Career Enhancement Core

CAREER ENHANCEMENT CORE: PROJECT SUMMARY The UPSTREAM Research Center Career Enhancement Core will facilitate the training and career development of early-career scholars who are committed to preventing cancer through research and practice in persistent poverty areas. Leveraging the outstanding training environment of Stanford, UCSF and UC Davis, we propose to implement the UPSTREAM Scholars Training Program. The UPSTREAM Scholars Training Program will recruit, select, and train postdoctoral scholars pursuing independent academic careers in cancer research. Our proposed career development program has five pillars: 1) mentored research experience with a mentoring team composed of Center faculty across institutions and Regional Coalition members; 2) didactic educational program with curriculum in community engagement and cancer prevention; 3) experience conducting community-led research; 4) career and professional development activities; and 5) vertical and peer networking within the UPSTREAM Research Center and across the Persistent Poverty Initiative Network. To complement the in-depth training of postdoctoral scholars proposed under Aim 1 and extend the reach of the Core, the Career Enhancement Core will offer an intensive short course on leveraging real-world data to reduce cancer in persistent poverty areas, expert consultations with members of our Regional Coalition, a monthly UPSTREAM Research Center seminar series, and a cancer prevention journal club. These activities are designed to be widely accessible to trainees from different career stages within the UPSTREAM Research Center and across the Persistent Poverty Initiative Network. The Career Enhancement Core will synergize and coordinate with each component of the UPSTREAM Research Center and further the overall center goal of alleviating cancer in communities living in persistent poverty.