Annual Report for Center for Research and Education in Women’s Health (CREWH)

2010-2011

Executive Summary

The Center for Research and Education in Women’s Health (CREWH) had a very productive year in 2010-2011. Under the leadership of the Director, Dr. Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson, CREWH re-established a visible presence in the School of Public Health and Health Sciences and hired an Associated Director, Ms. Sara Sabelawski. With generous support from SPHHS Dean Marjorie Aelion, we established a new Research Scholars program to provide early and mid-career faculty working in women’s health with the support and protected time essential to developing successful proposals for external research funding; three faculty members from SPHHS were chosen as the initial cohort of Scholars, whose fellowship year will begin in September 2011. Other achievements included: the preparation and submission of an application for Government Appropriations funding to support collaborative research in maternal and reproductive health among Latina women in Holyoke and Springfield, MA; the development of a new website for the Center; and the establishment of a seminar series for faculty and students.

Center Activities in 2010-2011

Establishment of the CREWH Research Scholars Program

The Center’s highest priority at this time is increasing the amount of externally funded research conducted by its faculty. Investment in Center faculty at early stages of their research careers will have long-term benefits for these investigators, as well as the Center and the SPHHS. Support for junior faculty in obtaining funding will help them grow into successful senior faculty with successful research programs. They will then be able to mentor the next generation of junior faculty, postdoctoral fellows, and graduate students. Furthermore, increasing the number of Center faculty members with external research funding will directly improve the Center’s competitiveness in applying for Center grants from the National Institutes of Health and Centers for Disease Control, as well as grants from other federal and state agencies and private foundations.

We were excited to report that Dean Aelion generously provided funding for the establishment of the CREWH Research Scholars program, providing funds for 1 year, renewable for up to 3 years. The CREWH Research Scholars program will provide early and mid-career faculty working in women’s health with the support and protected time essential to developing successful proposals for external research funding, following the successful model developed by the UMass Center for Research on Families.

Throughout the year, Scholars will attend biweekly meetings with the CREWH Director and Associate Director. These working group meetings will provide Scholars the opportunity to share their project aims and grant application text and get feedback from the group. The Center will also bring in experts to provide consulting on statistical methods, budgeting strategies, identifying funding sources, and grant writing. Additionally, each Research Scholar will be able to identify an expert in their research area to invite to campus to consult on their research and grant proposals. Each consultant will be asked to give a seminar to the greater campus community during their visit. In accepting the fellowship, Research Scholars agree to submit 1 or more grant proposals within 1 semester of the end of their fellowship year. For all grants awarded to Research Scholars as a result of their work during their fellowship year, the SPHHS Dean and Chair of the Research Scholar’s home department will provide CREWH one half of their portion of the award’s indirect costs.

Success of the Research Scholars program will ultimately be measured by the ability of the program to become self-sustaining. Additional benchmarks will be the number of applications submitted; the amount of research funds requested and funds awarded; the numbers of publications in peer-reviewed journals resulting from funding; and the number of presentations at national meetings resulting from funding.

The first cohort of scholars has been chosen for the pilot year, with the goal of identifying early career faculty who were poised to submit major grant applications for federal funding. In addition, we selected faculty with some overlap in research areas, home departments/divisions, and research approaches, in order to facilitate peer mentorship. Research Scholars for 2011-2012 are:

  • AlineGubrium, Community Health Studies
  • Lisa Wexler, Community Health Studies
  • Brian Whitcomb, Biostatistics and Epidemiology

We look forward to a productive pilot year working with these talented junior faculty members, whose fellowship year will begin September 2011.

Hiring of an Associate Director

We are very pleased to have hired Ms. Sara Sabelawski as Associate Director of CREWH. Ms. Sabelawski has over 10 years of experience working with the UMass School of Public Health and Health Sciences, both in the management of grant-funded research projects and in nutrition science. She has excellent knowledge of the field of women’s health. Ms. Sabelawski has worked extensively with faculty in the school and thus has established relationships that will allow her to hit the ground running in the Associate Director position. She comes highly recommended by faculty in the departments of Nutrition and Public Health. Furthermore, she has active working relationships with faculty and clinicians at Baystate Franklin Medical Center and Cooley Dickinson Hospital.

As Associate Director, Ms. Sabelawski will work closely with Dr. Bertone-Johnson to develop and implement the Center’s ideas, events, and initiatives. In particular, she will manage the Research Scholars program to foster the development of faculty research grants in women’s health, including writing and editing grant text, planning of biweekly seminars, arranging for speakers, and coordinating with faculty researchers. In addition, she will serve as catalyst to expand the scholars program, promote interdisciplinary collaboration between the Center and other units on and off campus, including but not limited to other UMass schools/colleges, the Center for Research on Families, the Center for Neuroendocrine Studies, Faculty Senate, OGCA, the Office of Research Engagement, and Five College System (Amherst, Smith, Mount Holyoke and Hampshire Colleges).

