Career Development Programs

The overall aim of the Research Education and Career Development (REC) Core is to develop a diverse and multidisciplinary clinical and translational research workforce to accelerate the translation of research findings into evidence-based policies and practices that improve the health of all populations in the United States.

The Career Development Program, supervised by Assistant Director Michael Fleming, MD, MPH, is currently training a cohort of 20 KL2 and Dean's scholars. The KL2 program was established within ICTR and integrated the NCRR Roadmap K12 program when UW-Madison received a Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) in September 2007. This program provides promising young clinical and translational researchers the necessary training and protected time to develop an independent research program. The awardees and their research mentors represent a broad variety of schools (Medicine & Public Health, Pharmacy, Social Work, and Veterinary Medicine), colleges (Engineering and Letters & Science), and departments (Comparative Biosciences, Industrial Engineering, Medical Physics, Medical Sciences, Medicine, Neurological Surgery, Oncology, Pediatrics, Psychiatry, Psychology, and Surgery), reflecting the scope of the ICTR partners.

If you are interested in applying for a KL2 award, please visit the links below for applicant criteria, deadlines and application forms (Microsoft Word format):
2009 KL2 Awards - Application announcement, award details and overview
2009 KL2 Application Form & Instructions

Dr. Fleming also oversees the Pre-doctoral TL1 training program. The TL1 program currently has a cohort of seven trainees.

Current KL2 Scholars

The ICTR Research Education and Career Development Core (ICTR-REC) is pleased to announce the selection of eight new scholars for the ICTR KL2 Scholars Program beginning June 1, 2009.

The 2006 & 2007 cohorts of scholars were formerly with the NCRR Roadmap K12, known at UW as the Training and Education to Advance Multidisciplinary (TEAM) Clinical Research Program.

Cohort 5 - 2009 | Cohort 4 - 2008 | Cohort 3 - 2007 | Cohort 2 - 2006

Cohort 5 (2009)

Mark Burkard completed his MD and Ph.D. in Chemistry at the University of Rochester. His post-graduate training in Internal Medicine was undertaken at Cornell University and in Medical Oncology at Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. Dr. Burkard is currently Assistant Professor in the Department of Medicine, with a clinical focus on medical management of breast cancer. His research interest is optimizing kinase-targeted therapeutics for use in treating breast cancer. His laboratory uses a combination of genetic and pharmacology tools to elucidate kinase biology and identify therapeutic strategies for treating cancer, based on the specific genetic alterations they harbor. Dr. Burkard participates in the Breast Cancer Disease Oriented Working Group and the Phase I clinical research program.

Dr. Burkard's mentors are George Wilding, MD (Hematology-Oncology and Comprehensive Cancer Center) and F. Michael Hoffman, PhD (Chair of Oncology).

Erin Costanzo received her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Iowa in 2006. She completed her clinical internship in Health Psychology at the University of Wisconsin Hospital and Clinics and a clinical fellowship in Cancer Psychology at the UW Carbone Comprehensive Cancer Center (UWCCC). She also completed a postdoctoral fellowship with the UW Training Program in Emotion Research which focused on emotional processes in both psychological adjustment to cancer and biological processes associated with cancer. Dr. Costanzo is currently an Assistant Professor (CHS) in the Department of Psychiatry. Her research focuses on contributions of psychosocial factors to cancer outcomes and the biobehavioral mechanisms underlying these relationships. She is presently investigating the extent to which psychological risk and resilience factors may hinder or facilitate immune reconstitution following hematopoietic stem cell transplantation. Her long-term goal is to translate findings into targeted psychosocial interventions to improve the health and quality of life of individuals with cancer. Dr. Costanzo also provides clinical care to cancer patients and their families at the UWCCC.

Dr. Costanzo's mentors are Christopher Coe, PhD (Psychology and the Waisman Center) and Mark Juckett, MD (Hematology-Oncology).

