Career Enhancement Core

The USC TCORS Career Enhancement Core (CEC) plans a multi-pronged interdisciplinary approach to enhance the career trajectories of trainees and early-stage investigators with tobacco regulatory science (TRS) expertise consistent with the broad theme of our center: Informing regulation of an evolving non-combustible product market to protect young people. Given its applied nature, TRS not only requires understanding of the scientific questions and methodology related to TRS, but also insight into FDA’s regulatory authority and how to use TRS evidence to inform FDA in a manner that can withstand judicial challenges. To achieve this goal, we have built upon the successful career enhancement core in USC TCORS during the current project period, with the added value of a new codirector with decades of experience in the career development of tobacco control trainees and scientists. For the 2023-2028 funding period, we propose a combination of didactive training, experiential learning via participation research teams, individualized learning through the conduct of a mentored research project, and personalized and interdisciplinary co-mentorship and career coaching. Specific content areas will include but are not limited to: research on tobacco product appeal, susceptibility, and usage; tobacco product manufacturing, marketing, and distribution; regulatory science; research ethics; and community outreach and engagement. The Specific Aims are to: 1) Recruit and train exceptional pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees in the performance of rigorous TRS research and prepare them for successful careers as independent TRS investigators; 2) Provide personalized interdisciplinary mentorship and training for early-stage investigators or established investigators interested in shifting their research focus to TRS; 3) Implement USC’s new, innovative certificate program (short course) in Tobacco Regulatory Science for CEC trainees and other students and professionals engaged in tobacco regulatory activities at the local, state, and federal levels; 4) Assist the national TCORS Career Enhancement Working Group’s efforts to catalogue and disseminate best practices in TRS training and career enhancement; and 5) Monitor and evaluate the progress and impact of the CEC using established metrics. These activities will produce a cohort of well-trained TRS scholars at USC and nationwide who are poised to become scientific leaders capable of generating the evidence base required to protect the U.S. public’s health from unnecessary morbidity and mortality resulting from the marketing and consumption of tobacco products.