Career Development at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center (UNM-HSC). In addition, he is a Tenured Professor for UNM-HSC’s Department of Medicine, Divisions of Pulmonary, Critical Care & Sleep Medicine and Epidemiology. Dr. Sood’s interest in the epidemiology of chronic lung diseases has helped him build a unique academic career around the clinical translational basis for the association between non-smoking host factors and obstructive lung diseases. He leads the UNM HSC Faculty Mentor Development Program and is the P.I. of a U01 grant on the “Effectiveness of Innovative Research Mentor Interventions among Underrepresented Minority Faculty in the Southwest (NIGMS U01GM132175-01)”. He serves as a member of the Executive Steering Committee of the Diversity Program Consortium at the NIH. Dr. Sood has a natural passion for research education, supporting scholars, and trainees as they learn the steps necessary to assemble an independent research program. His mentoring experience provides a strong basis for his leadership for the MW CTR-IN Program’s PD Core.

Larissa Myaskovsky, PhD, is the Director of the Professional Development (PD) Core, Director for the Mountain West CTR-IN’s Ambassador Translational Research in Progress (ATRIP) Program, and Director of Mentoring Unit for the Mountain West CTR-IN Program.  She is a tenured Professor in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Director of the Center Healthcare Equity in Kidney Disease at the University of New Mexico, Health Sciences Center.

Dr. Myaskovsky received her BA in Psychology with Specialization in Women’s Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles, her MA in General-Experimental Psychology from California State University, Northridge, and a PhD in Social Psychology from the University of Pittsburgh. She completed a post-doctoral fellowship in Clinical Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, and a fellowship in Health Services Research at the Center for Health Equity Research and Promotion at the VA Pittsburgh Healthcare System. With more than 20 years of research experience and funding, her NIH and VA-funded research focuses on the social determinants of health and using a multi-method and multi-disciplinary approach to identify and understand disparities in healthcare processes and outcomes, and to develop interventions to reduce health disparities in vulnerable populations. Before joining the UNM faculty in 2017, Dr. Myaskovsky was a tenured Associate Professor of Medicine, Psychiatry, and Clinical and Translational Science at the University of Pittsburgh, School of Medicine, and completed a year-long NIH-funded Professional Mentoring Skills Enhancing Diversity leadership training program through the National Research Mentoring Network, and was the 2017 recipient of the Philip Troen, MD Excellence in Medical Student Research Mentoring Award. She has taught medical writing and presentation, research grant design and development, measurement design and development, and healthcare disparities research methods to early career faculty, fellows, graduate and medical students. Dr. Myaskovsky is passionate about research education, and supporting scholars and trainees as they assemble an independent research program. Her mentorship and leadership experience provides a strong basis for leading the MW CTR-IN Professional Development Core.

Curtis Noonan, PhD, MA is the Director of the Clinical Pilot Projects Program (CP3) Core. He has served in this role for the past five years and will continue to serve in this role for the next grant cycle. The CP3 Core has successfully administered the single institution, single investigator and the multi-site pilot grants since the inception of the Mountain West CTR-IN Program.

Dr. Noonan received his MA degree in International Health and Development from George Washington University and his PhD in Environmental Health, Epidemiology from Colorado State University. He is currently a Professor of Epidemiology in the College of Health Professions and Biomedical Sciences at the University of Montana. He has led NIH funded multi-site randomized trials focused on improving health outcomes and reducing exposures among vulnerable populations exposed to elevated levels of particulate matter from burning of biomass fuels for residential heating. Dr. Noon is a member of the Infectious, Reproductive, Asthma and Pulmonary Conditions (IRAP) Study Section.

Weiyu Mao, PhD, MSW, MPhil is an Associate Director of the Educational Resources in the Professional Development (PD) Core of the Mountain West Clinical and Translational Research Infrastructure Network (MW CTR-IN) Program. Dr. Mao is a tenured Associate Professor in the School of Social Work at the University of Nevada, Reno. Dr. Mao received her Master of Social Work, PhD, and post-doctoral training from the University of Southern California (USC) as well as her Master of Philosophy in Social Welfare from the Chinese University of Hong Kong and Bachelor of Law from Nankai University, China.

