Program Overview

This T32 program is a collaboration between The University of Texas at Austin’s (UT Austin) School of Social Work (SSW) and the Dell Medical School (DMS). The aims of the program are to: 1) recruit and provide rigorous scientific training to a cadre of developing scientists in order to increase diversity in the pool of highly-trained scientists prepared for a career in cardiovascular and lung research focused on health equity, and; 2) foster an environment at UT Austin for inter-professional development in cardiovascular and lung research. Over five years, this program will train 10 postdoctoral fellows in the SHS and DMS and 2 predoctoral fellows in the SSW. With involvement from 30 mentors in the Schools of Social Work, Medicine, and Nursing, the Population Research Center, and the College of Pharmacy, fellows will be trained in community-based participatory research methods and population health science.  They will produce rigorous scientific research with the ultimate goal of increasing health equity in heart and lung diseases and their behavioral risk factors (e.g., dietary habits, physical activity, adherence, tobacco use/exposure, metabolic syndrome, obesity, sleep).  Key innovations of this training program include recruitment and mentoring activities firmly grounded in the reality that cultural and racial/ethnic diversity in the scientific workforce is critical to the production of innovative scientific knowledge, a team-based mentoring approach with a near-peer mentoring component, the cross-fertilization of social work and medical trainees.  The DMS is uniquely designed to promote population health and the SSW is rooted in an equity lens and has a strong community-based focus. Furthermore, the Schools have established a very successful and close partnership.  Fellows will further their research training through formal mentorship, formal coursework, seminars, conferences, and other career development activities.  Each fellow will have a primary mentor assisted by other mentors in a team-based approach, and a network of near-peers (postdoctoral fellows for predoctoral fellows and assistant professors for postdoctoral fellows) who will also contribute to mentoring.