CDEIPI Monthly Newsletter

June 2022

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

PROJECT SPOTLIGHT

Providence/Boston CFAR Diversity Equity Inclusion and Belonging (DEIB) Program

The Providence/Boston CFAR CDEIPI program is led by Kaku So-Armah, PhD from Boston University and Caroline Kuo, MPhil, DPhil, Judy Kimberly, PhD, and Martha Sanchez, MD from Brown University with colleagues Tim Flanigan, MD and Karina Santamaria from Brown University and Kaylyn Bruciati, MHA from Boston Medical Center.

The goals of the Providence/Boston CFAR CDEIPI program are to implement an HIV-focused pilot program to expand the reach of existing Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) pipeline programs at Prov/Bos CFAR institutions and to conduct a needs assessment of Prov/Bos CFAR mentees and mentors to guide the development of robust and innovative programming in the Prov/Bos CFAR DEIB Program.

The Providence/Boston CFAR DEIB program includes undergraduate, post-baccalaureate, masters, and doctoral students from groups historically excluded from STEM careers through internships, research assistantships, and other scholar supports that facilitate full participation in Providence/Boston CFAR DEIB program activities. In addition, the Providence/Boston CFAR DEIB program is conducting a needs assessment survey of Providence/Boston CFAR mentees and mentors and in-depth interviews with mentees and mentors from groups historically excluded from STEM careers.

The Providence/Boston CFAR program is currently collaborating with other CFAR CDEIPI programs to provide scholars continued access to mentoring and support as they transition to other CFAR institutions (with the DC CFAR) and on the needs assessment component of their program (with the UAB CFAR).

For more information on the Providence/Boston CFAR CDEIPI program, click here.

ADMINISTRATIVE CORE UPDATES

As a reminder, the Coordinating Center requests that all CDEIPI programs kindly submit your invoices as soon as possible to ensure that spending on your subawards is completed by the end of the grant period on November 30, 2022 (pending the DC CFAR’s receipt of its notice of award). As of today, about half of the CDEIPI programs have begun to submit invoices for their work and about half have not. We encourage you to connect with your institution’s grants management representatives if you have questions about the status of your award and invoicing. The Coordinating Center will also be in touch to remind you to submit your invoices in a timely manner to ensure that CDEIPI funds are flowing to your institutions. We appreciate your help with this!

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

PROGRAM CORE UPDATES

On May 26, the Program Core held its monthly meeting of the program leads from each of the CDEIPI sites. The May call included a presentation by Mark Burke (DC CFAR) and Kaku So-Armah (Prov/Bos CFAR) on cross-CDEIPI collaborations. Drs. Burke and So-Armah described their current collaboration and introduced strategies to help link CFAR Scholars between CDEIPI institutions. Their suggestions included adding Program Lead contact information to the CDEIPI website; linking CFAR Scholars to other CDEIPI programs through shared seminars and calendars; and identifying transitions between CDEIPI institutions to help CFAR Scholars take advantage of the CDEIPI network. Finally, Drs. Burke and So-Armah invited the Program Leads to join CDEIPI Slack to facilitate easy communication among the program sites, CDEIPI mentors and scholars, and with the Coordinating Center. To join the CDEIPI Slack workspace, email Kaku So-Armah at kaku@bu.edu.

As a reminder, progress reports are due to Brandi Robinson on June 30, 2022.

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

Next Meeting: Thursday, June 23 from 3-4 PM ET

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

EVALUATION CORE UPDATES

On May 26, the Evaluation Core held its monthly meeting to finalize mentee survey instrumentation using a consensus-building method. Dr. Manya Magnus provided a summary of the comments, edits, and questions she and the Evaluation Team received regarding the instrument and shared additional regulatory considerations. With the Evaluation Leads’ input, the Core has now customized REDCap interfaces for each site and the goal is to begin dissemination of the quarterly mentee-surveys by 7/15/22. In addition, quarterly program aggregate statistics for Quarter 2 (Apr-May-Jun) are due on 7/15/22.

The Evaluation Core is enormously grateful for the hard work of all the Evaluation Leads who are not only working on their own local evaluations, but also helping with this collaborative process!

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

Next Meeting: Thursday, June 23 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.