Education

Our PRIDE Summer Institute empowers qualified underrepresented minority scientists to launch careers in the field of behavioral medicine and sleep disorders research. The PRIDE Summer Institute offers intensive, multidisciplinary research training and mentorship to junior-level faculty members and other scientists who come from underrepresented racial and ethnic minority groups or who have a disability. 

We offer this opportunity to up to 12 qualified participants each summer. As a trainee during this two-week summer institute, you can expect to:

• Develop the skills you’ll need to apply for independent research grants in behavioral medicine and sleep disorders. 
• Receive guidance by staff at the National Institutes of Health’s (NIH’s) National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute and close mentorship by recognized faculty experts in cardiovascular health, behavioral medicine, and sleep disorders.
• Undergo intensive, individualized training in the fundamentals of health disparities research, grant writing, and peer review. 

After graduating from the program, many trainees continue on to tenure-track academic positions or to leadership roles in nonprofits and healthcare companies. Learn more about the PRIDE Summer Institute, including information about how to apply.

To see our list of current and past PRIDE members, follow the link below: https://issuu.com/umpsych/docs/pride_faculty_index

The Congruent Mentorship to Reach Academic Diversity (COMRADE) in Neuroscience Research training is a yearlong program that trains and mentors postdoctoral fellows from underrepresented minority groups. Through the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences Program at University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine (UM), we aim to help trainees establish independent research programs and pursue careers in behavioral neuroscience and health equity. Postdocs who successfully complete our program have the necessary skills to apply for independent research grants in these fields.

Curriculum

Training begins with a two-week intensive didactic summer session, followed by ongoing mentorship by scientists and a midyear academic meeting. The program concludes with a one-week follow-up summer session with National Institutes of Health (NIH) staff.

First Summer Session

As a trainee, you spend two weeks during your first summer at the Center for Healthful Behavior Change. You receive rigorous training in the fundamentals of neuroscience, neurological disparities, and behavioral medicine and learn how to conduct research, using techniques at the forefront of these fields. The summer session covers methodology, biostatistics, ethical conduct of research, behavioral and translational models, neurological disorders, neuroscience, intervention topics, community-engaged research, and grant writing.

Yearlong Mentorship and Midyear Academic Meeting

Fellows are matched with faculty mentors who are nationally and internationally recognized in the fields of neuroscience and behavioral medicine. Your mentor is also a research colleague over the course of the year. You attend a midyear academic meeting at the Center for Healthful Behavior Change.

Second Summer Session

In a one-week follow-up session at the Center for Healthful Behavior Change, your second summer includes one-on-one interactions with National Institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke staff, participation in an NIH Mock Study Section to review grant proposals, and proposal critiques by faculty and peers.

Faculty

Our faculty of multidisciplinary experts are nationally recognized in stroke prevention and intervention, behavioral medicine, and community-engaged research. They have a history of obtaining independent funding from the NIH and other funders.

Girardin Jean-Louis, Ph.D.
Co-Director
Professor, Department of Psychiatry
Research interests: sleep and cardiometabolic diseases; circadian rhythm; aging; health disparities

Olugbenga G. Ogedegbe, M.D., MPH
Co-Director
The Dr. Adolf and Margaret Berger Professor of Medicine and Population Health, Department of Medicine
Professor, Department of Population Health
Research interests: health disparities and minority health; cardiovascular risk reduction in minority and low-income populations; dissemination and implementation of evidence-based behavioral interventions in management of chronic disease

Recent Graduates

The following people are recent graduates from our program.

Arlener Turner, Ph.D.
Research interests: health-related risk factors for cognitive dysfunction; neuropsychology, Alzheimer’s disease, memory impairment, and depressive disorders; the impact of sleep disturbance on cognitive functioning; how treatment could benefit neurocognitive performance in individuals with impairment and comorbid insomnia and sleep apnea
Background: PhD in neuropsychology from Howard University; postdoctoral fellowships at Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine, National Institute of Mental Health, and the Rush Center of Excellence on Disparities in HIV and Aging

