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
The Puerto Rico Test site for Exploring Contamination Threats (PROTECT) Training Core has continued to provide a broad range of opportunities to its 40 current trainees and provides regional and national leadership in trainee activities to the SRP program. The hallmark webinar series, broadcast to Program sites and the SRP/EPA communities, continued with “Sicker Fatter Poorer: The Urgent Threat of Hormone-Disrupting Chemicals to Our Health and Future…and What We Can Do About It” (Leo Trasande, M.D., March 2019), and “Single cell bioinformatics and metabolomics: Methods and Tools for Environmental Health Research” (Lana Garmire, Ph.D., November 2019). The Training Core also hosted PROTECT Professional Development Workshops: “Publishing Environmental Health Research: Tips for Authors” (Sally Darney, Ph.D., October 2019) and “Effective Poster Presentations” (Tracy Carter, Ph.D., October 2019). The Core continued both the PROTECT Orientation and the Individual Development Plan (IDP) submissions in fall, 2019, with annual completion awards scheduled for summer, 2020. A new IDP emphasis is the team-based Desafío (or Challenge) projects, designated cross-institution efforts to support trainee professional development, trainee interaction, or community outreach. All trainees continued to enroll in CourseSites to facilitate trainee interactions, and submit assignments and certifications. The Core met with its advisory boards (External, Researcher and Trainee) in June/July 2019 and December 2019 to support its continuous improvement process and planning efforts. The Core initiated engagement with its new assessment and evaluation team, part of Northeastern University’s Public Evaluation Lab (NU-PEL). Trainee Elana Elkin received the Karen Wetterhahn Memorial Award at the SRP Annual Meeting in Seattle in December 2019.