Leadership and Administrative Core

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Summary – Leadership and Administrative Core The University of Texas Rio Grande Valley (UTRGV) Alzheimer’s Disease Resource Center for Minority Aging Research (AD-RCMAR) will attract and support researchers from multiple disciplines with the goal of reducing health disparities in the Hispanic American population with Alzheimer’s disease and related disorders (AD/ADRD). The Leadership and Administrative Core (LAC) will be the central executive unit of the UTRGV AD/ADRD-RCMAR, providing leadership and coordination/communication among all activities and Cores. The LAC will also provide programmatic direction and oversight of functions, including regulatory compliance, administrative assistance, and supervision, ensuring synergy between the three cores and the Research Education component, and will facilitate external communications and dissemination. The LAC will promote innovation, leverage institutional and national resources and collaborations, and will be responsible for sustaining the Center’s focus on its scientific mission and expanding its research. Specific Aims of the LAC are: 1) provide efficient and cost-effective administrative coordination for the AD/ADRD-RCMAR, including support for grant administration, budget management, communication and coordination across its partners, Cores, Research Education component, and other administrative functions to support and optimize the Center's productivity and sustainability; 2) facilitate and coordinate approaches to attract and strengthen the number and research impact of highly talented investigators from underrepresented backgrounds who are committed to high-quality research on AD/ADRD in Hispanics; 3) plan and oversee the solicitation, review, and selection of AD-RCMAR pilot grants aimed at identifying social/behavioral contributors to high AD prevalence in Hispanics and create a system for tracking them until and beyond the awardees' attainment of independent funding; 4) foster interactions and collaborations at UTRGV, affiliated institutions, and externally, including the Coordinating Center, other AD/ADRD-RCMAR Centers, NIA Programs, lay community groups, and the annual AD-RCMAR meeting; 5) maximize and coordinate the leveraging of resources, including those available through UT and collaborating partner organizations, and institutional and external grant funds to promote the AD/ADRD-RCMAR's overall mission; and 6) provide systematic, objective and formal evaluation of each Core, the Research Education component, and the AD/ADRD-RCMAR as a whole, internally and by organizing and coordinating with the External Advisory Committee, and fulfill all required annual and semi-annual reporting. To accomplish these aims, we have built a leadership team with extensive experience in the administration of federal funding, research education, planning and evaluation. Critically important to this project, Core co- leaders Drs. Gladys Maestre and Silvia Mejia-Arango have vast experience in health disparities and peculiarities of the Texas/Mexico border. Our proposed LAC will provide effective and efficient governance and leadership infrastructure for the UTRGV AD/ADRD-RCMAR.