Peter Ferrazzano received his MD from Saint Louis University School of Medicine. He then completed a combined Internal Medicine and Pediatrics Residency at New York Medical College, followed by fellowship training in Pediatric Critical Care Medicine at Columbia University. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Pediatrics in the School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Ferrazzano’s research interest is in pediatric brain injury and neuroprotection. His current work uses small animal MRI to identify biomarkers of injury and therapeutic effect in animal models of pediatric cerebral ischemia. A combination of real-time imaging, conventional longitudinal imaging, and rodent behavioral testing is used to comprehensively assess neuro-developmental differences in the physiology of ischemia and reperfusion, and the response to neuroprotective interventions. In an effort to improve clinical outcomes and to create a framework for translating neuroprotective interventions, he is also developing a clinical pediatric brain injury database which will correlate in-patient clinical data with follow-up neurodevelopmental assessments performed at the Waisman Center.

Dr. Ferrazzano's mentors are Dandan Sun, MD, PhD (Neurological Surgery) and Beth Meyerand, PhD (Medical Physics).

Colleen Mahoney earned her Ph.D. from the University of Chicago’s School of Social Service Administration and is now an Assistant Professor in the School of Social Work. Prior to her doctoral studies, she worked as a clinical social worker with adults with serious mental illness in community-based settings in Chicago and Washington, D.C. Dr. Mahoney studies interpersonal processes involved in service delivery for persons with serious mental illness, and she is specifically concerned with how these processes relate to treatment adherence issues and client outcomes. Her previous research has examined how providers conceptualize their treatment relationships with clients and how their clinical reasoning about clients’ medication nonadherence impacts the quality of these treatment relationships. Dr. Mahoney’s current research includes a series of studies that observe client-provider communication about medication issues in order to conceptualize and measure the interpersonal processes involved in the treatment task of medication management and to relate these processes to client outcomes.

Dr. Mahoney's mentors are Jan Greenberg, PhD (Director of Social Work) and Betty Chewning, PhD (Pharmacy).

Joshua Mezrich earned his undergraduate AB degree from Princeton University as a Slavic Language and Literature major in 1993, and an MD from Cornell University in New York in 1997. He completed a general surgery residency at the University of Chicago in 2005, and spent three extra years during his residency at the Transplant Biology Research Center at the Massachusetts General Hospital, performing a research fellowship in transplant biology. He then completed a transplant surgery fellowship at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Mezrich is currently an assistant professor in the School of Medicine and Public Health, and performs abdominal transplants at the UW Hospital. His research project focuses on the role of the aryl hydrocarbon receptor, the receptor for the toxin dioxin, in causing immunosuppression, thymic involution, and generation of T Regulatory Cells. This receptor may be a novel target for modulation in efforts to generate tolerance in solid organ transplantation. He conducts his research in the McArdle Laboratory for Cancer Research.

Dr. Mezrich's mentors are Christopher Bradfield, PhD (Oncology) and William Sugden, PhD (Oncology).

Enid Montague received MS and PhD degrees in Industrial and Systems Engineering from Virginia Tech in 2008, specializing in human factors and ergonomics engineering, the future professoriate, women’s studies and human computer interaction. Prior to attending Virginia Tech, she was a research assistant at Eastern Virginia Medical School’s Glennan Center for Geriatrics, the Virginia Modeling and Simulation Center and Old Dominion University’s Department of Psychology. Dr. Montague is currently an Assistant Professor of Industrial Engineering and Fellow at the University of Wisconsin-Madison College of Engineering. She has received fellowships from the Southern Regional Education Board and the Francis Research Fellowship for research that emphasizes “longer, safer and healthier lives” for her research “Understanding Trust in Medical Technology.” Dr. Montague’s research uses industrial and human factors engineering methodologies, design principles and theories to understand health care systems to promote patient and worker safety. At present, Dr. Montague explores the role of trust between people and technologies in health care work systems; she looks at organizational and design factors that effect both workers and patients.

Dr. Montague's mentors are Pascale Carayon, PhD (Industrial Engineering and Population Health Sciences) and Ben-Tzion Karsh, PhD (Industrial Engineering and Population Health Sciences).

