February 2022

Announcing the CDEIPI Website, Monthly Newsletter and Logo

The CFAR Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Pipeline Initiative (CDEIPI) Coordinating Center is pleased to announce a suite of new resources to enhance communication and connectivity across participants in this national initiative: the CDEIPI website, logo, and monthly electronic newsletter.

The CDEIPI website features descriptions of award recipients and will serve as a resource and repository for CDEIPI project information. We encourage you to download the new CDEIPI logo and add this to posters, presentations, and social media posts related to your program.

Beginning today, you will receive this monthly newsletter which will feature important updates from the Program and Evaluation Cores, spotlight fellow CDEIPI programs, and highlight resources of interest. We look forward to incorporating additional features over time.

Please let us know if there are other ways we can use the website or newsletter to enhance and support your work. For now, we invite you to visit the website and hope that it will serve as a valuable resource to the CDEIPI community.

To add others to the newsletter distribution list, please contact CFARinDC@gmail.com.

Please click here to visit the website.

PROGRAM CORE UPDATES

On January 27, the Program Core held its first monthly meeting of the program leads from each of the CDEIPI project sites. Dr. Lisa Bowleg, Provost Anthony Wutoh, and Ms. Brandi Robinson, welcomed participants and stated the overall goals for the monthly meetings – building community and supporting collaboration among participants. Each site then provided a brief update on the progress of their CDEIPI programs and on any challenges (many pandemic-related) that they have encountered. The discussion highlighted the breadth of activities underway and opportunities to share tools and curricula being developed.

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

Next Meeting: TBD

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

EVALUATION CORE UPDATES

On January 27, the Evaluation Core held its first monthly meeting of the evaluation leads from each of the CDEIPI project sites. Participants were asked to complete a survey in advance of the call to capture progress-to-date. Dr. Manya Magnus and the CDEIPI Evaluation Core team, Ms. Lorena Segarra and Ms. Soundarya Avantsa, provided a summary of the survey results and offered to use this strategy moving forward as a way to focus and facilitate meeting discussions. Following a brief description of the core objectives and guiding principles, each CDEIPI evaluation lead introduced themselves, their program and their evaluation strategy. Participants noted common components among their programs and expressed interest in using harmonized metrics across sites to simplify and amplify their local evaluation efforts.

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

Next Meeting: Thurs. 2/24 from 1-2 PM EST

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

ADMINISTRATIVE CORE UPDATES

We are pleased to report that the Coordinating Center has sent subaward documents to all of the CDEIPI grantees. If your subaward is not set-up or you are unsure of the status, we encourage you to check with your institution’s fiscal representatives to ensure all subaward documents have been reviewed, signed, and returned to GW.

Contact: Patti Simon at psimon@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.

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

DC CDEIPI: Developing an Inclusive Generation of HIV Researchers through Diversity and Community

The DC CDEIPI program is led by Provost Anthony Wutoh (Howard University), Dr. Kim Blankenship (American University), and Dr. Mark Burke (Howard University). The overall goal of this program is to provide HIV mentored-research opportunities and professional development that engages students to build a sense of community by working together within the DC CFAR and the local community through outreach and volunteer activities.

To date, the DC CDEIPI has recruited a cohort of local high school and undergraduate students who have been matched with researchers from DC CFAR partner institutions. Next month, student scholars will begin participating in weekly program activities including seminars, scholarship and fellowship development, and community outreach. Program participants will have additional educational outreach opportunities through a partnership between Howard University and the National Museum of Health and Medicine.

For more details, click here.

Visit our Website

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.