Mutual Mentoring Advancement Program – M2AP

Zora’s Daughters Mentoring Circle

Lead: N. Fadeke Castor, Assistant Professor of Religion and Africana Studies

Mentoring Team: Black women faculty studying Black religion in Boston

Goal:

Ensure that group members are able to successfully achieve tenure and become full professors so that their own mentorship of junior faculty, graduate students, and even undergraduate students can continue, though not at the expense of their own success and longevity in the academy.

Agile management team in systems and environmental Research

Lead: A-Andrew D. Jones III, Assistant Professor of Chemical Engineering

Mentoring Team: 1 Northeastern first-year faculty member, an external executive coach, and graduate and undergraduate students

Goal:

Develop a culture of individual and communal responsibility to allow for the rapid onboarding and results generation of all students and the lead faculty, and to increase communication of knowledge through publications and meetings.

Translating the ‘mastermind’ Concept from business to academia: Facilitating Peer mentorship among female PIs leading active research labs

Lead: Danielle Levac, Assistant Professor of Physical Therapy

Co-Lead: Emily Zimmerman, Assistant Professor of Communication Sciences and Disorders

Mentoring Team: A ‘mastermind’ group of female PIs in STEM fields

Goal:

Establish operational guidelines for a Mastermind group, measure its success, create opportunities for group members to write uninterrupted, and translate knowledge about the Mastermind experience to the Northeastern community.

College of Professional Studies Peer Promotion Mentoring Program

Lead: Tova Sanders, Associate Teaching Professor of Education

Co-Leads: Nancy Pawlyshyn, Associate Teaching Professor in Graduate and Professional Studies, and Shaunna Harrington, Associate Academic Specialist

Mentoring Team: Past and present members of the College of Professional Studies’ Faculty Development and Support Committee

Goal: 

Build a sustainable mutual mentoring program for the College of Professional Studies to support faculty in promotion, onboarding, and in the virtual community of practice.

Contemporary media Art research group

Lead: Gloria Hwang Sutton, Associate Professor of Contemporary Art History

Mentoring Team: 2 Northeastern University faculty members, 1 Northeastern undergraduate student, and the scholar in residence at the University of California, Berkeley

Goal:

Pair experts in academia with their art museum counterparts to diversify the analysis and exhibition of digital media art in their teaching and research as well as resulting in an edited publication at a key juncture in their tenure and promotion timelines.

Faculty Women of Color Writing Community

Lead: Nicole Aljoe, Director of African and African American Studies Program; Associate Professor of English

Mentoring team: 2 Northeastern faculty members

Goal:

Facilitate the development of an academic writing community and career progress mutual mentoring group for faculty women of color.

Intelligent, Data-Driven Discovery and Decisions (ID4) for Natural Disaster Management

Lead: Chun-An Chou, Assistant Professor, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Mentoring Team: 4 Northeastern faculty members, 2 PhD students

Goal: The overall goal of this proposal is to design a mutual mentoring platform for researching “Intelligent, Data-Driven Discovery and Decisions (ID4) for Natural Disaster Management” among Northeastern Engineering faculty with cross-disciplinary research expertise among Industrial Engineering, Civil Engineering, Environmental Engineering􀀁 and Data Science. Our research objective is to fully understand and in turn predict the human mobility patterns before, during, and after disasters. The program seeks to combine domain knowledge from multiple fields to study urban residents’ behaviors and decision-making under the impact of natural disasters, especially hurricanes. If funded, the team will together explore urban mobility data in association with hurricanes, develop innovative methods and models to quantify travel patterns and perturbations, create simulations to test hypothetical scenarios, build quantitative frameworks to identify vulnerable individuals and neighborhoods during disasters, and validating research outcomes with empirical cases.