Rekha Ramamurthy earned her MD from the University of Chicago, Pritzker School of Medicine. She completed her Internal Medicine Residency at the University of Pittsburgh and her Fellowship in Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism at Northwestern University, Feinberg School of Medicine. She is currently an Assistant Professor of Medicine (CHS) in the Section of Endocrinology, Diabetes and Metabolism within the School of Medicine and Public Health. During her Endocrinology Fellowship, she focused her research activities on the metabolic complications of PCOS. Since joining UW, her area of research interest has been in vitamin D related health consequences at the UW Osteoporosis Clinical Research Center, where she is also involved in a number of industry-sponsored and investigator-initiated clinical trials. She is conducting a clinical trial examining the effects of vitamin D on cardiovascular health.

Dr. Ramamurthy's mentors are Neil Binkley, MD (Medicine and Institute on Aging) and James Gern, MD (Pediatrics).

Timothy Stein received his DVM from Iowa State University and his PhD from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He will be completing his medical oncology residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in July and will be an Assistant Professor in the Department of Medical Sciences within the School of Veterinary Medicine. His research interests are in the generation and characterization of animal models of cancer, specifically liver cancer and bone tumors (osteosarcoma). A portion of his research utilizes transgenic mouse models to better characterize the contribution of specific gene alterations in liver cancer. His current research will focus on characterizing naturally-occurring canine osteosarcoma associated with increased alkaline phosphatase concentrations (a negative prognostic indicator in dogs and humans) using microarray analysis and cell culture techniques.

Dr. Stein's mentors are David Vail, PhD (Veterinary Medicine Medical Sciences and Comprehensive Cancer Center) and John Svaren, PhD (Veterinary Medicine Comparative Biosciences and Neurological Surgery).

Cohort 4 (2008)

ICTR Dean's Scholars

Marcia Slattery received her MD from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine and Public Health and her MHS from Duke University School of Medicine. She completed a Psychiatry residency and a Child and Adolescent Psychiatry fellowship at the Mayo Clinic. She is currently an Associate Professor (CHS) in Psychiatry and Pediatrics. Dr. Slattery’s research interests are focused on neurobiological mechanisms associated with anxiety disorders in children and adolescents including alterations in immune and pituitary-adrenal systems, and brain functional changes. She is particularly interested in the impact of stress on HPA, immune, and brain functioning in youth with anxiety.

Judith Smith earned her MD and PhD in Immunology at the University of Chicago. From there, she completed her Pediatric residency and fellowship in Pediatric Rheumatology at the Cincinnati Children’s Hospital. Since she joined the Department of Pediatrics as an Assistant Professor in 2006, she has pursued a basic research program aimed at learning how intracellular stress responses shape inflammatory cytokine responses. Her projects range in scope from basic regulation of cytokine gene transcription to in vivo models involving endoplasmic reticulum stress and analysis of patient samples for ER stress and inflammatory cytokine production. Dr. Smith also remains actively involved in the care of pediatric patients with Rheumatologic conditions.

Cohort 3 (2007)

Christie Bartels graduated in 2001 with her MD from Creighton University and completed Internal Medicine residency, chief residency, and fellowship studies in Rheumatology at the University of Wisconsin. She is now a Clinical Instructor in the section of Rheumatology and is pursuing a master’s in Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Bartels’ research focuses on long-term outcomes of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) and systemic lupus, examining disease-specific complications and coronary artery disease. She is completing work examining the impact of modern treatments called “biologic agents” on the spectrum of systemic rheumatoid arthritis complications called extra-articular manifestations. Another current study is examining the cardiovascular morbidity and mortality among rural lupus patients. Ultimately Dr. Bartels aims to translate an understanding of long-term complications in RA and lupus into interventions to reduce the mortality gap seen in patients with systemic inflammatory diseases.

