Mentor: Manuel Jimenez, MD, MS
Associate Professor of Pediatrics & Family Medicine and Community Health, Rutgers
Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Project: Developing Patient-Centered Community Integration Interventions for Adolescents and Young Adults with ID/DD in New Jersey​

“The KL2 Career Development Award will provide the research training and mentorship to launch my career as an independent learning health systems research and scholar. By integrating feedback from multiple interested parties to implement high-value interventions within hospital/healthcare systems, this research will reduce health inequities in the intellectual and developmental disabilities population at both the primary and specialty care levels. Moreover, it will provide me with a critical opportunity to establish key relationships with hospital systems in NJ and nationally, thus providing the foundation for transformative collaborations that drive systemic improvements in healthcare delivery. This award will empower me to become a leader in the field, fostering innovation and excellence in addressing the complex challenges faced by vulnerable populations.” 

Mentor: Ethan Halm, MD, MPH, MBA
Professor of Medicine; Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research
Vice Chancellor of Population Health, Rutgers Health

Co-Mentor: Katie Devine, PhD, MPH
Associate Professor, Rutgers Cancer Institute, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Associate Director, New Jersey Pediatric Hematology/Oncology Center of Excellence (NJ PHORCE)

Co-Mentor: Dena O’Malley, PhD, MSW
Research Division Chief and Associate Professor, Department of Family Medicine and Community Health
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Project: A Data-Driven Approach to Optimizing Cardiovascular Disease Risk Management in Young Breast Cancer Survivors ​

“The K12 Career Development Award will provide me with the time and resources to begin my career as an independent investigator dedicated to designing, implementing, and evaluating person-centered, technology-supported interventions.“ 

Mentor: Cande V. Ananth, PhD, MPH
Distinguished Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Affairs, Chief, Division of Epidemiology and Biostatistics
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Co-Mentor: Jeffrey L. Carson, MD
Provost – New Brunswick, Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences
Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Richard C. Reynolds, M.D. Chair in General Internal Medicine
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Project:Remote Patient Monitoring for Chronic Hypertension During Pregnancy (REACH)​

“Being selected as a K12 scholar is an incredible opportunity that will help to shape my career as a physician-scientist. The dedicated time and resources provided by the Society of Scholars will be instrumental in my journey towards becoming an independently funded investigator.  The framework they provide will allow me to learn from colleagues, develop skills, and build collaborations to help launch my career. My research focuses on interventions to improve pregnancy outcomes for patients with chronic hypertension during pregnancy by using remote patient monitoring. In New Jersey, pregnant people face unacceptably high rates of morbidity, and I hope that the REACH trial will provide a framework to obtain funding for a larger trial that has the potential to improve outcomes for patients with chronic hypertension nationwide.” 

Mentor: Soko Setoguchi, MD, DrPH, ABLM
Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School
Director, Center for Climate, Health, and Healthcare, Rutgers  Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research

Co-Mentor: Ethan Halm, MD, MPH, MBA
Professor of Medicine; Rutgers Institute for Health, Health Care Policy and Aging Research
Vice Chancellor of Population Health, Rutgers Health

Co-Mentor: Jeffrey Carson, MD
Provost – New Brunswick, Rutgers Biomedical Health Sciences
Distinguished Professor of Medicine
Richard C. Reynolds, M.D. Chair in General Internal Medicine
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Project: Improving identification and management of clinical obesity in multiethnic adults with normal BMI​

“The K12 award is a significant first step in my journey to become a clinician-scientist. It will provide me with the funding, mentorship, and training needed to build a framework for other grants. I hope to publish impactful work related to body composition and cardio-metabolic disease over the next 2 years that ultimately can inform future primary care practice and cardio-metabolic disease risk stratification.” 

Mentor: Katie Devine, PhD, MPH, Associate Professor
Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Co-Mentor: Shawna V. Hudson, PhD, FSBM, Professor
Family Medicine and Community Health, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Project: Developing a Single-Session Intervention to Support Adolescent Siblings of Children with Cancer​

“This K12 Award will provide the research data, experience, and skills I require to launch an independent research career. By adapting a digital single-session intervention to support adolescent siblings of children with cancer, this study seeks to shift the current clinical practice paradigm by using an accessible, scalable, and cost-effective service model to address significant gaps in the provision of evidence-based care for adolescent siblings.” 