Music Faculty Writing and Peer Mentoring Group

Lead: Andrew Mall, Assistant Professor of Music

Mentoring Team: 4 Northeastern faculty members, 2 outside faculty members

Goal: In our writing group, each member will commit to completing a draft of a small-scale piece (conference paper, book chapter, or article) in the Spring Semester. We will hold a kick-off meeting in January in which each member will briefly present the work s/he plans to complete. Weekly writing group meetings in January through April will provide structure and peer accountability for the writing process, with mentorship as-needed provided by the ADVANCE Office and the Writing Center. We plan to invite two external colleagues to mentor us on career planning and advancement as well as leading the group through a peer workshop and retreat in which each member of the Northeastern group will focus on completing a single piece of writing. This workshop will take place on a Saturday in late March or early April; each group member will share a complete draft of their piece prior to the workshop for review and comment; we will all read each others’ drafts. At the workshop itself, our external colleagues will facilitate a peer review process to generate feedback for revision and lead us in mentorship conversations.  Finally, at the beginning of the 2019–20 academic year in September, we will each present our work in a public series open to all Northeastern faculty and students to kick off the new year (and to recap the prior year of writing and mentorship).

Mutual Mentoring for Collaborative Research Directions: Finding the Space to See the Bigger Picture

Lead: Rachel F. Rodgers, Associate Professor, Department of Applied Psychology

Mentoring Team: 1 Northeastern faculty member, 3 outside faculty members

Goal: To join a national network of body image and health experts from various institutions across different levels of advancement; To participate in a research meeting and think-tank of a small group of expert body image and health research experts with the goal of developing a strategic collaborative research agenda; To prepare a co-authored publication that will serve to lay out foundations for the collaborative research program and start to build a track record of productive collaboration to support grant applications.

Blockchain-based Information Sharing and End-to-End Risk Management Platform for Resilient and Efficient Healthcare System

Lead: Wei Xie, Mechanical and Industrial Engineering, Northeastern University

Mentoring Team: 3 Northeastern faculty members, 1 outside faculty member

Goal: Regular meetings with the purpose on applying for external research funding
and preparing scholar publications; host research seminars at Northeastern University by inviting researchers from academia and industry leaders in healthcare; facilitate meetings and interactions with key researchers and industry members at international conference events (e.g., INFORMS and Winter Simulation Conference). Organize the sessions on data analytics, simulation, optimization and risk management for
health care system; organize visits to academic and industrial partners (e.g., MIT, Harvard University, Mayo Clinic, BWH and Children’s hospitals). Since the pharmaceutical supply chain globalization becomes the big trend, we will organize international visits and explore the potential international collaboration opportunities (e.g., Fudan University in China).

Finding a Space to Refocus on Writing

Lead: Miso Kim, Assistant Professor, Art + Design, College of Arts, Media and Design; Ann McDonald, Associate Professor, Department of Art + Design

Mentoring Team: 4 Northeastern faculty members

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

Although writing is a significant part of being a college scholar, faculty members do not have many opportunities to cultivate writing skills formally or to grow the habit of productive writing. It can also be difficult to find quality, focused time to write because of other faculty commitments, such as teaching and service. We want to enhance our writing skills, productivity, and collegiality by forming a writing group made up of female faculty members in diverse stages of their careers. With encouragement and accountability, we will mutually mentor each other to cultivate our abilities in academic writing. We will focus on setting regular writing goals, holding our membership accountable to their scholarship and sharing strategies from our different experiences to solidify our practices.

Impact on research:

The Mutual Mentoring Advancement Program (M2AP) Funding has provided a productive space for us to focus on research writing and to set up a routine in developing writing habits. Additionally, the writing group sessions have provided a rare opportunity to hear about the work of colleagues and to receive peer feedback on individual work, which has offered useful insights for developing future work. Overall, the writing group has been successful; the original aims that we set up have been met, and we have worked beyond the proposed goals to write a few papers, short abstracts, and funding proposals.

