CDEIPI Monthly Newsletter

July 2022

Each month, the CDEIPI newsletter will spotlight one of the CDEIPI programs.

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

UNC and NCCU Diversity and Inclusion Pipeline Program (UN-DIPP)

The UNC CFAR and North Carolina Central University CDEIPI program is led by Seronda Robinson, PhD from North Carolina Central University and Ben Chi, MD from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill with Deepak Kumar, PhD from North Carolina Central University.

The goals of the UNC CFAR CDEIPI program are to enhance diversity and equity in the biomedical sciences by developing a sustainable long term graduate and undergraduate URM student pipeline program; to provide an understanding and exposure to global health defined as “an area for study, research, and practice that places a priority on improving health and achieving health equity for all people worldwide”; to provide formative experiences to high school URM learners to foster greater interest in the sciences as viable career paths; and

to evaluate the effectiveness of program activities via learner experiences, program metrics, and mentor-mentee networking.

For more information on the UNC and NCCU Diversity and Inclusion Pipeline Program, click here.

ADMINISTRATIVE CORE UPDATES

On June 27, Dr. Alan Greenberg circulated a draft overview manuscript of the CDEIPI program. Thank you to those of you who have already provided your helpful feedback. If you have not already done so, we would be most appreciative if you would send your comments and/or edits in tracked changes to Alan Greenberg and Lorena Segarra by Friday, July 15.

The Coordinating Center is working on NCEs for the CDEIPI Year 1 grantees and expects to send these out soon. The CDEIPI Year 1 awards will be extended through November 30, 2022. You do not need to provide a formal request or any other documentation. In the meantime, you are free to continue your work and to submit invoices.

Contact: Patti Simon at psimon@gwu.edu with any questions or concerns.

PROGRAM CORE UPDATES

On June 23, the Program Core held its monthly meeting of the program leads from each of the CDEIPI sites. Participants discussed developing a JAIDS supplement on the CDEIPI program which could include both multi-site and individual site papers. With support from the group, the Coordinating Center offered to organize this opportunity following the finalization of the CDEIPI overview manuscript. Dr. Kaku So-Armah provided an update on the CDEIPI Slack and led a brief discussion on ways to further engage CDEIPI Scholars and project leads. Dr. So-Armah will pilot test a live Slack chat with CDEIPI scholars from Prov/Bos, DC, and UCSF and report back to the program leads. Finally, during a follow-up conversation on mentoring, Dr. John Sauceda encouraged CDEIPI mentors to apply to attend the upcoming Mentoring the Mentors Workshop on October 11-12 and the Inter-CFAR meeting for Underrepresented Minorities in HIV Research on October 10. Click here for more information about the meetings and to submit an application.

As a reminder, there is no Program Core call in July.

For more information, please see the meeting slides and recording.

Next Meeting: Thursday, August 25 from 3-4 PM ET

Contact: Brandi Robinson at bnrobin@gwu.edu for more information.

EVALUATION CORE UPDATES

On June 23, the Evaluation Core held its monthly meeting during which Dr. Manya Magnus provided updates on several developments including the project’s receipt of an IRB exempt determination for the individual-level survey, plans for individual-level survey link dissemination, refinement of quarterly evaluation data collection instruments (as requested by Evaluation Leads), and the opportunity to participate in the CDEIPI Slack with the CDEIPI program leads. Next, Dr. Amy Corneli from the Duke University CFAR and Dr. Carina Marquez from the UCSF CFAR provided site updates. Both presentations included key program features, progress-to-date, and early evaluation findings. (See slides for additional details.)

As a reminder, the second quarter evaluation survey is due on July 15 and there is no Evaluation Core meeting in July.

For more information, please see the meeting slides and recording.

Next Meeting: Thursday, August 25 from 1-2 PM ET

Contact: Lorena Segarra at lsegarra@gwu.edu for more information.

We look forward to sharing updates and resources with you in this newsletter and on our website. Please let us know if there are other ways the CDEIPI Coordinating Center can support your important work.

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CDEIPI is a supplement to the DC CFAR, an NIH-funded program (P30AI117970), which is supported by the following NIH Co-Funding and Participating Institutes and Centers: NIAID, NCI, NICHD, NIDCR, NHLBI, NIDA, NIMH, NIA, NIDDK, NINR, NIMHD, FIC, and OAR. The content is the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.