Angela Byars-Winston received bachelor’s degrees in Psychology and Spanish Literature and a master's degree in Counselor Education from San Diego State University. She completed a pre-doctoral clinical internship at the University of Maryland, College Park and received her PhD in Counseling Psychology from Arizona State University. She joined the Department of Counseling Psychology faculty at UW-Madison in 1997 and is currently an Associate Scientist in the UW School of Medicine and Public Health. Dr. Byars-Winston’s research interests include the examination of cultural influences on career development, especially for racial/ethnic minorities and women, using social cognitive approaches. As the project director for a research grant from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, she is conducting a three-year study of the career and academic development of racial/ethnic minority undergraduates in Engineering and the Life Sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Michael Hammer earned his PhD from the University of Kansas, majoring in Speech Physiology and Neuroscience. He completed his bachelor of Music and graduate work in Voice Performance, his master’s degree in Clinical Speech Language Pathology at the University of Missouri-Kansas City. He is currently an Assistant Scientist in the section of Otolaryngology. Dr. Hammer is interested in the neural mechanisms of upper airway sensorimotor control, with an aim to translate new knowledge into more effective neurorehabilitation approaches. He recently completed a set of studies exploring sensory and motor aspects of laryngeal control related to cough, speech, swallow, and voice, and how these important functions of the upper airway are affected in aging and Parkinson’s disease. Dr. Hammer is a certified speech language pathologist with primary clinical experience in respiratory, speech, swallow, and voice disorders related to aging, head & neck cancer, neuropathology, and occupational voice.

Jeremy Johnson earned his PharmD from the University of Wisconsin School of Pharmacy and his bachelor of science degree in Biology from the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point. He is currently an Assistant Scientist in the School of Pharmacy. Dr. Johnson is interested in the area of experimental therapeutics and its application to cancer chemoprevention. His research focus is on the use of naturally occurring compounds that have shown promise as cancer chemopreventive agents in pre-clinical settings and helping to facilitate the translation of these compounds to clinical practices. Currently, Dr. Johnson is working with two compounds that have shown promise as cancer chemopreventive agents in cancer cell culture models and cancer animal models. With previous experience in pre-clinical research that includes cell culture, animal experiments as well as basic molecular biology techniques, Dr. Johnson is analyzing and assessing available data to help design and initiate a phase I human clinical trial.

Jana Jones received her PhD in Rehabilitation Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She completed her pre-doctoral internship at St. Charles Hospital and Rehabilitation Center in Port Jefferson, NY and completed a postdoctoral fellowship in Neuropsychology in the Department of Neurology at the University of Wisconsin. She completed a bachelor's degree in Psychology and History and a master’s degree in Rehabilitation Counseling at the University of Texas. Dr. Jones is currently an Assistant Professor (CHS) in the Department of Neurology. Her research interests are in the field of epilepsy and include psychosocial outcomes following anterior temporal lobectomy in adults and psychiatric comorbidity in adults and children with epilepsy.

Karen Kehl earned her PhD in Nursing from UW-Madison. She received her undergraduate degree in Nursing from UW-Madison and her master's degree in Nursing from Rush University. Dr. Kehl has been a nurse for more than 20 years and has specialized in hospice and palliative care for more than 15 years. She is currently a Research Associate in the School of Nursing. Dr. Kehl’s research focus is preparing hospice families for death in the home, with the goal of developing a tailored intervention which will take into account the patient's condition and the family's needs. She is particularly interested in preparing rural families for the final hours of life. Dr. Kehl is currently working on a number of projects related to preparing families for the last hours of life. She is analyzing data from a study examining the written preparatory materials used by hospices across the country to see if there are local or regional variations in the material presented. She is conducting a study to determine when and how hospice professionals provide preparatory information to hospice families.

Amy Jo Haavisto Kind graduated in 2001 with her MD from the University of Wisconsin Medical School. She completed an Internal Medicine-Primary Care residency at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston, returning to the University of Wisconsin in 2004 to complete a clinical fellowship in Geriatric Medicine and a VA research fellowship in Older Women’s Health. Dr. Kind is also pursuing a PhD degree in Population Health Sciences, focusing on health services research. As a Clinical Instructor in Geriatrics, Dr. Kind’s research focuses on patient safety during transitions between health care settings. Her goal is to improve the hospital discharge process to enhance patient safety, especially for geriatric and nursing home populations. Currently she has projects exploring the relationship between discharge summary documentation and patient outcomes, including bounce-back risk, in hospitalized patients discharged to nursing homes.