Evaluation of Service-Learning Partnerships Local and Abroad using the SOFAR Theoretical Framework

Lead: Lorna Hayward, Associate Professor of Physical Therapy

Mentoring Team: 5 Northeastern faculty members

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

To develop a collaborative network of experts, both internal and external to Northeastern University (NU),  to increase my ability to deeply study the impact of service-learning provided by college-aged students from the community partner perspective. Partnering with individuals who are actively engaged in a similar line of inquiry would assist facilitate expansion of my research agenda and hopefully help me achieve the status of full professor.

Impact on research:

In March, this training and the data collection were accomplished and we are in the process of writing up the results. The reference for the article is: Hayward L, Fragala-Pinkham M, Schneider S, Coe M, Vargas C, a Wassenar A, Emmons E, Lizzio C, Hayward J, Torres D.  Exploring  Community Perspectives on Disability Awareness in Latacunga, Ecuador.  Physiotherapy Research International. 2018 in progress

Understanding Interdisciplinary Performance

Lead: Sarah Kanouse, Associate Professor, Department of Art + Design

Mentoring Team: 3 Northeastern faculty members, 2 outside faculty members, 1 outside mentor

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

The term “performance” is widely used across the arts: in music, theater, dance, and visual art. Yet, as Shannon Jackson has observed, expectations, modalities, and techniques for performance vary widely according to disciplinary background. In the visual arts, for instance, performance tends to be durational rather than narrative, as in theater; structures supporting improvisation have arisen differently in dance than in music. For mid-career artists who wish to perform in ways that work across these modes, it can be difficult to identify and develop the vocabularies, technical skills, and theoretical knowledge required to develop projects that resonate across disciplines.

Impact on research:

The Mutual Mentoring grant has been instrumental in making extraordinary progress on the project since December, 2017. Not only will all my goals for the grant be met by early July, but I have achieved significant internal and external validation of the project in the form of a summer artist residency, an international fellowship, and advancement to the second round of the most prestigious and competitive grant program in my field. More subjectively, working on this project has been the most meaningful, even exhilarating experience of my professional career. I am convinced that it represents the best work I have ever done and will be a turning point in my creative practice.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR MUTUAL MENTORING COHORT

Lead: Liz Bucar, Associate Professor of Religion and CSSH Dean’s Leadership Fellow

Mentoring Team: 5 Northeastern faculty members

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

The creation of this mutual mentoring cohort had four ambitious goals. First, I wanted the cohort to share advice for dealing with challenges related to work—work balance and strategies for effective leadership within NU culture. Second, I wanted to develop mechanisms to support each other as researchers and writers. Third, I wanted to create opportunities to “workshop our careers” and create with group input a two-, five-, and ten-year career plan with measurable goals and outcomes such as increasing and documenting impact of research. Four, at the completion of the program, I wanted cohort members to write a white paper on best practice for close peer-mentoring for associate professors based on the successes and challenges of this pilot.

Impact on research:

The support from this cohort helped me find the time to finish revisions on a book fast tracked by Harvard University Press (which will be published in September 2017). This is my “promotion to full project.”

EEG Group

Lead: Danielle Levac, Assistant Professor, Department of Physical Therapy, Movement & Rehabilitation Science

Mentoring Team: 3 Northeastern faculty members, 3 outside faculty members

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

Goal 1: Familiarity with the fundamentals of EEG signal measurement and analysis: I completed this goal using several different methods. First of all, I undertook a guided independent study using online resources and textbooks recommended by Dr. Erdogmus and Dr. Lin, as well as their graduate students.  Secondly, I spent time in Dr. Lin’s lab with her graduate student and Dr. Erdogmus’ graduate student spent time in my lab over 5 occasions to work through the signal measurement and analysis process with me.  Thirdly, I undertook a trip to Auburn University and was able to work firsthand with Dr. Lohse, Dr. Miller and Dr. Pangolin, observe EEG data collection, and participate in sequential signal processing and analysis steps. Dr. Pangolin also gave me access to her online signal processing course and I have completed that on my own time, working through the problem sets and the videotaped lectures. Finally, following purchase of the OpenBCI system, my research assistant and I (with the assistance of Dr. Erdogmus’ graduate student) have established procedures for its use (all software is individually configured).

