Program Leadership

Program Director
Victoria Fraser, MD is Professor of Medicine and Co-Director of the Infectious Disease Division in the Department of Medicine. With direction and support from Larry J. Shapiro, MD, Executive Vice Chancellor for Medical Affairs and Dean of the School of Medicine, and under the direct supervision of the MAC chaired by Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD, the Program Director will be responsible for the overall direction and day-to-day activities of the KL2 Career Development Awards program. Dr. Fraser will serve on the MAC, participate in scholar recruitment and evaluation, teach courses in the didactic curriculum, be a mentor, supervise the program evaluation and be responsible for all aspects of the KL2.

Chairman of the Multidisciplinary Advisory Committee
Kenneth S. Polonsky, MD is the Adolphus Busch Professor and Chairman of the Department of Medicine and Professor of Cell Biology and Physiology. Because of his strong belief in the importance of multidisciplinary research and his role in the institution, Dr. Polonsky is ideally suited to be head of the MAC to ensure that the goals of the program are met. He will participate in scholar recruitment, selection, and evaluation of scholars, mentors and the program.
Having a chair of the MAC other than the Principal Investigator/Program Director is a variance from the organizational structure described in the RFA, but we feel strongly that this will strengthen our KL2 by adding university-supported senior leadership beyond that allocated in the RFA and additional multidisciplinary expertise.

Multidisciplinary Advisory Committee (MAC)
The MAC is truly multidisciplinary with a substantial proportion of women, members of underrepresented minorities, and a representative from all of the major schools participating. The MAC will meet on a quarterly basis. The executive committee of the MAC includes the Program Director (Fraser), the Program Co-Directors (Evanoff, True), the MAC Chair (Polonsky), Jay Picirillo (TL1 Predoctoral Program Director), Linda Cottler (Epidemiology), Tom Burroughs (SLU Psychology), and Arlene Stiffman (Social Work).

There is a recruitment and evaluation core, a curriculum core and an administrative core. The recruitment and evaluation core consists of Jay Picirillo (TL1 Predoctoral Program Director),Vicky Fraser (Program Director), William True (Program Co-Director), Brad Evanoff (Program Co-Director and MSCI and Postdoctoral Program Director), Jay Picirillo (TL1 Predoctoral Program Director)), Louise Flick (SLU Nursing), Dan Gentry (SLU Public Health) Michael Mueller (Physical Therapy), and Terry Seaton (St. Louis College of Pharmacy).

The didactic core consists of Bill True (SLU), Brad Evanoff (MSCI and Postdoctoral Program Director), Jay Picirillo (TL1 Predoctoral Program Director), Sharon Homan (SLU Epidemiology), DC Rao (Biostatistics), Brad Stoner (Anthropology), Joanne Schneider (SLU Nursing), and additional coursemasters (Schootman, Walker, Shannon).

The Administrative Core consists of Vicky Fraser, Bill True, Brad Evanoff, the program coordinator (Alison Ebers), the grant administrator (Kristy Bingaman), the RDI personnel, the data manager (Missy Krauss), biostatistician, seminar coordinator (Joe Wilson), and secretary (Mary Favazza).

The cores report to the executive committee. The executive committee and the cores lead the KL2 programmatic activities, insure that all goals and milestones are achieved in the planning phase and insure the successful functioning of the program.

Executive Committee
The Executive Committee oversees all aspects of the grant and the cores including budgets, hiring personnel, evaluations, recruitment and selection of scholars to be presented to the MAC, insuring that scholars have the required amount of protected time dedicated to the program, evaluation of the program and fostering new collaborations. Based on attendance, participation, performance and evaluations for the MAC, faculty and mentors, the executive committee will make personnel changes as necessary to insure that the MAC, all cores and programs function optimally.