Megan Piper earned her PhD in Clinical Psychology from the University of Wisconsin. Dr. Piper graduated from Carleton College in Minnesota with a degree in Chemistry and earned her master’s in Clinical Psychology from Miami University in Ohio where she concentrated on alcohol research. She is an Assistant Scientist at the University of Wisconsin Center for Tobacco Research and Intervention. Dr. Piper’s research focuses on identifying and treating tobacco dependence. Some specific projects she is currently working on include: identifying a unique group of smokers with a distinct dependence profile; linking early daily smoking and genetic variants with increased risk for tobacco dependence; and the efficacy of different smoking cessation treatments and the mechanisms via which these treatments exert their effects. She is also interested in the role of psychiatric comorbidity and tobacco dependence and is working on a project using structured clinical interview data from the Wisconsin Smokers’ Health Study to examine how mental health issues are related to tobacco dependence and ability to quit smoking.

Cohort 2 (2006)

Michele Ries earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in Clinical Psychology from the University of Memphis and completed her internship training in Clinical Neuropsychology at the University of Chicago. Dr. Ries is currently an Assistant Scientist in the section of Geriatrics. She conducts research using MRI methods to detect structural and functional brain changes in individuals at risk for developing Alzheimer’s disease (AD). One of her research foci targets brain changes in asymptomatic middle-aged individuals with varying AD-risk due to genetic factors and parental history of AD. Another research focus relates to brain changes accompanying memory deficits and impaired awareness of memory deficits in patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment, a major risk factor for AD. Given their putative role in memory and self-awareness and their vulnerability to changes in AD, specific brain regions of interest in this neuroimaging research include the ventromedial prefrontal cortex and posterior cingulate cortex. Dr. Ries grew up just north of Baltimore, MD and completed her undergraduate degree in Psychology with honors while on a Full Presidential Academic Scholarship at the College of Notre Dame of Maryland.

Orly Vardeny earned her PharmD degree from the University of Utah. She completed a residency in Ambulatory Care from the University of Utah Hospital and Clinics, followed by a research fellowship in Experimental Cardiovascular Pharmacotherapy. Dr. Vardeny is currently an Assistant Professor (CHS) in the School of Pharmacy. Dr. Vardeny conducts research in chronic heart failure, focusing on delineating contributions of beta adrenergic pathways on metabolic abnormalities and immune dysfunction in patients with heart failure. She currently studies associations of beta2 adrenergic receptor polymorphisms and their interactions with medications used in heart failure on insulin resistance in these patients. Additionally, she investigates beta adrenergic mechanisms of immune responses to influenza vaccination, and studies alternative immunization strategies to improve protection from influenza infection in heart failure patients.

Past KL2 Scholars

Lori Anderson earned her PhD in Nursing from UW-Madison and is currently an Assistant Scientist in the School of Nursing. Dr. Anderson’s research focus is children with special health care needs (CSHCN). She is developing an e-learning program intended to support nurses and to provide them with the knowledge and skills to coordinate and deliver complex care to CSHCN in schools. She has completed analysis of qualitative data from in-depth interviews with school nurses and with families of CSHCN and developed, conducted, and is analyzing data from a large national survey of school nurses. The data from the interviews and survey are being used in the development of the e-learning program. The goal of the program is to enhance service coordination, reduce stress on CSHCN and their families, and improve child, family, and educational outcomes. A certified pediatric nurse practitioner, Dr. Anderson has her undergraduate and master’s degrees from UW-Madison. Dr. Anderson was in the K12/KL2 program July 2006-June 2009.

Christopher Crnich earned his MD from Rush Medical College in Chicago and completed his residency and chief residency in Internal Medicine at the University of Wisconsin. Following residency, Dr. Crnich completed a fellowship in Infectious Disease as well as a master's in Population Health Sciences, also at the University of Wisconsin. He is now an Assistant Professor in the section of Infectious Disease and is pursuing a PhD in Population Health Sciences. Dr. Crnich’s research during his fellowship was focused on the epidemiology and prevention of healthcare-associated infections in hospitals. His research has since begun to focus increasingly on infectious disease outcomes in long-term care facilities. His latest project focused on determining patterns of antibiotic resistance in Wisconsin nursing homes and what features of the nursing home environment and processes of care influence these observed patterns. Dr. Crnich was in the K12/KL2 program July 2005-June 2009.