Goal 2: Experience in the use of EEG to understand attentional resources during motor skill learning in a variety of virtual environment contexts and experimental paradigms: I have partially accomplished this goal via consultation with Dr. Miller and Dr. Lohse at Auburn University, who advised on appropriate EEG measures for the attentional resources of interest in my funded research study (which begins data collection next month). Dr. Lohse and I discussed using EEG during a study involving active video game using the Kinect sensor. However, I have not accessed information about EEG use within other virtual environment contexts, because none of my mentors/collaborators had expertise in this area.

Goal 3: Collaboration with experts in the field: My trip to Auburn solidified connections with Dr. Lohse, Miller and Pangelin. In particular, they are available for subsequent assistance with data interpretation following data collection of my funded study. In addition, I have made email contact with Dr. Dr. John Gaitanis, Director of the children’s EEG lab at Tufts Floating Hospital. I plan to visit the lab this summer to observe EEG data collection techniques with pediatric patients.

Impact on research:

1) Strengthening my connections with established researchers who can become future collaborators and are currently trusted mentors.

2) Adding EEG to my toolbox to enhance current and future grant competitiveness.

3) Enabling me to purchase an EEG system that can be individually configured to my needs and that will provide hardware on which to base many future ECE capstone projects.

4) Supporting an invaluable networking and learning trip to Auburn University.

5) Spurring me to continue to enhance my MATLAB skills (and purchase resource textbooks) which benefits many other aspects of my research.

human factors for transportation and healthcare

Lead: Yingzi Lin, Associate Professor, Department of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Mentoring Team: 3 Northeastern faculty members, 2 outside faculty members, 2 outside mentors

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

This is a mutual mentoring faculty program in human factors for transportation and healthcare. With the focus on transportation and healthcare, we expect to contribute significantly to Northeastern’s emphasis on interdisciplinary research and translational education.

The overall goal is to bring together experts in human factors research for transportation and healthcare from both academia and industry, by sharing ideas, advice, feedback among the group members via regular meeting and facilitate opportunities for the group members to expand their research networks via interactions.

Impact on research:

Overall the goals of project are extremely well achieved (beyond expectations!). A total of 5 grant proposals were submitted, including one internal (Tire 1), 2 NSF, and 2 NIH proposals. A couple of joint publications are also planned. A number of research meetings and discussions were held.

Finally, I want to say that this program has not only provided me wonderful opportunity to interact with other researchers in this field, but also gives me great inspiration to explore potentials to go beyond boundaries to carry out interdisciplinary work. Therefore, I must say that this M2AP program has greatly impacted my research.

Thanks so much for your support – I really appreciate it!

A social-ecological systems approach to marine ecosystem conservation and management

Lead: A. Randall Hughes, Assistant Professor Marine and Environmental Sciences

Mentoring Team: 1 Northeastern faculty member, 1 NSF Fellow, 3 external mentors

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

This mutual mentoring group brought together experts from within and outside Northeastern to develop projects that address gaps in our understanding of coastal human-natural systems.  The overall goals were to enhance existing collaborations among members and catalyze new relationships and projects in social-ecological systems.

Impact on research:

“The “M2AP group has been extremely valuable to the development of Dr. Hughes’s Career proposal. It has also expanded her research portfolio in a new direction, with several projects in social-ecological systems led by Dr. Hughes now underway.”  NSF CAREER grant awarded with letters of collaborations from the mutual mentoring team members.”