Daudet Ilunga Tshiswaka, Ph.D.
Research interests: health disparities, international health, and minority health, particularly health insurance status among minorities; health behaviors related to high blood pressure among transnational Africans; and spatial distribution of high-birth-weight and low-birth-weight babies born to immigrant women
Background: worked with a student group in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo, to help them increase HIV and AIDS awareness among their peers; worked with Scientific Animations Without Borders to translate preventive measures relating to malaria, Ebola, crop fields, and hand washing into the French and Lingala languages; PhD in community health from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign

Desiree Bygrave, Ph.D.
Research interests: intervention practices to reduce the burden of cardiovascular disease and protect or improve brain health; relations among endothelial function, brain, cognition, and the mediating role of brain pathology in the context of race-related health disparities; biopsychosocial approach to investigate the role of cardiovascular disease risk factors on cognitive function and hemodynamic variability
Background: postdoctoral research associate with the University of Delaware’s Biopsychosocial Health and Cognition Lab; PhD in neuropsychology from Howard University; graduate research assistant and adjunct lecturer in neuropsychology at Howard University’s Health Promotion and Risk Reduction Research Center; mentor and laboratory scientist for the American Psychological Association’s 2016 “I Am Psyched!” Museum Day Live campaign; inspiring girls of color to explore careers in the social and behavioral sciences

Natalie Watson, Ph.D.
Research interests: how stress contributes to reactive health behaviors and outcomes that reduce or exacerbate health disparities in diverse groups; the role of culturally sanctioned coping strategies (such as strong black womanhood and John Henryism) in buffering against or contributing to health disparities among African Americans; effectiveness of mind–body interventions to reduce depression and hypertension among African American women
Background: PhD in clinical and community psychology from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign; co-investigator on “The Reveal: Making Room for Black Women’s Voices of Mental Health and Wellness” grant

Susan Douglas, M.D., J.D.
Research interests: ways to integrate people with chronic illness and disabilities into their communities|
Background: faculty in academic neurology and health services research at Ronald Reagan UCLA Medical Center; MD from Georgetown University; public policy fellowship on the U.S. Senate Finance Committee’s Health Care Subcommittee, working on Medicare, Medicaid, and disability policy, including drafting legislation that is law today

Admissions

Our mentorship program provides funding to support travel and accommodations to the Summer Institute for up to 6 trainees per cohort. The program is open to current postdoctoral fellows or scientists who are U.S. citizens or permanent U.S. residents. To apply, please complete and submit a COMRADE pre-application. Include your current CV (including mailing address, phone and fax numbers, and email address) and a statement of your research interests.

Invited applicants, please complete and submit a COMRADE full application. Include a summary of your academic work and research experience in neuroscience and health disparities or stroke.

Please also have mentors, colleagues, and department chairs use our recommendation form to submit recommendations or letters of support.

Incomplete applications will not be reviewed.

Contact Us

For all questions regarding the program, please contact TSCS@miami.edu 

Blacks get less sleep and are more likely to have a sleep disorder called sleep apnea than other racial and ethnic groups. Why Blacks face these challenges is not fully understood, but preliminary evidence suggests that the burden of poor sleep outcomes in racial and ethnic minorities (Blacks and Hispanics) may be due to biology, clinical factors (being overweight), and lifestyle factors (shift work and stress).

How TASHE works

The Tailored Approach to Sleep Health Education – or TASHE – aims to develop educational tools that deal with the issue of sleep and sleep apnea in the Black community (and other racial and ethnic minority communities). To that end, Girardin Jean-Louis, Ph.D., in the Department of Population Health, led a randomized controlled trial with 194 Black participants at high risk for sleep apnea:

• Participants in the intervention arm were given access to culturally and linguistically tailored web-based information designed to address unique barriers to sleep apnea care among Blacks.
• Participants in the attention-controlled arm received standard sleep information via the National Sleep Foundation website.

In this study, we hypothesized that exposure to tailored information about sleep apnea would improve sleep apnea health literacy. Our results demonstrated that stakeholder-engaged, theory-based approaches, such as our intervention, can be used successfully to deliver effective sleep health messages. Our approach was successful in delivering effective messages about sleep health in Blacks.

TASHE education materials

TASHE uses education and research to help individuals, families, and communities learn about the importance of sleep and how the improvement of sleep health can lead to better health, wellness, and quality of life.