John Dopp earned his bachelor's and PharmD degrees from the University of Wisconsin and completed his Cardiovascular Research Fellowship at the University of Iowa College of Pharmacy. An Assistant Professor (CHS) in the School of Pharmacy, Dr. Dopp is interested in researching the cardiovascular pathophysiology of obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). His goal is to identify targets and appropriate treatments to improve vascular function and cardiovascular health in patients with OSA. Currently, he is working on a number of projects, one of which is identifying the cerebrovascular responses in patients with OSA and if treatment with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) influences these responses. Dr. Dopp is also investigating how xanthine oxidase inhibition influences the vascular and sympathetic effects of intermittent hypoxia. Even though the main treatment for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure, there is a significant percentage of patients who do not tolerate or wish to use this therapy and/or do not use CPAP for the whole night of sleep. These patients are at risk for the negative cardiovascular effects of OSA and may benefit from other treatment modalities specifically targeted to prevent cardiovascular perturbations. Dr. Dopp was in the K12/KL2 program July 2005-June 2009.

David Feldstein earned his MD from the State University of New York at Stony Brook. He completed an Internal Medicine residency and chief residency at the University of Massachusetts Medical Center. His research interest is evaluating how medical education affects patient care. Dr. Feldstein is particularly interested in evidence-based practice education of residents and practicing clinicians. Currently he is using a mixed-methods approach to develop and validate a tool for teaching and evaluating evidence-based practice in Internal Medicine residents. This tool will be used to develop real-time answers to clinical questions during inpatient care rounds. Dr. Feldstein is an Assistant Professor (CHS) in the section of General Internal Medicine and is also pursuing his master’s in Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, where he is focusing on adult learning and evaluation. Dr. Feldstein was in the K12/KL2 program July 2005-June 2009.

Bryan Heiderscheit earned his PhD in Biomechanics from the University of Massachusetts and is an Assistant Professor in the Departments of Orthopedics & Rehabilitation and Biomedical Engineering at UW-Madison. His research is aimed at understanding and enhancing movement coordination as it relates to injury and aging, with recent projects focused on the use of gait parameters to characterize falls risk in older adults. Additional projects are investigating the residual neuromuscular deficits following a muscle strain injury and interventions with which these deficits can be minimized. He has received research support from the National Institutes of Health, NFL Medical Charities and American Physical Therapy Association. Dr. Heiderscheit graduated from UW-La Crosse with a degree in Physical Therapy. He earned his master’s in Biomechanics from the University of Massachusetts, where he concentrated on the mechanics of human locomotion. Dr. Heiderscheit was in the K12/KL2 program July 2006-June 2009.

David Hsu has a PhD in Chemical Physics from Columbia University. He worked on theoretical methods for studying many-body quantum and classical ensemble dynamics for a time, taught Physical Chemistry for a year at Wellesley College and then earned an MD from the University of Pittsburgh. He trained in Pediatrics at the University of Iowa and in Neurology at Stanford University. He then joined the Department of Neurology at the University of Wisconsin as an Assistant Professor (CHS) in Pediatric Neurology. Dr. Hsu’s current research interest is in the computational modeling of neural systems learning and in the application of such models to neurological disease, in particular to epilepsy and Parkinson’s disease. A side interest is in algorithms for non-invasive imaging of structural connectivity within the brain with a goal of developing neuro-imaging criteria for the earlier diagnosis of autism. Dr. Hsu was in the K12/KL2 program July 2006-June 2009.

Ianessa Humbert earned her PhD in Speech Language Pathology from Howard University in collaboration with a pre-doctoral research fellowship with the National Institutes of Health (NIH) within the National institute of Neurological Disorders and Stroke (NINDS). Her research focuses on the neurophysiology of swallowing and swallowing disorders (dysphagia) primarily in healthy aging and in Alzheimer's Disease. Dr. Humbert was in the K12/KL2 program July 2005-December 2007. She is currently at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute.