Book Project: The Meaningful Writing Project: Learning and Teaching Writing in Higher Education

Lead: Neal Lerner, Associate Professor of English

Mentoring Team: 2 external mentors

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

The purpose of my Mutual Mentoring Advancement Program (M2AP) proposal was to support the completion of The Meaningful Writing Project: Learning, Teaching, and Writing in Higher Education, for which he had an advance contract from Utah State University Press.

Impact on research:

A writing retreat was hosted, a final book manuscript was submitted, a new chapter was added, the book was reviewed, and follow on articles were planned.  A final book manuscript was submitted and published.

Mutual Mentoring Group for Faculty in Analytics for Public Impact

Lead: Jacqueline Griffin, Assistant Professor of Mechanical and Industrial Engineering

Mentoring Team: 1 NU junior faculty member, 2 NU senior faculty members

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

To develop a collaborative network for two junior faculty members in the industrial engineering group with established researchers and industry members in the area of new analytical techniques in the area of analytics for public impact.  One crucial component for assistant professors is identification and networking with other academic and industrial leaders working within a cutting edge area.  The goals of the mutual mentoring team are to: (i) identify collaborative opportunities and (ii) facilitate opportunities to build relationships and partnerships with key individuals from academia, industry, and other organizations.

Impact on research:

“Overall, the activities achieved during this Mutual Mentoring for Faculty Program have been beneficial to the members involved.  In his first year as a tenure-track assistant professor, [one junior faculty mentee] noted his appreciation for the opportunity to participate and to have a regular and relaxed venue through which to get feedback and advice from the other faculty members in the group.  Additionally, as he takes over the role of the MIE Seminar series organizer in the fall, a role which [the second faculty mentee] has held for 3 years, his experience meeting with all of the invited seminar speakers over the year will prove to be helpful.  Over the course of the year, [one senior mentor] and [one junior faculty mentee] have participated in coauthoring multiple proposals, for which one has been recently suggested for funding.  The regular meetings have proven invaluable to both, but [junior faculty mentee] in particular, to obtaining guidance and feedback regarding the tenure and promotion processes.  [Second senior mentor] participation and willingness to assist the other faculty members was helpful in developing new research projects.  The monthly meetings were a key part in facilitating these relationships.”

Enhancing collaboration and creativity

Lead: Rachel F. Rodgers, Department of Applied Psychology

Mentoring Team: 2 NU associate professors, 2 external mentors

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

The overall goal of my grant was to develop a collaborative grant proposal as a critical step toward establishing a strong externally funded research program.

Impact on research:

“The M2AP grant was key in facilitating the submission of a collaborative grant proposal to NIMH and helping to strategically plan for career development as an associate professor mid tenure-track. The grant provided both a formal structure and the resources necessary for accomplishing these aims. At the time of writing, two weeks after the grant submission, it is a very useful and somewhat satisfying process to reflect on the achievement of these goals during the year. It is equally clear how valuable the M2AP program was in helping us achieve these goals within our proposed timeline. Particularly useful were the resources available for obtaining external reviewers for the grant proposal, both within the team, the institution, and external, which significantly strengthened the proposal. Equally valuable are the funds allowing for attendance at the EDRS under the sponsorship of Dr. Austin. Finally, the process of goal-setting/ evaluation, through the M2AP grant was critical.”

The Sociology of Racial Microaggressions

Lead:  Silvia Dominguez, Associate Professor of Sociology and Human Services

Mentoring Team:  2 NU PhD students, 2 external mentors

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

Working with mentors on an aggressive research agenda on micro-aggressions that includes papers, serving as a guest editor on a special journal issue, and planning for an edited book.

Impact on research:

“I went to visit [my mentor] for a week in early January, and it was an incredibly enriching experience.  Since working with [my mentor], I have published two articles with co-authors and participated in another five that were submitted. One received an R/R so far. I also requested IRB for two different studies.”

