Professional Development Core

The goal of the Professional Development Core is to enhance our trainees competitiveness in research by structuring and facilitating professional development for both the trainees and their mentors. The program outlined will provide the necessary training to ensure the acquisition of knowledge and skills needed to navigate a research career successfully. This goal will be achieved by 6 strategic approaches.

1. A Core Curriculum comprised of biweekly seminars will be implemented over the 2 years of training with presentations on a variety of topics,
2. Elective courses for Additional Professional Development offered by CWRU and its affiliated institutions, will be made available to trainees to gain a more in depth understanding of areas.
3. An Individualized Professional Development mentoring will be provided to each trainee by a professional development mentor, in addition to their research mentor.
4. Mentoring the Mentors will be accomplished by assigning each trainee a mentor in their own area from among the U2C leadership who are very experienced mentors.
5. Using social media and technology to advance Professional Development will be the focus on topics such as using social media to enhance professional networking and visibility and using online technologies to facilitate research.
6. Self-Evaluation of the Professional Development Core will be accomplished using a set of defined procedures.

The Professional Development Core is led by a team of 3 accomplished scientists (Drs. Damaser, Dell and Rahman), who are all full Professors, experienced mentors, and active in national research networks and organizations.

The team members bring complementary expertise in basic, translational and clinical research, and insight into Professional Development.  With its strategic approaches and coordinated efforts, the Professional Development Core will provide a nurturing environment to foster trainees’ growth into successful independent researchers. Our proposed interdisciplinary program harnesses a robust mentoring environment, innovative technology, and critical research resources with both tailored and structured educational experiences.