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Professional Development Core


Vivian Fonseca

Vivian Fonseca, MD
Core Director
Tulane University


Daniel Kapusta

Daniel Kapusta, PhD
Core Co-Director
LSUH New Orleans




Leanne Redman

Leanne Redman, MS, PhD
Core Co-Director
Pennington Biomedical


Michelle Wilson

Michelle Wilson, MPH
Research Navigator
Tulane University
mwilso21@tulane.edu
(504) 988-6998

Contact this core
Email: ResNavigator@LACaTS.org


About This Core

The overall goal of the Professional Development Core is to educate and train academic faculty and trainees to pursue clinical/translational research to improve health outcomes and reduce health disparities of Louisiana residents. Formal training in clinical and translational research for junior faculty has already been developed and successfully implemented.

We are now prepared to take the next logical steps to greatly enhance training throughout the entire LA CaTS Center. We will offer professional development programs in clinical/translational research to a broader spectrum of health professionals including dentistry, nursing, psychology, social work, and pharmacy.

The aims of this core:

Specific Aim 1. Develop programs that support Clinical/Translational research training, mentoring, career development, and to build research teams that specifically target multiple health care disciplines.

We will expand our training program to include a more comprehensive cohort of health professionals with the focus of enhancing “team science”. We will do this by developing and adapting “train the trainer” (TtT) short courses for faculty in dentistry, nursing, psychology, social work (Tulane), and pharmacy (Xavier) and provide access to the clinical research curriculum to MD/PhD candidates and postdoctoral fellows.

Specific Aim 2. Develop, provide and coordinate accessible resources to aid faculty and trainees in developing, initiating, executing, analyzing, and disseminating clinical/translational research.

We have created an innovative Distance Learning (DL) center that will deliver research education resources to health professionals and trainees in Louisiana. This includes providing and maintaining a web-based menu of available clinical/translational research education resources from both LA CaTS and collaborating Clinical Translational Science Awards (CTSAs), promoting clinical/translational research resources through productive interactions between our Research Navigator and all collaborating institutions.

Building on our accomplishments to date, we will enhance the depth and focus of research on health disparities and improve health outcomes in Louisiana by enhancing clinical/translational research capabilities of trainees and strengthening our interactions with other KCAs.

Over 90% of the healthcare professionals in Louisiana are graduates of the degree granting programs of the LA CaTS primary and collaborating institutions. By expanding Professional Development programs to health professionals at all LA CaTS institutions, we will have a greater and more immediate impact on improving health in Louisiana through research.