Cancer Research Career Enhancement & Related Activities

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CANCER RESEARCH CAREER ENHANCEMENT: SUMMARY Through experienced leadership and continuous strategic investment, the Hollings Cancer Center (HCC) has spearheaded cancer-focused educational and professional development activities across the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) for more than two decades. Inherent to its core mission, the HCC offers an innovative portfolio of training activities and career enhancement programming to maximize cancer-focused career success and the advancement of a diverse cancer research workforce. Buoyed by significant accomplishments, HCC leadership expanded its cancer research career enhancement activities during the current project period. These accomplishments include the following HCC-driven initiatives and awards: a new NCI-funded postdoctoral T32 for “Integrative Training in Oncogenic Signaling;” a new “Continuing Umbrella of Research Experiences,” CCSG Supplement; a new NCI-funded R25, “SC Cancer Health Equity Consortium,” summer undergraduate education award; two new U54s, the NCI-funded “SC Cancer Disparities Research Center,” and the NIMHD-funded “Transdisciplinary Collaborative Center in Precision Medicine and Minority Men’s Health,” both of which include education and training cores; new designation as the NCI-funded Region 1 South leader for the “Geographical Management of Cancer Health Disparities Program;” and recent renewal of an NCI-funded K12, “Paul Calabresi Career Development Award for Clinical Oncologists.” Training at the HCC now spans the education spectrum, from high school to undergraduates, to pre- and post-doctoral trainees, to K-level and early stage investigators, to continuing education for health professionals in the community. Institutional investment bolstered the support of national and international scholars through HCC- supported pre- and post-doctoral fellowship and clinical scholar programs emphasizing early career physician- scientists. The entire spectrum of cancer research training is now cohesively integrated under an umbrella peer-to-peer support platform with an annual cancer research symposium celebrating excellence across training disciplines and stages. What distinguishes the HCC’s educational and training enterprise are its significant record of accomplishment in providing SC’s only comprehensive, cancer-focused research education and training opportunities, the intentional inclusion of cancer disparities education in almost all of its programs, and strong partnerships among key minority-serving institutions in SC and the region. In the next cycle, the Associate Director of Education and Training, Chanita Hughes-Halbert, PhD (CC), with guidance from an internal Educational and Training Leadership Council and HCC program leaders, will employ a rigorous, continuous improvement strategy to track and evaluate HCC’s career enhancement efforts, and develop novel approaches to further integrate education pipeline components through new experience-based peer mentoring and interdisciplinary opportunities for engagement across multiple levels of learners.