Superfund Research Program

Research Experiences and Training Coordination Core

Project Leader: Kelsey Pieper
Co-Investigator: Aidsa Santiago Roman
Grant Number: P42ES017198
Funding Period: 2010-2025

Project-Specific Links

Final Progress Reports

Year:   2019  2013 

Studies and Results

In Year 4, as a result of the Training Core's continuing evaluation and improvement process, a number of existing activities were continued, others were modified, and new activities were introduced. The inputs for the improvement process were: the Core's external advisory committee, comprised of experts in student training and evaluation; a Trainee Advisory Committee, consisting of trainee representatives from the program's four institutions; a Core liaison group of investigators from each institution; and, the assessment and evaluation consultant, SageFox Consulting Group. These groups hold quarterly conference calls to review past activities and plan for future Core-sponsored events, as well as WebEx meetings to update the members on Core accomplishments and gather input on strategic directions. During Year 4, the Core placed a priority on developing a plan for, and implementing a customized training experience for each trainee in recognition of the range of experience levels among the trainees. The activities from Year 4 are categorized according to the four primary areas articulated in the original, competing application, with emphasis on the customized training experience under "Interdisciplinary and Educational Opportunities."

Recruiting and Mentoring. In response to feedback from the external advisory committee and the investigator liaison group, the program modified its recruitment strategy in Year 4. In recognition of the very different and limited recruiting needs of the investigators at the 4 institutions, the Core decided to refocus its recruitment on attracting underrepresented minority (URM) students generally to the environmental health fields, using PROTECT as a case study/example to illustrate the wide range of disciplines participating in integrated environmental health research. In Oct., 2013, 3 trainees from UPRM were awarded travel award grants from their institution to attend the SACNAS national conference in San Antonio, TX. To augment this presence, Ms. Kristin Hicks, Core co-leader, joined a group from Northeastern University attending the conference to distribute information on PROTECT and environmental health fields. The Core will continue to seek out and leverage such opportunities for high impact recruitment of URM students into the environmental health fields.

Technical and Research Skills. The Core continued to focus on developing its trainees' technical and research skills, as well as enhancing other aspects of their professional development. Toward this end, the Core introduced Individual Development Plans (IDPs) in the Fall of 2013. These plans consist of an online form with a set of training activities, some required (webinar and town meeting attendance), and some to be selected from a menu of activities ranging from grant application preparation with their advisor to involvement in community engagement. Trainees submitted their IDPs in the fall of 2013 and the Training Core will review them with the trainees and their advisors during the spring of 2014. As a result of trainee and investigator feedback, town meetings were further defined as research roundtable discussions each centered on a cross-institution/cross-disciplinary research issue affecting PROTECT research efforts. Two of these occurred in the Fall 2013, and two more are planned for Spring 2014. Investigators and trainees attended and presented at the following meetings/conferences: 2013 International Electrokinetic Remediation Symposium, Boston (5 trainee presentations); 2013 SACNAS national conference, San Antonio (3 presentations); 2013 Society of Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry annual meeting, Nashville (6 presentations) and the SRP training and outreach event, Boston (9 presentations). The Core continued its technical webinar series alternated with the Town Meetings/Research roundtables In the 2013-2014 academic year, the webinar series was organized around a community engagement theme, with a total of 4 webinars planned for the year. The Core leadership and 2 students from the Program continued as active members of the SRP SPAN network. PROTECT trainee Norma Torres, UPRM doctoral student, was awarded a National Science Foundation graduate fellowship, and Dr. Kelly Hogan, UMich postdoctoral research, was awarded a 2-year fellowship in the Michigan Postdoctoral Translational Scholars Program.

Interdisciplinary, Educational and Research Translation Opportunities. The Core interdisciplinary and educational opportunities for trainees consist of previously noted trainee organized and led research roundtables, non-technical webinars on topics such as community engagement relevant to PROTECT, and other elements of each trainee's IDP. The Core also has strong interactions with the Research Translation Core. All of the PROTECT webinars are broadcast to the participating institutions and recorded for posting to the PROTECT website, and are publicized to the greater SRP/EPA community for attendance via WebEx. In May/June 2013, the Core organized the PROTECT Academy, which consisted of 4 extended webinars on key foundational knowledge areas for environmental health research: toxicology, epidemiology, groundwater contaminant fate and transport, and soil and groundwater remediation. These were each presented by one of the PROTECT investigators and broadcast via WebEx to the PROTECT institutions and registrants from the SRP/EPA community. Online attendance for each the 4 sessions was from 50-100, and these were also archived on the PROTECT website. The last activity under this category was joint publications, which illustrate the program's ability to integrate its work across multiple Projects/Cores. There were 4 such publications in 2013.

Assessment and Evaluation of the Training Core. SageFox Consulting Group, Amherst, MA, continued as the assessment and evaluation consultant for the Core. Following on the initial online attitudes survey of all PROTECT participants In the Fall of 2012, SageFox deployed the same survey in Fall 2013 to obtain longitudinal data. The ongoing goal of the survey is to assess the extent to which the program participants are gaining an understanding of and appreciation for the interdisciplinary nature of their work and the program. The results from this survey are being used to help the Core leadership, investigators and trainees across the program better understand the response to Core-sponsored activities and identify training needs for future activities. The results are also meant to provide background data for a proposed model of Core trainees as apprentice "scientist-citizens" who display not only technical/disciplinary skills and knowledge, but also cultural competence, an understanding of social/political context for their research, and an appreciation for risk management and public welfare/safety.

Significance

The Training Core activities, while primarily intended to provide an enhanced level of research and professional training for program trainees to become scientist-citizens, are also components of a broad-based, interdisciplinary set of activities through which the Core team intends to provide points of integration for the program as a whole. While important to this program, it is anticipated that as this array of activities expands, it will become a paradigm for how to integrate large, multidisciplinary research projects.