The CCTS Partner Network (PN) is situated within the three-state Deep South region of the United States consisting of Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana; a region of the US that is plagued by health disparities, the root cause of disproportionate disease and mortality. Despite efforts to address these growing disparities, progress has been slow and inadequate. Barriers to progress include a lack of formal training initiatives to develop a workforce of skilled professionals with expertise in dissemination and implementation (D&I) science, centered in health equity research.

D&I science is an interdisciplinary field that focuses on the systematic development and implementation of methods to identify means to optimize delivery of interventions proven efficacious. It requires a deep understanding of the complex social, cultural, and economic factors that drive health disparities, as well as the skills and knowledge to design, implement, and evaluate interventions that address these inequities. The CCTS Partner Network has an extensive network of D&I researchers with active collaborations within and across academic units and centers in the Deep South.

Training program overview

The goal of this program is to create highly trained, interdisciplinary and culturally competent postdoctoral trainees. In addition to activities and didactic training required of all postdoctoral trainees, the following activities are designed for this T32 training program:

• In-depth mentoring on a D&I research project with weekly study team meetings
• Completion of an individual development plan (IDP) and mentoring activities
• D&I-focused didactics including coursework and D&I journal club
• Mentored-research immersions into teams conducting D&I research including hybrid implementation effectiveness studies, research in large consortiums or integrated healthcare systems, developing, implementing, and evaluating community-level interventions to address health inequities
• Cultural competency and training through intentional integration into One Great Community, the CCTS Community Scientific and Action Board, to build and enhance relationships with communities, stakeholders, and related groups and didactic offerings through the CCTS
• Grant-writing course to prepare a career development grant application
• Travel funds to attend and present their research at D&I and other discipline-focused national conferences, as well as the annual CCTS Translational Training Symposium and T32 Jamboree
• Networking and one-on-one mentorship during the CCTS Symposium
• Coordinated peer-mentoring activities with the companion T32 and K12 learning opportunities

T32 RFA

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Questions? Contact Jeanne Merchant (205-996-9672).