This NIH T32 training grant in the Ohio State's Department of Physiology and Cell Biology will support the training of pre-doctoral students performing cardiovascular research in the laboratories of 18 mentors and five participating faculty from five OSU Colleges and Nationwide Children’s Hospital. Up to 24 post-candidacy PhD students will be supported over a five-year period starting in the 2017–2018 academic year. This novel training program has two goals to address fundamental challenges in cardiovascular research today:

  • To provide multi-faceted cardiovascular research training to work in collaborative, multidisciplinary teams that will facilitate efficient translation of scientific findings to improve human health.
  • To enhance the number of outstanding researchers and leaders by providing training for the advancement of women to all trainees, improving the culture for women to succeed and promoting the retention of women in independent scientific careers in cardiovascular research. This training program has developed novel training mechanisms to encourage clinical interactions, multi-disciplinary teamwork and professional development.

Central to the training plan is a unique program to address the loss of senior women scientists in cardiovascular research by creating a culture in research to promote the success of all scientists. Although the number of women receiving PhDs and MDs has been equal to that of males for several decades, only about 20 percent of these women become full professors and less than 15 percent become involved in leadership. The loss of these senior women accounts for a tremendous loss of expertise that hinders the ability of the research community to develop new therapies for the treatment of cardiovascular disease. This program provides both men and women the skills to foster scientific and professional development in addition to the information to shift their perspective at an early enough career stage to ultimately retain the best and brightest cardiovascular scientists.

Director: Dr. Jill Rafael-FortneyCo-director: Dr. Brandon Biesiadecki 

2023–2024 Trainees

Arden Piepho (mentor Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney)
Ashley Greenlee (mentor Dr. Sakima Smith)
Jenna Thuma (mentor Dr. Jonathan Davis)
Shane Scott (mentor Dr. Sakima Smith)
Mona Aljuhani (mentor Dr. Vidu Garg)
Sarah Sturgill (mentor Dr. Mark Ziolo)
Chetan Gomatam (mentor Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney)
Felix Yang (mentor Dr. Kristin Stanford) 

 

Previous Trainees

2022-2023 Trainees 2021-2022 Trainees

Arden Piepho (mentor Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney) Randa Breikaa (mentor Dr. Brenda Lilly)
Charles Rabolli (mentor Dr. Federica Accornero) Chetan Gomatam (mentor Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney)
Rebecca Shaheen (mentor Dr. Tom Hund) Miguel Lopez (mentor Dr. Noah Weisleder)
Shane Scott (mentor Dr. Sakima Smith) Somayya Mohammad (mentor Dr. Sakima Smith)
Lorien Salyer (mentor Dr. Brandon Biesiadecki) Lorien Salyer (mentor Dr. Brandon Biesiadecki)
Sarah Sturgill (mentor Dr. Mark Ziolo) Sarah Sturgill (mentor Dr. Mark Ziolo)
Chetan Gomatam (mentor Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney)
Felix Yang (mentor Dr. Kristin Stanford) 

2020-2021 Trainees  2019-2020 Trainees

Randa Breikaa (mentor Dr. Brenda Lilly) Amanda Huang (mentor Dr. Paul Janssen)
Zachary Howard (mentor Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney) Kelsey Pinckard (mentor Dr. Kristin Stanford)
Miguel Lopez (mentor Dr. Noah Weisleder) Miguel Lopez (mentor Dr. Noah Weisleder)
Adrianna Matos-Nieves (mentor Dr. Vidu Garg) Adrianna Matos-Nieves (mentor Dr. Vidu Garg)
Somayya Mohammad (mentor Dr. Sakima Smith) Zachary Howard (mentor Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney)
Kelsey Pinckard (mentor Dr. Kristin Stanford) Nehal Patel (mentor Dr. Tom Hund)

2018-2019 Trainees  2017-2018 Trainees

Lisa Dorn (mentor Dr. Federica Accornero) Vidhya Kumar (mentor Dr. Subha Raman)
Zachary Howard (mentor Dr. Jill Rafael-Fortney) Brian Hansen (mentor Dr. Vadim Fedorov)
Emily Nordquist (mentor Dr. Joy Lincoln)
Nehal Patel (mentor Dr. Tom Hund)

T32 Mentors

Martha Belury, PhD Paul Janssen, PhD
Brandon Biesiadecki, PhD Brenda Lilly, PhD
Cynthia Carnes, PharmD Peter Mohler, PhD
Jonathan Davis, PhD Jill Rafael-Fortney, PhD
Isabelle Deschenes, PhD Sakima Smith, MD
Vadim Fedorov, PhD Kristin Stanford, PhD
Vidu Garg, MD Noah Weisleder, PhD
Sandor Gyorke, PhD Loren Wold, PhD
Willa Hsueh, MD Mark Ziolo, PhD
Thomas Hund, PhD

Participating Faculty

Kedryn Baskin, PhD Joshua J. Joseph, MD, MPH
Kathleen Dungan, MD, MPH Nuo Sun, PhD
Sarah Heissler, PhD Karolina M. Zareba, MD

Clinical Mentors

Linda Cripe, MD Scott Lilly, MD, PhD
Yuchi Han, MD May Mah, MD
Kan Hor, MD Sakima Smith, MD
Joshua J. Joseph, MD, MPH Karolina M. Zareba, MD

Cardiac Predoc T32 Professional Development Workshops Autumn 2023

Professional Development workshops are Mondays from 3:00 to 5:00 in DHLRI 165

September 11, 2023 Career Advice Panel of Former T32 trainees: 
Emily Nordquist, Ph.D. (Consultant, Boston Consulting Group)
Adrianna Matos-Nieves, Ph.D. (Senior Program Coordinator K-12, Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard)
Zachary Howard, Ph.D. (Scientist, Beam Therapeutics)

September 25, 2023 Fellowship Writing (focused on NIH F fellowships): The Biosketch, Research Plan, Applicant Background and Training Goals and   Trainee Experiences (Brandon Biesiadecki, Ph.D., Jill Rafael-Fortney, Ph.D., and F31 recipients: Lorien Salyer, Miguel Lopez Perez and Rebecca Shaheen)

October 30, 2023 Leadership Workshop: Managing versus Leading (Paula Butterfield, Ph.D., PCC, Professional Leadership Coach)

November 20, 2023 Preparing and Managing Budgets (Amanda Gibbs)

 

Previous Workshops:

Interviewing / Hiring practices (Ira Isaacson, MD, MBA, SVP/Partner Philips, DiPisa & Associates); Fellowship Writing: The Biosketch, Research Plan, Applicant Background, Training Goals and The Individualized Development Plan (annually); Implicit Bias; Cardiovascular/ Scientist Career Path workshops by: Jil Tardiff, Story Landis, Joanna Groden, R. John Solaro, David Kass; Book Discussions on Negotiation and Confidence; Collaborating: Best Practices; Workshops on Diversity 101; Work Life Balance; Manuscript Review; Careers in Industry: Aaron Hinken, Ph.D., GSK, and Kate Cygnar, Ph.D., Regeneron; Research Integrity, Julia Behnfeldt, Ph.D., Office of Research Compliance; Preparing and Managing Budgets; Social Media for Scientists; and Leadership Workshops by Paula Butterfield, PhD, PCC including: Understanding Social Styles to Excel in Teams and Leadership; Developing Leadership and Gender Based Obstacles; Managing Energy Rather Than Time; Team Toxins and What You Can Do About Them; Leading and the Power of 'And'; Managing Assumptions; Enneagram Personality Traits; The states of consciousness as a leadership tool.