Dr. Mao’s research program aims to improve health and quality of life for vulnerable older adults and their families. Dr. Mao’s current research has focused on the investigations of social determinants of health (including oral health) in both heritage- and receiving- cultures. Dr. Mao strives to further the understanding of health disparities (including oral health disparities) among older ethnic and racial minority populations (e.g., older Asians and older Asian Americans) and explicate how social determinants, especially understudied psychosocial determinants, are associated with varying exposures and vulnerabilities to health inequities.

Dr. Mao has been gravitating towards interdisciplinary research and leading interdisciplinary teams, including collaborators from sociology, nursing, public health, and medicine. Dr. Mao’s work has been featured in high impact peer reviewed journals, including The Gerontologist, Journal of the American Geriatrics Society, Journal of Dental Research, Community Dentistry and Oral Epidemiology, and The International Journal of Geriatric Psychiatry. Dr. Mao is currently working on two pilot projects funded by the Asian Research Center for Minority Aging Research (Asian RCMAR), National Institute on Aging and by Division of Aging and Disability Services, Nevada Department of Health and Human Services. Dr. Mao has a passion for advocating, promoting, and supporting research and related activities.     

Richard Larson Bio

Richard Larson, MD, PhD, serves as the CTSC Liaison for the MW CTR-IN Program. He is the Executive Vice Chancellor for Research of Health Sciences at the University of New Mexico Health Sciences Center as well as a tenured Professor at the University of New Mexico. In addition, he is also the PI of the UNM Clinical and Translational Science Center. He also served on the Board of Directors for the National Center for Genome Research. In 2001, he co-founded Cancer Services of New Mexico, a non-profit organization which serves, free of charge, over 2000 New Mexicans suffering from cancer each year. Moreover, he is the President of the Cancer Services of New Mexico Foundation. In addition, Moreover, he also serves as the Chair of the Mountain West Research Consortium, which was critical in laying down the ground work for the eventual development of the MW CTR-IN Program. Dr. Larson received his MD and PhD degrees from Harvard University and performed his residency training at Washington University in St. Louis and fellowship training at Vanderbilt University in Pathology.

Francisco S. Sy, MD, DrPH is the Principal Investigator (PI) of the MW CTR-IN Program. He is a Professor and Chair of the Department of Environmental and Occupational Health at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas (UNLV) School of Public Health. Dr. Sy earned his Doctor of Public Health (DrPH) in Immunology & Infectious Diseases in 1984 from Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health; and his Master of Science (SM) in Tropical Public Health in 1981 from Harvard T.F. Chan School of Public Health. He obtained his MD degree in 1975 and BS Pre-Med in 1970 from the University of the Philippines.

Dr. Sy worked at the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for 12 years. In 2004, he was appointed as a Health Scientist Administrator in the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) where he developed and managed the NIMHD Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) Program. He also managed the NIMHD Loan Repayment Program and the Research Endowment Program. In 2007, Dr. Sy was promoted to the position of Director of  Extramural Activities and Scientific Programs at NIMHD.  As the DEA Director, Dr. Sy was responsible for the scientific and administrative management of the division, and served as the principal advisor to the NIMHD Director on programmatic resource decisions and research administration policies. He provided leadership and oversight of the Grants Management Office, Scientific Review Office, and the Scientific Programs Office at NIMHD. Dr. Sy advocated and wrote the justifications for adding sexual and gender minorities (SGM) in the list of health disparities populations which was approved by the NIH Director and Secretary of HHS in 2016. When he retired from NIH in May 2016, his colleagues at NIH, CDC and the Federal Asian Pacific American Council (FAPAC) created the Francisco Sy Excellence in Mentorship Award. It is an annual award given to an outstanding scientist who has excelled in mentoring junior scientists at HHS.

Dr. Sy worked at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) for 4 years. He was a Senior Health Scientist in the Program Evaluation Branch, Division of HIV/AIDS Prevention at the National Center for HIV/AIDS, Viral Hepatitis, STD, and TB Prevention. He was a member of the CDC SARS Outbreak Investigation Team in 2003. He led the CDC SARS Community Outreach Team in Asian communities in the U.S. to mitigate the fear and stigma associated with SARS.  Dr. Sy was an Associate Professor of Epidemiology at University of South Carolina School of Public Health and taught infectious disease epidemiology for 15 years. Dr. Sy developed and continues to serve since 1988 as the Editor of AIDS Education and Prevention- An Interdisciplinary Journal, a bimonthly peer reviewed international journal published by Guilford Publications in New York.

