Diversity Initiatives

Training programs in the Hypertension & Vascular Research Center have a major focus on increasing diversity.

The training activities have focused on minority education for over 19 years and currently include three funded minority training programs as well as other research or academic training activities.

The Post-baccalaureate Research Education Program (PREP), funded by NIH/NIGMS supports 9 full-time, year round, under-represented minority students or these from disadvantaged background who are interested in careers in research after obtaining a Ph.D. Dr. Diz is the director of the program and faculty of the Center serve on the Executive and the Selection Committees, organize and participate in biweekly journal clubs and serve as research mentors for trainees.

The Excellence in Cardiovascular Sciences Summer Program (EICS), funded by NIH/HLBI since 1993, supports 12 under-represented minority disadvantaged students for 9 weeks each summer.  Drs. Diz and Tallant are co-directors of the program and faculty in the Center serve on the Executive Committee, the Selection Committee, organize and direct the journal clubs and serve as research mentors.

The Translational Biomedical Training For Underrepresented Minorities Program (TBS) is a partnership among the following schools: Wake Forest School of Medicine, North Carolina Central University and Winston-Salem State University in North Carolina; Wright State University, Cuyahoga Community College and Central State University in Ohio; Federal University of Minas Gerais, University of São Paulo, Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul and Mackenzie University in Brazil.  The purpose of the program, developed jointly between Dr. Chappell and Dr. Morris (Wright State), is to train U.S. and Brazilian students in integrative biology and to strengthen interchange of cultural and scientific values to widen the horizons of participants.  Emphasis is on increasing diversity in the sciences by including schools with large minority populations as partners to encourage students from under-represented groups to participate in a foreign exchange program.  Faculty of the Center serve as mentors, course directors and research hosts for these students.

Drs. Diz and Brosnihan are also members of the Translational Sciences Institute and part of the leadership for the Research Education Program.  Pipeline programs for translational research in the clinical and population sciences are a major focus of the Research Education component and Center faculty participate as program directors, serve on journal clubs and are research hosts for these students.

The faculty of the Hypertension & Vascular Research Center is represented as mentors and thesis advisors in the following graduate programs:  Molecular Medicine, Physiology & Pharmacology, Molecular Genetics and Neuroscience. They serve also as program directors, recruitment, curriculum committee members, and course directors/lecturers in these programs.

Over the past 5 years, 27 trainees (16 graduate students and 11 fellows) working with core faculty of the Center, 8 (30%) are from groups under-represented in the biomedical sciences and 7 are foreign trainees.