Jonathan Jaffery received a BA in Russian Language and Literature from the University of Michigan and an MD from the Ohio State University before completing training in Internal Medicine and Nephrology at the University of Vermont. He then joined the faculty in the Department of Medicine at the University of Wisconsin, where he maintains a busy clinical practice with a focus on the care of people with chronic kidney disease, and is currently completing a Master of Science Degree in Population Health. Dr. Jaffery’s research interest is in improving the delivery of care for populations with chronic kidney disease. Of particular interest is identifying obstacles to optimal nutritional management of chronic kidney disease, especially as related to dietary intake of phosphorus. Dr. Jaffery was a Mentored Clinical Research Scholar (formerly in the CIPP) and the K12/KL2 program July 2005-June 2008. He remains in the Department of Medicine Nephrology Section.

Staci Lowe earned her doctorate at Cornell University in Social Policy with concentrations in program evaluation, human development, and public affairs. Her research focused on the experiences of low-income urban adolescents in relation to welfare reform policy. Dr. Lowe has worked as a researcher at the UW-Madison Center for the Study of Cultural Diversity in Healthcare (CDH). In this capacity, she worked with a variety of community-based organizations around program planning and evaluation and assisted in the design of other research projects. She is currently an Assistant Scientist in the Department of Population Health Sciences within the School of Medicine and Public Health. In the coming years, Dr. Lowe’s research will focus on the socio-cultural context of pregnancy and its relation to disparities in birth outcomes and early childhood development. Originally from Arizona, Dr. Lowe earned a bachelor’s degree in Political Science from Boston College and a master’s degree in Human Service Studies from Cornell University. Dr. Lowe was in the K12/KL2 program July 2007-June 2009.

Cameron Macdonald joined the UW-Madison Department of Sociology as an Assistant Professor after spending a number of years teaching at Harvard University and the University of Connecticut. She earned her master’s and doctoral degrees in Sociology from Brandeis University. She studies the intersections of gender, work, and family, and her primary interest is in Care Work, the paid and unpaid labor to care for children, the sick, and the elderly, with a particular interest in that care that lies at the blurry boundaries of paid and unpaid work, of labor and of labors of love. Her research project, “The Home as Hospital,” will explore the intersection of public and private care work; the work of families providing high-tech healthcare in their homes, their challenges, and their relations with professional health care providers. She was in the K12/KL2 program July 2006-June 2009.

Joshua Medow earned his MD from the University of Illinois in 1999. He completed his residency at the University of Wisconsin-Madison in the Department of Neurosurgery, where he currently resides as a staff neurosurgeon. In the second year of an endovascular neurosurgery fellowship, Dr. Medow’s clinical and research interests are in neurocritical care medicine and endovascular neurosurgery. His research focus is on the prevention of stroke-related vasospasm in patients with subarachnoid hemorrhage. He has a number of research projects in device design and imaging. These translational research projects have earned him a number of awards in the fields of Pediatric Neurosurgery, General Neurosurgery, and Neurooncology. Dr. Medow has also been recognized for his commitment to the education of medical residents having been the recipient of UW-Madison teaching awards in 2005 and 2006. Dr. Medow was in the K12/KL2 program July 2007-June 2009.

Mary Sesto earned her PhD in Human Factors Engineering from the University of Wisconsin, where she is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Orthopedics and Rehabilitation and the Department of Biomedical Engineering. She is also the Director of Research at the Trace Research and Development Center. Dr. Sesto is interested in the characterization and measurement of upper limb function. Currently, she is working on a project to evaluate the effect of injury on upper limb mechanics and function in order to better understand the etiology of work-related musculoskeletal disorders. The goal of this work is to develop interventions to prevent work-related musculoskeletal disorders. Dr. Sesto, a Wisconsin native, graduated from the University of Wisconsin with a degree in Physical Therapy and a master's degree in Industrial Engineering. Dr. Sesto was in the K12/KL2 program July 2005-June 2009.