Xiaomeng (Mona) Xu

Dr. Xu is a 2015 MW CTR-IN Pilot Grant Awardee recipient. Her project was entitled, “Understanding the Role of Self-Expansion in Physical Activity”. Her research focuses on cardiovascular behavioral health including weight control, smoking and physical activity; close relationships, especially romantic; and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) neuroimaging. Dr. Xu is also interested in these research areas in the context of individual differences such as trait self-control, and development over time, such as aging or as a romantic relationship progresses.

Dr. Xu received a Bachelor of Arts Degree in psychology from New York University, and Master of Arts Degree in psychology from Stony Brook University, and a Ph.D. in social health psychology from Stony Brook University. She completed a postdoctoral research fellowship sponsored by the National Institutes of Health at The Warren Alpert Medical School of Brown University and The Miriam Hospital.

Dr. Xu is an Assistant Professor of Experimental Psychology at Idaho State University and was honored as a 2015 Rising Star from the Association for Psychological Science. As a result of her advanced work in the field, the Association for Psychological Science has recognized Dr. Xu as an outstanding psychological scientist. As facilitated by the Individualized Development Plan (IDP) which is a critical component of the CTR-IN PG award, Dr. Xu had a successful mentorship experience with her mentor, Claudio Nigg, PhD, from the University of Hawaii. The pilot grant’s IDP provides mentorship for career development. As a result of the mentoring facilitated by the IDP, Dr. Xu has collaborated with Dr. Nigg on various projects, which have led to a manuscript publication, poster presentations, future collaborations, etc. Moreover, based on her academic productivity which has been significantly facilitated by the MW CTR-IN PG award, she will be applying for tenure at Idaho State University.

Susan Tavernier

Education: BSN from Whitworth University in Spokane in Washington; MSN from Loyola University of Chicago; PhD in Nursing from the University of Utah; Postdoctoral fellowship from the College of Nursing at the University of Utah.

MW CTR-IN helped to provide education in grant management, post-award processes, timeline projections, and meaningful tools for grant tracking.

Dr. Tavernier was a Year 4 MW CTR-IN Pilot Grant Awardee in 2016. Her project was entitled, “The Patient Voice in Healthcare”. The MW CTR-IN pilot grant was also instrumental in helping her with the nuances of grant management including hiring personnel, budgets, quarterly and annual reports. As a nurse scientist, her research area focuses on cancer patients. She has gained expertise with large qualitative data sets and has conducted research in the clinical setting. Dr. Tavernier is currently an Assistant Professor at Idaho State University in the School of Nursing and was a recipient of a Presidential Scholarship for new health service researchers from Academy Health.
Additionally, she has authored a chapter on Symptom Distress in the textbook Cancer Symptom Management 4th Edition, and has served as a review panel member for the Oncology Nursing Foundation for research and awards. She is also an active member of the Oncology Nursing Society.

Blakely Brown

Education: PhD in Nutritional Biochemistry from the University of Minnesota; RD from the University of Minnesota

MW CTR-IN helped to expand collaborations for a nutrition and physical activity study with a direct impact on the health of community children.

Dr. Blakely Brown was a MW CTR-IN Pilot Grant (PG) Awardee and Visiting Scholar in 2014. Her project was entitled, “Developing and Pilot Testing Parent Education Activities within a Childhood Obesity Prevention After-School Program”. Dr. Brown built upon this PG research funding from the MW CTR-IN Program and secured 3 additional extramural grants also in the areas of childhood obesity totaling $278,167 in extramural grant funding as follows: (1) Partnerships to Prevent Childhood Obesity on the Flathead Indian Reservation; (2) Generations Health Project: An After-School and Home Based Childhood Obesity Prevention Program; (3) and USDA Strengthening Grant: Growing Strong Generations. These research studies have allowed Dr. Brown to successfully expand her research collaborations with rural and Native American communities that have resulted in longitudinal outcomes reporting risk factors for diabetes in native and non-native children, assessments of environmental and behavioral factors associated with risk for childhood obesity and diabetes in youth in rural communities.
Dr. Brown’s research, teaching and service focus on nutrition and chronic disease prevention, maternal-child health, childhood obesity and diabetes prevention, community-based participatory research methods, Native American health and diversity-related activities.