Training the next generation of aging and cognitive health researchers

ABSTRACT

Dementia is a growing public health concern, and African Americans and Latinos are disproportionately affected compared to White Americans. Improving cognitive health outcomes and reducing disparities requires a diverse, interdisciplinary workforce. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Healthy Brain Research Network (HBRN) Scholars Program trained racially/ethnically and gender-diverse scholars through mentored, collaborative research. Entry, exit, and alumni surveys and a Scholar Spotlight Series queried motivation, goals, acquired skills, accomplishments, program impact, and scholar perspectives. Scholars (n = 41) were majority female (n = 31, 75.6%), graduate students (n = 23, 56.1%), and racially/ethnically diverse (n = 20, 48.7%). Scholars primarily represented Medicine (n = 19, 46.3%) and Public Health (n = 12, 29.3%). Exiting scholars (n = 25) secured faculty/professional positions (n = 9, 36.0%), awards/funding (n = 12, 48.0%), and publications (n = 8, 32.0%). Alumni (n = 10) secured cognitive health-related positions/fellowships (n = 7, 70.0%). The HBRN Scholars Program is an adaptable model for other thematic networks to prepare scholars in collaborative skills critical for effective research and practice.

KEYWORDS:

• Scholars program
• Alzheimer’s disease
• increasing diversity
• women
• mentoring

Acknowledgments

The authors wish to thank Christina Miyawaki, PhD, MSW of the University of Houston, Jason Karlawish, MD of the University of Pennsylvania, and Leigh Callahan, PhD of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill for their thoughtful reviews of this manuscript. The authors thank Liz Deutchki of the University of South Carolina for summarizing the themes from the scholar spotlights. At the Healthy Brain Research Network (HBRN) Coordinating Center at the University of Washington, the authors thank Gwen Moni, BA for her management of the HBRN Scholars Program, including its surveys and the HBRN Scholars Spotlight Series, and Yael Yanich for her assistance formatting our manuscript.

REDCap at ITHS is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1 TR002319 (Harris et al., 2009).

Ethical approval

Data were analyzed at the University of South Carolina, whose Internal Review Board deemed that the research conducted with the Healthy Brain Research Network Scholar surveys and Spotlight Series was not subject to protection of human subjects. Similarly, University of Washington, where data were managed, completed a stepped, self-directed process to determine that their management of the data was not human subjects work.

Additional information

Funding

This publication is the result of research conducted by the Healthy Brain Research Network (HBRN), funded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Alzheimer’s Disease and Healthy Aging Program. The HBRN is a thematic network of CDC’s Prevention Research Centers Program. Efforts were supported in part by cooperative agreements: U48 DP 005006, 005002, 005010, 005053, 005000, and 005013. The findings and conclusions presented in this publication are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of the CDC.