Request for Government Appropriation

In November, CREWH developed and submitted an application for US Government Appropriations funding: Promoting Maternal and Reproductive Health among Latina Women in Western Massachusetts;PI = ER Bertone-Johnson, for the Center for Research and Education in Women’s Health; Total costs: $806,697.

CREWH members enthusiastically responded to this opportunity and the Director’s Request for Proposals for small studies related to maternal and reproductive health. Despite a quick deadline of only 36 hours, proposals were received from 10 faculty members:

  • Jean Anliker, Nutrition
  • Elizabeth Bertone-Johnson, Biostatistics and Epidemiology
  • Elena Carbone, Nutrition
  • Lisa Chasan-Taber, Biostatistics and Epidemiology
  • Lorraine Cordeira, Nutrition
  • AlineGubrium, Community Health Studies
  • Jerusha Peterman, Nutrition
  • Katherine Reeves, Biostatistics and Epidemiology
  • AlayneRonnenberg, Nutrition
  • Brian Whitcomb, Biostatistics and Epidemiology

Dr. Bertone-Johnson and Dr. Elaine Puleo, Associate Dean for Research, reviewed all submissions and selected 5 proposals that shared common objectives to be integrated into a single Center proposal. Subsequently, Dr. Bertone-Johnson met with Linda Downs-Bembury, who prepared a summary budget for the Center’s proposal incorporating specific budget items provided by individual faculty.

Throughout this process, we worked closely with Cheryl Dukes in theOffice of Government Relations.Ms. Dukes was very generous with hertime and extremely helpful, meeting with us on several occasions toanswer questions and review drafts of our document. We were very pleased to have put forward a strong interdisciplinaryproposal to the Office of Research Development. Our project evaluated hownutrition, inflammation, physical activity and other factors influencea variety of maternal and reproductive health outcomes among Latinawomen in Western Massachusetts. Our research integrated bench science,community-based participatory research, qualitative methods and interventionresearch to address these important public health problems incomplementary ways.

Our final proposal was selected by the Office of Research Development to be submitted to Congressman John Olver. Unfortunately, government policies relating to earmarks changed in November, 2010, and government appropriations monies were no longer available. However, drafting this proposal has prepared us to respond to other initiatives in a thorough and timely manner.

Website development and membership drive

During 2010, funds were granted from the Division of Biostatistics and Epidemiology to support new development activities for CREWH. A portion of these funds supported a work study student (Linda Rim) to design and maintain a web site, with the goal of increasing the Center’s visibility. At this time, we also reestablish membership of CREWH and recruited new SPHHS faculty to join the center. As of January 2011, 22 faculty reaffirmed membership in the Center. The url for the Center’s website is:

Creation of CREWH Seminar series

Over the past year, we have been successful in meeting one of our initial goals; the re-establishment of CREWH seminar series. For our inaugural event on April 21, 2011, CREWH sponsored a special seminar attended by approximately 50 students and faculty. We were happy to invite Jane Cauley, Professor of Epidemiology at the University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health to campus to speak on: “Vitamin D, Falls and Fractures: Just the Facts.” Dr. Cauley is a national leader in the epidemiology of a range of women’s health conditions including osteoporosis, fracture and falls, breast cancer, and the role of sex steroid hormones in chronic disease. She is currently PI or Co-PI of multiple NIH funded studies including the on-going Study of Osteoporotic Fractures and the Study of Women’s Health Across the Nation. In addition, Dr. Cauley has authored over 400 peer-reviewed scientific articles and mentored a large number of graduate students. In addition to her presenting her seminar, Dr. Cauley spoke in PubHlth 490ew/690ew: Epidemiology of Women’s Health. Furthermore, she consulted with several CREWH faculty members and provided feedback on research ideas in development.

Summary and Initiatives for 2011-2012

We are excited about continuing to develop and expand CREWH initiatives in 2011-2012, including:

  • Continuing the Faculty Scholars program, with applications for 2012-2013 due in late January, 2012.
  • Working with the Office of Research Development to identify new mechanisms to fund individual investigator research and larger applications to support collaborative work within the Center.
  • Increase our profile on campus and promote CREWH activities to the greater university community by expanding our web presence and preparing regular newsletters.
  • In support of our education mission, working towards developing Graduate and Undergraduate Certificate programs in Women’s Health.

This past year has proven to be a successful one for CREWH and we look forward to another great year working towards
our full potential.