and appropriate mentorship. To accomplish this Specific Aim, we intend to award up to $100,000 per year for two years to each candidate. Of this award, $50,000 per year will come from the Brain Tumor SPORE grant and another $50,000 will be matched from institutional funds. To actually achieve the full amount of support needed for recruiting candidates, beginning at the Assistant Professor level, a joint recruitment effort by the Comprehensive Cancer Center, by the Institute for Genome Science and Policy, through its Development Program, financial resources of the Neuro-Oncology Program itself, and financial resources from the Departments of Pathology and Surgery and Central Administration will be required. As will be indicated below, the Duke Neuro-Oncology Program has a strong history of recruiting faculty who remain in translational neuro-oncology for a significant part of their career. Recruiting new faculty in this manner occurs by soliciting nominations from the Executive Committee of the SPORE, from all members of the Cancer Center, and from all clinical and basic science departments at Duke. Moreover, nationwide advertisements are placed in appropriate clinical and scientific journals to receive nominations from the outside. The Executive Committee will decide on the areas of clinical and scientific focus for which positions need to be filled or added in a supplemental manner to the existing Duke Neuro-Oncology Program and this SPORE. Otherwise, candidates who are completing postdoctoral training at other institutions will often contact the members of the Executive Committee to determine if there is a position at Duke compatible with their interest and training. Special attention is given to notifying women and minorities of the possibility of training at Duke. The Duke Medical School has scholarships for and gives special attention to recruitment of women and minorities. Currently, the first year medical school class has 45% women and 20% under-represented minorities, which are the highest ratios of any medical school among the top ten rated schools in the country. Dr. Sandra White, formerly Professor of Biology at Duke, is now Chairman of the Department of Biology at North Carolina Central University (NCCU) in Durham. Dr. White is a black female. NCCU is one of the historically black universities in the state-supported system of North Carolina. Research positions for Master's graduate students or undergraduate NCCU biology majors are made available to Dr. White for any of her interested students. The Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center has a joint research venture with the Morehouse Medical School of Atlanta. Morehouse students have a wide range of research opportunities in the Duke Cancer Center. Dr. Charles Johnson, Professor Emeritus of Medicine at Duke, was one of the first blacks to receive residency training at Duke. In his capacity as a member of the Cancer Center Executive Committee, he advises Dr. Lyerly and Dr. Bigner on methods of minority and female recruitment. Dr. Francis Ali-Osman, a black male, is a co-P.I, of our SPORE and P.I. of Project 1 and a co- investigator of Projects 2 and 4 of this Brain Tumor SPORE. He has collaborated for years with Drs. Henry Friedman, Colvin, and Bigner. He advises on minority recruitment and co-chairs the Education Committee. Dr. Carol Wikstrand, an internationally recognized tumor immunologist, has been associated with the Duke Neuro-Oncology Program for over twenty-five years. She will co-chair the Education Committee with Dr. Ali-Osman and focus on recruitment of women and minorities. Our collaborators in Projeet 4 have an excellent minority recruitment program at the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC). UIC has long-standing commitments to minority health issues, and to community- outreach programs. The Urban Health Program serves all of the health sciences colleges, but is most active in the College of Medicine (COM). The COM has recruited and graduated over 1,300 minority health professional students in the past 11 years, many of whom are practicing in the Chicago area. Through this program, UIC COM graduates more African-American physicians than any other medical school except the [] PHS 398/2590 (Rev. 05/01) Page690 Continuation Format Page [] []Career Development Program PrincipaIlnvestigator/PrograDmirector(Last,first,middle): Bigner, Darell D., M,D., Ph.D. historically black universities. The School of Public Health also has special programs to recruit, retain, and support students from under-represented groups, and is one of two schools of public health with a federally funded Health Careers Opportunity Program. Recruitment of Women and Minorities ? We have strengthened the ability to recruit women and minorities by making Dr. Francis Ali-Osman, who has been recruited to Duke as of June 1, 2003 and Dr. Carol Wikstrand co- chairs of the Education Committee. Dr. Ali-Osman is an internationally recognized African-American scientist originally from Ghana who has been a naturalized American citizen for many years. Dr. Carol Wikstrand is an internationally recognized scientist who has been associated with the Duke Neuro-oncology Program for over twenty-five years. She serves on the Admission Committee of the Pathology Graduate Program and the Cellular and Molecular Biology Program. The Ph.D. Graduate Program in Pathology is within the Division of Basic Science and Investigative Pathology, which is under Dr. Bigner's administrative jurisdiction as Vice-Chairman of Investigative Pathology. Dr. Bigner has appointed Dr. Soman Abraham, an African-American naturalized American citizen originally from Ethiopia to serve as Director of Graduate Studies in Pathology. These three individuals are thus in key positions to identify women and minority candidates early in their careers and to steer such candidates to the Neuro-oncology Program. ? We will also capitalize on a recently awarded grant to Duke - Partnerships to Eliminate Disparities in Cancer Outcomes and Research (P20-CA91410) - awarded to Duke's Comprehensive Cancer Center (DCCC) and North Carolina Central University (NCCU), a traditionally black university located a few miles from Duke. Dr. Sandra White, Professor and Chair of Biology at NCCU, is a co-investigator in this application. She is a former faculty member at Duke and member of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center. ? A program to identify and encourage women candidates to apply for Career Development Awards will be spearheaded by Career Development Co-Chair Carol Wikstrand through announcements through Duke's Association of Women Faculty and Fellows, and direct inquiry to the basic and clinical department chairs. B. Background and Significance The philosophy of the Duke Comprehensive Cancer Center and the Duke Neuro-Oncology Training Program is to identify candidates at the earliest possible time in their lives for careers in translational Neuro- Oncology. High School Program--The Duke Cancer Center supports internships for 20 rising senior high school students during the summer between their junior and senior years to come to Duke and work in cancer research laboratories. The goal of this program is to make cancer research, as a career option, known to students even at the high school level. Fifty percent of these students are minorities. The program """"""""Summer on the Edge"""""""" has been in existence for 12 years, and as a result there are a number of former Summer on the Edge students currently in medical school or graduate school who are considering cancer research as a career. The Duke Brain Tumor Center has mentored at least one student each year. Duke University Undergraduate Independent Study--For 15 years Dr. Darell Bigner was the Director of Graduate Studies for the Ph.D. Program in the Department of Pathology at Duke. Having served in that capacity, and as a senior faculty member at Duke, Dr. Bigner has an independent study program listed in the Duke University Undergraduate Bulletin. This course, #209 and 210, is open to Duke undergraduate students. Undergraduate students who train in this capacity are exposed early in their careers to neuro-oncology as a career option. The undergraduate schools at Duke have excellent female and minority representation. Clinical Internships in the Duke Brain Tumor Center--Dr. Henry Friedman offers summer and medical school and Duke University rotations for clinical experience in the Brain Tumor Center at Duke and actively solicits women and minorities. Duke University Graduate Program for Minority Recruitment--For the last several years the Graduate Program of Duke University has run a program in the summers for minority graduate students. This program, which is funded by the Mellon Foundation, provides a $2600 stipend for 10 weeks, plus room, board, and travel funding for up to 30 minority students from undergraduate programs. These students are selected as [] PHS 398/2590 (Rev. 05/01) Page691 Continuation Format Page []
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