AAHB/KHSP Mentorship Program

Congratulations to the AAHB/KHSP Mentor and Mentees!

 
The American Academy of Health Behavior (AAHB) and The Kellogg Health Scholars Program have teamed together to provide a 12-month mentoring opportunity to a competitive pool of junior level health behavior researchers. The mission of AAHB is to serve as the “research home” for health behavior scholars and researchers whose primary commitment is to excellence in research and the application of research to practice to improve the public's health. The purpose of the mentoring program is to mentor junior investigators in the production of high-quality scholarly products that address minority health concerns and health disparities using CBPR.   Senior investigators from AAHB are partnered with one of seven selected early-career investigators to help them develop skills and gain experience in conducting research on minority health and health disparities.

• In this 12-month mentoring program, mentors and mentees are developing a shared CBPR research project in collaboration with one or more community partners.

• Mentors are senior investigators from AAHB.

• Mentees are current scholars or alumni of the Kellogg Health Scholars Program (or its legacy programs, Community Health Scholars Program and Scholars in Health Disparities) with an interest in minority health and/or health disparities research and CBPR.

Seven mentees were selected from a competitive pool of junior level health behavior researchers and paired with senior behavioral scientists who are members of AAHB. The purpose of the program is to mentor junior investigators in the production of high-quality scholarly products that address minority health concerns and health disparities using CBPR.

Mentee-mentor pairs were recognized at the opening reception of the AAHB's 11th annual meeting in Hilton Head, SC in March. At this meeting, mentee-mentor pairs had the opportunity to meet face-to-face  to begin planning their projects together. We are looking forward to a successful collaboration ahead. Congratulations to the finalists! 

Program Co-Directors: Dr. Lisa Benz Scott, Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center; Dr. David Seal, Medical College of Wisconsin Program Coordinator: Dr. Jessica Rath, Legacy Foundation and University of MarylandKHSP Program Lead:  Renee Bayer, University of Michigan SPHApplication Reviewers:  Drs. Lisa Benz Scott (Stony Brook University Health Sciences Center), Leonard Jack (Xavier University of Louisiana, Jennie Kronenfeld (Arizona State University), Jessica Rath (The Legacy Foundation), and Renee Bayer (University of Michigan SPH)

For more information contact:

AAHB/Kellogg Mentoring Program Coordinator:

Dr. Jessica M. Rath, PhD, MPH, CHES

jrath@legacyforhealth.org

301-454-5772

Kellogg Health Scholars Program

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“This program is unique among public health training programs with which I am familiar in that scholars not only hone rigorous health disparities methods training, we also learn to translate our academic research into evidence-based resources for use in ongoing community-based social justice efforts and for policy-makers seeking to develop evidence-based policies to reduce health disparities.” – Kellogg Health Scholar, 2008

The Kellogg Health Scholars Program is a post-doctoral program which develops new leadership in the effort to reduce and eliminate health disparities and to secure equal access to the conditions and services essential for achieving healthy communities. Through this Program, leaders emerge with the competence to undertake research adding to our knowledge about the nature of social disparities in health and about interventions to reduce those disparities; the capacity to partner with communities in carrying out research and building policy advocacy; and the skills to inform and support policy makers who seek to reduce and eliminate health disparities.

The Kellogg Health Scholars Program consists of two tracks and offers two-year postdoctoral fellowships at eight training sites.  The Community Track highlights community based participatory research, and relationships between academic health disparities research, public health practices in communities, and policy development. Community-Based Participatory Research (CBPR) in health is a collaborative approach to research that equitably involves all partners in the research process and recognizes the unique strengths that each brings. CBPR begins with a research topic of importance to the community and has the aim of combining knowledge with action and achieving social change to improve health outcomes and eliminate health disparities. Training sites at Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg School of Public Health, Morgan State University School of Community Health and Policy, the University of Michigan School of Public Health, and the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Gillings School of Global Public Health.

The Multidisciplinary Track highlights a multidisciplinary approach to studying the determinants of health inequalities and inequities. The Multidisciplinary Track prepares a new generation of largely minority scientists for careers and leadership roles in health disparities and health policy research, with the objective of facilitating the translation of such research to policy and practice. Training sites at Harvard School of Public Health, University of California, San Francisco/Berkeley – Center on Social Disparities in Health, University of Pittsburgh Graduate School of Public Health – Center for Minority Health, University of Texas M.D. Anderson Cancer Center – Health Disparities Research, Education and Training Consortium

Both tracks highlight the translation of health research into policy findings and recommendations. KHSP combines the proven strengths of two prior highly successful Kellogg-funded programs: Community Health Scholars Program (CHSP) and Scholars in Health Disparities Program (SHDP). Since their inception, KHSP and these two legacy postdoctoral programs have collectively trained over 90 scholars who have completed their fellowships and are now pursuing academic, policy or health agency careers. Most Scholar alumni are Scholars of color -- African American, Hispanic/Latino, American Indian, Middle Eastern, South Asian and Asian American.

The impact these two programs have made on the careers of each of their fellows, the institutions where they have trained and where they are pursuing their careers, and the communities where they have worked is evidenced by the of alumni from the two programs who are now engaged in research, teaching and policy work on health disparities at 25 institutions and agencies