The CORAL Training Core

Modified Project Summary/Abstract Section – CORAL Training Core Ending the maternal behavioral health crisis requires developing a new generation of scientists, evidence, and interventions that (1) bridges siloed approaches to behavioral health and maternal health, and (2) is authentically locally responsive. Developing this new generation of scientists requires a multidisciplinary approach to identifying and intervening in the factors that shape maternal behavioral health conditions and demands effective training in ethically engaging communities on knowledge production and impactful translation. The CORAL Training Core is designed to develop this new generation of scientists, evidence, and interventions that will help end the maternal behavioral health crisis. It will serve a pivotal role in promoting locally responsive research, developing early-stage investigators (ESIs), and building multidisciplinary research capacity for maternal health and behavioral health with a focus on both pregnant and postpartum women. It will leverage unique strengths of CORAL’s Community Partnership Core and established relationships across Morehouse School of Medicine, Emory University, and community partners to weave a focus on ethical, locally responsive research into its approach to: (1) Provide mentoring and career development for ESIs; (2) Build research capacity among ESIs and established investigators for effective, ethical, locally responsive research and dissemination; (3) Develop and administer a CORAL Pilot Project Program to provide >$520,000 in research funding – most leveraged via in-kind support - for ESI, to support their career development in maternal behavioral health research and interventions; and (4) Enhance collaboration with non-academic partners and other Centers of Excellence. The Training Core will be co-led by two faculty with complementary training, experience, and expertise: Dr. Dawn Tyus, Project Director and Principal Investigator for the African American Behavioral Health Center of Excellence at Morehouse School of Medicine, and Dr. Whitney Rice, Director of the Center for Reproductive Health Research in the Southeast (RISE). By achieving its aims, CORAL’s Training Core will develop the next generation of multidisciplinary, locally responsive scientists, evidence, and interventions needed to end the maternal behavioral health crisis.