Multidisciplinary collaborations for the detection and treatment of resistant Gram-negative infections

Lead: Elizabeth B. Hirsch, Assistant Professor Department of Pharmacy and Health Systems Sciences, Bouvé College of Health Sciences

Mentoring Team: 1 postdoctoral fellow, 1 senior faculty member, 1 assistant professor, 1 PhD candidate

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

The goal is to foster multidisciplinary research collaborations to help solve multiple challenges involved in the detection and treatment of CRE infections.  Dr. Hirsch aimed to take a multi-pronged approach which included learning from and working beside collaborators with unique skills and expertise in the area of pathogen detection and infection treatment.  From this diverse set of collaborators, she learned the skills necessary for antimicrobial drug development, antimicrobial susceptibility testing, bioengineering tools for pathogen detection, and the use of an invertebrate model system.

Accomplishments:

Dr. Hirsch stimulated new collaborations and those currently existing were strengthened.  While no grants have been funded, multiple proposals were submitted and multiple abstracts and manuscripts are in progress or under review.

Impact on research:

“Overall, this grant helped me to go outside my comfort zone in establishing collaborative projects with both internal and external collaborators.  By having a specific grant I was working to fulfill deliverables for, I was more motivated to show accomplishments such as posters and manuscripts.  I believe this grant helped me build my research network and move forward with even more collaborative laboratory and clinical research projects.  I believe my collaborative relationships have made me more visible in the field as I have received multiple peer review invitations and advisory board/speakers bureau invitations from the pharmaceutical industry which indicate my visibility / reputation in the field.”

Digital Humanities Group

Co-Lead: Ryan Cordell, Assistant Professor and Julia Flanders, Professor of the Practice, Department of English, College of Social Sciences and Humanities

Mentoring Team: 1 postdoctoral fellow, 1 senior faculty member, 1 assistant professor, 1 PhD candidate

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

There is a need to discuss the challenges of assessment and mentoring of digital humanities, colleagues within the Northeastern DH community, and also to bring in expertise and perspectives from outside the institution.  The plan was to use these discussions as the starting point for a larger departmental discussion about evaluating digital scholarship and to prepare a white paper that would gather and analyze existing materials, and highlight key components of digital scholarship, especially those which older methods of evaluation might overlook.

Accomplishments:

This project provided an opportunity for all members of the group to share insight and mentor one another. Indeed, one of the strengths of the group was the diversity of perspectives, including junior and senior faculty, a post-doctoral fellow, a professor of practice, and a PhD candidate. Each of these roles faces different kinds of challenges in pursuing a scholarly career in digital humanities, and their discussions highlighted these perspectives vividly.  The process of researching and preparing the white paper was extremely helpful in anchoring these discussions. The white paper asked the group to think about how their own careers and professional prospects would be affected by their institutional situation, and what kinds of changes might help eliminate artificial obstacles and enable them to contribute more effectively to the departments’ research profiles.

Impact on Research:

“I found our group discussions and [research fellow]’s research on other institutions quite useful as I prepared my third-year review and looked toward tenure. In particular, [research fellow] helped synthesize a range of practices, both positive and negative, that clarified the ways in which junior faculty in digital humanities have worked to make their research legible to senior colleagues at diverse institutions. Our group conversations helped clarify how to apply these insights at Northeastern specifically, outlining both the challenges and opportunities at an institution focused on interdisciplinary work. My colleagues’ mentorship actively shaped the way I wrote about my research and service in my mid-course review dossier, which was received quite positively by the department, and helped me clarify my priorities in the coming three years as I prepare for my tenure review. Our workshop was likewise valuable, allowing us to bring our local ideas back to a larger community and test how our ideas would resonate with the wider DH community. Though T&P has been central to my conversations with colleagues and administrators since arriving at Northeastern, I was grateful to work directly with other DH colleagues on this vital issue well in advance of submitting my dossier.”

