2/2 Cherokee Nation/Stephenson Cancer Center Collaborative on Cancer Disparities

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Summary Qualified investigators capable and motivated to pursue research on American Indian cancer disparities are in short supply. Efforts to address this lack of researchers have generally focused on new investigators, with often impressive yields, e.g., the Native Investigator Program at the Universities of Colorado and Washington. But until we stimulate interest in biomedical and behavioral research among American Indian students, there will always be too few American Indian investigators for the work that tribal nations have. Our training and education program seeks to utilize the impressive work that has already been articulated to support new investigators in their transition to independent research, linking this with innovative new programs for graduate and undergraduate students contemplating careers with the Cherokee Nation. We have three specific aims: 1) to establish a learning community, including faculty, mentors, staff, new investigators, graduate, and undergraduate students, all linked in the pursuit of research to make progress on tobacco-related cancer disparities for the Cherokee Nation; 2) to implement a highly successful model for the mentorship to support new American Indian investigators in Oklahoma in making the transition to independent research; 3) to establish an education and training program for graduate and undergraduate students interested in working for the Cherokee Nation on cancer health disparities. Our goal in establishing this program is to lay the groundwork for a broader inter-institutional program in training and education capable of meeting the future needs for the workforce the Cherokee Nation will require to begin to close the gap in cancer morbidity and mortality.