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ITHS KL2 Program Sponsors Virtual Visiting Scholars

ITHS KL2 Program Sponsors Virtual Visiting Scholars

The CTSA Center for Leading Innovation and Collaboration (CLIC) program has created the new NIH Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) Visiting Scholars Program to help promote networking among KL2 Scholars.

During the pandemic, KL2 Scholars are unable to visit other institutions or conferences to give presentations and network as they have in the past. This new program provides scholars a chance to give a Grand Rounds lecture to a national audience and to meet with faculty from a CTSA institution, extending their network and enhancing their career opportunities.

CTSA CLIC has reached out to various translational science hubs across the nation, including ITHS, to recruit KL2 programs to host visiting scholars from other institutions.

The ITHS KL2 Team is excited to participate and sponsor three visiting scholars this year. “The KL2 Visiting Scholars program is a great opportunity for KL2 scholars from across the nation to exchange experiences with our KL2 scholars and an opportunity to make deeper connections with UW experts in their field,” said Christy McKinney, PhD, MPH, Co-Director of the ITHS KL2 Program.

The KL2 Visiting Scholars program is a great opportunity … to exchange experiences with our KL2 scholars and … to make deeper connections with UW experts in their field

One of the biggest benefits to the participants is in connecting with faculty from the University of Washington to learn about the potential to continue their career here once they finish their time in the KL2 program. ITHS KL2 Team will help to facilitate these introductions and connections to various faculty. In normal conditions, scholars would come to Seattle to meet faculty in person. ITHS is excited to be able to promote scientific stewardship through a virtual setting as we continue to find ways to connect, support, and promote our investigators during the pandemic.

“The goal is that these connections will persist beyond the visit and that this program will foster exchange of ideas and collaboration among different CTSAs,” shared John Armory, MD, MPH, Co-Director of the ITHS KL2 Program.

The goal is that these connections will persist beyond the visit and that this program will foster exchange of ideas and collaboration among different CTSAs

Visiting Scholars at ITHS

The Visiting Scholars’ Grand Rounds talks are open to the public. Each investigator will have a chance to present their work, answer questions and connect with the UW research community.

John McGinnis, MD

The first event we are hosting will be held at 12pm PST on March 2, 2021, and will feature a presentation by John McGinnis, MD. Dr. McGinniss is a KL2 Scholar at the University of Pennsylvania’s Institute of Translational Medicine and Therapeutics and a Clinical Instructor in UPenn’s Division of Pulmonary, Allergy, and Critical Care Medicine. His research is on host-microbiome interactions in the lung and their relation to acute and chronic lung diseases.

You can register for Dr. McGinnis’s lecture on the event’s webpage.

ITHS KL2 Scholars Visiting Other Institutions

The ITHS KL2 Program will also send out their scholars to present at other translational science hubs across the nation. The first ITHS KL2 scholar to participate in this initiative will be Melissa Barker-Haliski, PhD, Research Assistant Professor at the Department of Pharmacy at UW.

Melissa Barker-Haliski, PhD

Dr. Barker-Haliski will present at the University of Pennsylvania’s Perelman School of Medicine at the Institute of Translational Medicine & Therapeutics on February 24 at 1pm EST through Zoom. Her talk will focus on the impact of chronic seizures on cognitive and neuropsychiatric comorbidities in AD-associated preclincal models. Please click here to register.

We will post these Visiting Scholar events in our ITHS Calendar, and Research Connector Newsletter. For any questions, please contact the ITHS Education team.