Gender and Development Economics

Co-Leads: Catalina Herrera Almanza and Bilge Erten, junior faculty in Economics and International Affairs, College of Social Science and Humanities

Mentoring Team:  1 faculty program director and 1 department chair

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

The main goal of this mentoring grant was to meet with external faculty, research and policy experts in the Gender and Development Economics field in the Northeastern academic and policy hub, including the Boston area as well as New York and Washington D.C. These academic and policy experts helped us identify projects, lead us in the publication process as well as guide us to position our work in the relevant network of academic and international organizations, which will be an important building block for the proposed Institute for Gender and Development Research, an initiative of the International Affairs Program and the Department of Economics.

Accomplishments:

A workshop was held on February 5th 2015 at Northeastern with a group of academic experts from Harvard University, Brandeis University, and University of Virginia as well as policy institutions such as International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and policymakers and leaders in multilateral organizations such as UN-Women and World Bank.  The purpose of the workshop was to bring together academic scholar and practitioners for a discussion of emerging areas for collaborative research and policy dialogues.

Impact on research:

Catalina Herrera Almanza:

“I used the grant resources to attend and present my research in the 2015 Population Association of America which took place in San Diego, California, between April 27th and May 2nd. As part of the conference activities, I participated in the “Longitudinal Studies of Adolescent Health in Sub-Saharan Africa Workshop”, an initiative from different academic researchers and policy makers to develop a research network on young women’s health in Africa. This was a great opportunity to interact with researchers at UNICEF and International Center for Research on Women-ICWR- as well as academics from the Harvard Population Center and George Washington University. I also presented my research on childhood determinants of youth internal migration in Senegal. I think that the mentoring grant has been a great resource to fund activities that allow us to build a network of academics and policymakers with whom we can work on Gender and Development research topics.”

Bilge Erten:

“I presented my research on the effects of trade liberalization on gender inequality in South Africa at the Levy Institute on April 1, 2015. This was a great opportunity to share the findings of my research with interested scholars at the Levy Institute. With their gender and the economy research team, we are currently developing a grant proposal to be submitted to the IDRC. This will be a multi-year, multi-site grant involving the Levy Institute, Northeastern University, and the Center for Development Alternatives in India.  I believe the grant resulted in building me a network of scholars with whom I can further collaborate in the upcoming years.”

Migration, Violence, Trauma and the Health of Immigrant Children

Lead:  Tiffany Kim, Assistant Professor of Nursing, Bouve College of Health Sciences

Mentoring Team:  3 Northeastern senior faculty members and 1 external director of a Boston agency

Synopsis of mentoring grant:

The overall goal of this project was to support the development, writing and submission of a K01 grant proposal, focused on the health of unaccompanied minors from Central America living in the Boston area.

Accomplishments:

During the grant period, our team met frequently and with the group’s support and feedback, Dr. Kim drafted the NIH-K proposal. During this time, she also obtained IRB approval, collected and analyzed pilot data, which was incorporated into the proposal. Through this process, she identified additional mentors outside of Northeastern to assist with the development of the NIH-K proposal and provide additional resources. These new contacts included the Director of the Boston Children’s Hospital Center for Refugee Trauma and Resilience, as well as an Associate Professor of Child Health and Human Rights in the Department of Global Health and Population at Harvard School of Public Health.  Throughout the grant period, she continued to build new relationships within the local immigrant community, including members of the MA Immigrant and Refugee Advocacy Coalition, the Immigrant Service Providers Group/Health in Somerville and the Chelsea Collaborative, who all provided positive feedback and acted as invaluable connections to the population of interest in the greater Boston area.

Impact on research:

“The M2AP has had a positive impact on my research, as we were able to use the funds to formalize a mentorship team, conceptualize a new research project, write my first federal grant, and conduct a pilot study. I’m so grateful to have had the opportunity to work with such successful, brilliant and generous senior scientists, who gave so much of their time as part of this project. Although these mentor-mentee relationships might have been available to me earlier, the M2AP provided us with an opportunity to create additional structure around these relationships, set clear goals and gave a sense of legitimacy to the endeavor.”