Project: Utilizing natural language processing to identify language biomarkers unique to childhood onset psychosis

“The KL2 award will provide me with both the time and support critical to advance my research career along the path to independence”.

Project: Brain stimulation/neurophysiological methods

“With the support of the KL2 award, I can dedicate myself to professional growth, leverage pilot data to secure research grants, foster numerous collaboration opportunities, and establish a cutting-edge research laboratory”.

Project: A deep learning approach to predicting disease progression in oral dysplasia and early-stage malignancy

“The KL2 Career Development Award will provide me with invaluable protected time and expert mentorship, enabling me to concentrate on enhancing my research training and productivity”.

Mentor: Nancy E. Reichman, PhD, Professor of Pediatrics
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Co-Mentor: Lawrence C. Kleinman, MD, MPH, Professor and Vice Chair for Academic Development
Department of Pediatrics, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Project: Father’s Mental Health and Their Children’s Health and Development

“The KL2 award offers me the chance to build a strong research foundation and build collaborations that support my transition from clinical work to physician researcher”.

Project: Engineering aligned neuromuscular junctions to enhance repair after volumetric muscle loss

“The KL2 Program allows me to have protected time to focus on writing manuscripts with my students, collecting pilot data, and preparing R01 submissions.” 

Mentor: Shawna Hudson, PhD, FSBM, Professor
Family Medicine and Community Health, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Project: Development and Implementation of a youth-led education digital badge to improve blood pressure for hypertensive adults who present to the emergency department

“The KL2 award has been a catalyst for mentorship and networking with new collaborators to lay a solid foundation for larger funding opportunities.” 

Mentor: Daniel Notterman, MD, Professor
Molecular Biology, Princeton University
Co-Mentor: Abraham Aviv, MD, Professor
Center of Human Development and Aging, New Jersey Medical School

Project: Telomere length and COVID-19 outcomes in hematopoietic cell transplant recipients

 “The KL2 program provides me the opportunity to establish myself and achieve research independence in the translational sciences.” 

Mentor: Brian Strom, MD, MPH, Chancellor and University Professor
Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences

Project: New Jersey historical population cohort study: The rate of mortality before and after the 2014 Medicaid expansion in those with diagnosed symptomatic gallstone disease

“The KL2 community provides a laboratory using inclusion as its catalyst. Here, I am welcome to cultivate a new research career mainly through my learned trust of able mentors who patiently guide a very personalized development along a professional path less traveled by an emergency surgeon.” 

Mentor: Stephen Crystal, PhD, Board of Governors Professor
Rutgers University School of Social Work

Project: Cannabis use during preconception, pregnancy and lactation

 “The protected time to conduct research and networking opportunities are invaluable in this early stage of my career.” 

Mentor: Soko Setoguchi, MD, DrPH, Associate Professor of Medicine and Epidemiology
Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School and Rutgers Biomedical and Health Sciences School of Public Health

Project: Hypoglycemia and hyperglycemia associated with drugs used by older adults for diabetes

“The resulting research and manuscripts from the KL2 will serve as the foundation to future R01 awards.” 

Mentor: Paul Duberstein, PhD,  Chair and Professor
Department of Health Behavior, Society and Policy, Rutgers School of Public Health

Project: Health mindfulness to alleviate stress for caregivers of cognitively impaired older adults

“This grant has helped me meet new collaborators, which resulted in publications in new research areas and allowed me to collect pilot data for larger grant submissions.” 

Mentor: Fredric Wondisford, MD, Professor and Chair
Department of Medicine, Rutgers Robert Wood Johnson Medical School

Project: Glycerol contribution to hepatic gluconeogenesis in obesity

“The KL2 program allowed me to decrease my clinical responsibilities and focus on obtaining formal research training, conducting translational research, and submitting manuscripts and grants.”