Get more Information

Learn more by reading our paper “Tailored Approach to Sleep Health Education (TASHE): a Randomized Controlled Trial of a Web-Based Application” published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

As the population of older Americans increases, a major public health priority is to identify approaches to optimize healthy aging and to limit the disabling effects of chronic diseases and Alzheimer’s disease and related dementia (ADRD) in underserved communities. An important focus of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences Program at University of Miami, Miller School of Medicine (UM) is to ascertain whether the disproportionate burden of ADRD in minority populations can be attributed to sleep deficiencies, including poor sleep, sleep apnea, and circadian misalignment. We aim to develop early intervention strategies to curb the expanding health burden on minorities, especially that resulting from inadequate access to personalized medical and psychological care. 

Our program, supported by a National Institutes of Health (NIH) K07 award, aims to address the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Strategic Goal 3 of strengthening “the economic and social well-being of Americans across the lifespan.” Our goal is to foster rich cross-campus collaborations between investigators in various disciplines at UM, NYU Langone, NYU, and other premier institutions to maximize the rigor and impact of innovative approaches to reducing disparities in the brain health of vulnerable communities. We also aim to develop new curricula and research projects in translational sleep and circadian sciences. 

Reducing disparities in cardiovascular and brain health is an important area for translational research and mentoring junior investigators in the area of translational sleep and circadian sciences is paramount. We incorporate recommendations from the National Alzheimer’s Project Act and draw from NIH-sponsored studies identifying mentorship as the most important factor in fostering successful research careers. 

Our Vision and Mission 

The vision of the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences Program is to serve as a collaborative learning laboratory and a university-wide resource to stimulate, support, and evaluate high-priority ADRD research with a special focus on low-income and underserved communities. We have a three-part mission: 

• to amplify, through core faculty, concurrent NIH-funded research in understanding the mechanisms underlying racial and ethnic disparities and testing multilevel interventions (patient, clinician, and community) to promote optimal aging and disease management among people living with Alzheimer’s disease.
• to mentor 12 junior scientists who are pursuing academic careers in aging research from a variety of UM and NYU-based postdoctoral programs, with special effort made to recruit women and underrepresented minorities.
• to implement innovative research strategies in translational sleep and circadian sciences to reduce health disparities in ADRD and disseminate evidence generated from the program into clinical and public health practice and policy.

Contact Us 

For more information about the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences Program, please contact TSCS@miami.edu 

ACT Now! Stands for Advancing People of Color in Clinical Trials Now! Our mission is to educate people of color about research studies and to eliminate health disparities through increasing participation in clinical trials.

Background

Factors that may affect racial and ethnic group decision making to participate in clinical trials include the following: patient mistrust, perceived racial discrimination, transparency, awareness, culture and language, health literacy, invitation to participate in a clinical trial, social support, health insurance coverage, and pre-existing comorbidities. Research suggests that African American and Hispanic enrollment in pharmacology clinical trials for cancer drugs and cystic fibrosis are particularly low. Addressing the many barriers to clinical trial enrollment is critical to increasing minority enrollment in clinical trials research. We particularly aim to increase the health literacy of the many types of clinical trials that go beyond pharmacological drug testing. To that end, we aim to increase minority willingness to enroll in evidence-based interventions, including mechanistic, exploratory, pilot studies; interventional trials; and behavioral trials. To engender higher decision making among people of color to enroll in clinical trials, we propose an accessible, culturally adapted, electronic health (eHealth) educational tool to enhance clinical trial literacy among racial and ethnic groups. This cluster randomized study aims to test the efficacy of a culturally tailored website to increase literacy, self-efficacy, and willingness to enroll in clinical trials among people of color. We will design a culturally tailored website that will provide leverage for community stakeholders to influence clinical trial literacy, self-efficacy, and willingness to enroll in clinical trials among racial and ethnic groups.

Objective

“Advancing People of Color in Clinical Trials Now!” (ACT Now!) is a culturally tailored website designed to influence clinical trial decision making among people of color. ACT Now! has the potential to fill a gap in clinical trial enrollment among people of color through an accessible web-based website. ACT Now! works with people to educate them about clinical trials, and the goal of the project is to teach people of color about how clinical trials may improve their health.

Contact Us

For more information about the Center for Translational Sleep and Circadian Sciences Program, please contact TSCS@miami.edu