Core A provides leadership, management, organizational structure, fiscal oversight, and scientific direction to the Penn Mental Health AIDS Research Center (PMHARC), enabling it to fulfill its core mission to transform how people with both mental illness and HIV/AIDS (mental illness/AIDS) are treated and managed, an explicit focus not currently pursued by any other center in the country. The Center and Core A is led by a Director and two Co-Directors with exceptional and complementary strengths and experience in administration, research, and training and in the study of comorbid mental illness/AIDS. PMHARC is located in an optimal intellectual and resource environment, which encompasses robust and well-regarded mental illness and AIDS research communities on the University of Pennsylvania and Children's Hospital of Philadelphia contiguous campuses. The Center, through Core A, will optimize psychiatric, behavioral, and medical outcomes for those suffering from comorbid mental illness/AIDS and elucidate the biological, psychological, and behavioral mechanisms underlying these combined illnesses and treatments. Core A has created an interactive environment that fosters communication, collaboration, and synergy among Center components and participants, as well as with the relevant schools, departments, centers, and institutes at Penn/CHOP including the CFAR, the CTSA/CTRC, the Delaney Collaboratory, and with other NIMH AIDS Research Centers. This proactive Core will be engaged and responsible for: 1) coordinating interdisciplinary and collaborative mental health and AIDS research activities; 2) encouraging, supporting, and mentoring new, established, and transitional investigators to focus on comorbid mental illness/AIDS, and related comorbidities; 3) developing vibrant and responsive Strategic Planning, Monitoring, and Evaluation Processes and comprehensive Policies and Procedures; 4) managing fiscal matters; 5) conducting educational and community outreach programs; 6) fostering national linkages among other NIMH AIDS Research Centers; and 7) supporting an active Community Advisory Board (CAB). Core A includes the Center Director, 2 Co-Directors, Executive Committee (EC), Internal Advisory Board (IAB), External Advisory Committee (EAC), Cross-Talk Committee, and CAB. This structure of Core A is explicitly intended to allow for continuous monitoring and evaluation of PMHARC functioning in order to optimize efficiencies and responsiveness.
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