Program Co-Directors
Bradley Evanoff, M.D., M.P.H. is Associate Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of General Medical Sciences. Dr. Evanoff has provided guidance to the junior faculty in the Division of General Medical Sciences, has successfully mentored faculty members to promotion with tenure, and has guided junior faculty members in successful applications for career development awards. Dr. Evanoff has also provided an active mentorship role to fellows through research opportunities in the Division of GMS and through serving as a formal mentor to fellows from other Divisions and Departments. Dr. Evanoff, as Program Director of the Postdoctoral Program, will supervise the MSCI program, serve on the MAC, teach courses and be a mentor. He will also be involved in scholar recruitment, selection and evaluation.

William True, MPH, PhD has a long-standing relationship with WU investigators doing collaborative research over the past 20 years. He has trained a number of physician MPH students and also mentored them into successful clinical research careers. He will serve on the MAC, foster collaborations with SLU and WU, supervise the didactic coursework for KL2 scholars at SLU and participate in scholar recruitment, evaluation and program evaluation and tracking. He will be the PI for the subcontract to SLU.

Ombudsman
Philip E. Cryer, MD has served as Program Director of the Washington University GCRC since 1978, and continues to serve in that capacity. After more than 17 years as Director of the Division of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism in the Department of Medicine he stepped aside from that position in January 2003. Thus, he will be able to both continue his research and teaching, serve on the MAC and be ombudsman. He has mentored 38 past and current postdoctoral research fellows. In addition to his record of productive clinical research and training, Dr. Cryer has demonstrated his University-wide organizational abilities. He has worked directly with the Chancellor (as Chair of the Faculty Senate Council), the Dean of the School of Medicine (as GCRC Program Director) and the Chair of the Department of Medicine (as Division Chief) as well as with many of the leaders of the various University departments and programs over many years. He will serve on the MAC and on the scholar recruitment and evaluation committee and participate in program evaluation and problem solving.
Dr. Phil Cryer has been identified as Ombudsman for the MCRCDP to be available to all CR Scholars and mentors to help resolve problems, deal with conflicts and identify solutions. Initial selection of mentors may not be perfect for all KL2 Scholars for any of a number of reasons including interpersonal conflicts, disparate styles, changes in goals or directions, illness or family situations, change in job description, responsibilities or relocation. The Ombudsman will initially assess these situations and help the Program Director address conflicts within the program, or among mentors, scholars and participating institutions.

Mentors
Mentors will meet at least weekly with their KL2 Scholar. The mentors provide support, direction, insight and assistance with writing, research proposals, study design, methods, analysis, and dissemination of results as well as opportunities for collaboration, networking and advancement through recommendations for committee membership, and authoring scholarly review articles and book chapters. The mentors are the predominant action arms of the practicum research experience.
The original mentors were selected from over 200 faculty doing clinical research at WU and SLU, many of whom were described in the research teams above. Representative mentors listed include individuals with appointments in multiple departments, divisions and programs (Anthropology, Biostatistics, Epidemiology, Psychology, Genetics, Medicine, Pharmacology, Neurology, Occupational Therapy, Public Health, Nursing, Pharmacy, Otolaryngology, Pediatrics, Physical Therapy, Psychiatry, Radiology, Social Work, and Surgery) as well as in the Department of Biomedical Engineering and the School of Arts and Sciences (psychology and anthropology). They also include colleagues at the SLU Schools of Medicine, Nursing and Public Health and at the University of Missouri-St. Louis School of Nursing. Their studies span the spectrum of clinical research (patient-oriented research, including translational research and clinical trials, epidemiology, behavioral studies and outcomes and health services research). Their disciplines include biostatistics, biomedical engineering, ethics, genomics, health economics, health services/performance improvement, informatics, mathematics, nutrition, nursing, occupational therapy, pharmacology, physical therapy, psychology, public health/disease prevention and social work as well as an array of subspecialties of medicine. They include individuals whose major focus is clinical research and thus offer an array of complimentary mentors for KL2 Scholars.