Earlise Ward earned her PhD in Counseling Psychology from the University of Wisconsin-Madison and completed an APA-approved internship at the Mendota Mental Health Institute in Madison, WI. She is now an Assistant Professor in the School of Nursing. Dr. Ward is interested in research focusing on older African American women’s mental health. Her long-term research and clinical goal is to ensure that research is appropriately translated into effective practice and treatments to improve mental health outcomes in the African American community. Currently, Dr. Ward is working on a number of projects. She is analyzing data from a mixed-method study she designed, which examines African American men and women’s beliefs about mental illness and coping behaviors in response to mental illness. Dr. Ward recently submitted a grant to NIMH to secure funding to examine the feasibility and efficacy of an intervention designed to decrease depressive symptoms in older African American women. Dr. Ward was in the K12/KL2 program July 2005-June 2009. In addition to research, she provides clinical and outreach services in the Madison, Wisconsin community.

Justin Williams earned his PhD in Bioengineering from Arizona State University and completed postdoctoral fellowships in Neurosurgery and Neuroengineering from the University of Wisconsin and the University of Michigan. He is currently an Assistant Professor of Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Williams’ research interests are centered on developing microtechnology for bio-directional interfacing with the nervous system. His research group applies this technology in a number of focused areas, from basic neuroscience research to clinical applications of implantable brain devices. His work in clinical neural prostheses is currently focused on understanding the human factors that underlie patients’ utilization of clinical brain computer interfaces. Dr. Williams is a South Dakota native and earned bachelor’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering and Physics from South Dakota State University. Dr. Williams was in the K12/KL2 program July 2005-June 2009.

Jacqueline Wiltshire earned her PhD in Health Services Research from the University of Alabama at Birmingham, where she also completed an MPH with a focus on epidemiology. Her over-riding research question relates to access to healthcare among African Americans with specific interests in disparities in care, trust in physicians and social determinants of care. Dr. Wiltshire’s research efforts are twofold: (1) completion of secondary data analysis drawn from the Community Tracking Study, a nationally representative survey which collects information on how the health system is evolving across the United States and the effects of those changes on people; and (2) implementation of a factorial survey which examines African American women’s perception of physician trustworthiness. She is focusing on four emerging themes in the secondary data analysis work: (1) differences in recognized need for care among Black and White women; (2) exploring dimensions of trust in physicians among African American Women; (3) racial/ethnic differences in opinions about seeing doctors and (4) racial/ethnic differences in economic consequences of seeking medical care. Dr. Wiltshire was in the K12/KL2 program from July 2006-June 2008.

Deborah Wubben earned her MD from the University of Wisconsin School of Medicine, followed by internal medicine residency at Indiana University School of Medicine, and a fellowship in Preventive Medicine at University of North Carolina School of Medicine and Public Health where she also received an MPH. Dr. Wubben returned to the University of Wisconsin for a fellowship in Endocrinology where she joined a multidisciplinary research team focused on obesity prevention in American Indians living in Wisconsin. Her research interests include improving the prevention and treatment of diabetes mellitus in minority populations using a community-based participatory research model. Dr. Wubben was in the K12/KL2 program from July 2006-June 2008. She is currently the Medical Director at Physician’s Plus.

TL1 Training Program

ICTR’s TL1 Training Program began with the award of the Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) to the University of Wisconsin-Madison in September 2007. The goal of the ICTR pre-doctoral TL1 program is to train future clinical and translational leaders and to expose all UW health care professionals and engineering students to the scientific foundation of this discipline. This training program will build on strong clinical and translational training programs that already exist in the School of Medicine and Public Health, School of Nursing, School of Pharmacy, College of Engineering and School of Veterinary Medicine. Brief biographies and photographs of the current ICTR trainees are provided below.

Current TL1 trainees are listed below. Information on past TL1 trainees can be viewed here.

Current TL1 Trainees

Timothy Chang earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Biomedical Computation from Stanford University. He is currently enrolled in University of Wisconsin-Madison's Medical Scientist Training Program and pursuing a PhD in Clinical Investigation. Tim is working with Michael Coen, PhD in the Computer Science department using machine learning techniques to investigate sleep disorders. Long term interests include medical informatics and personalized medicine.

Michael Deveau earned his Doctorate of Veterinary Medicine (2005) from Kansas State University and his training for board certification in the field of veterinary radiation oncology (2009) from the University of Wisconsin-Madison. He has recently attained Diplomate status from the American College of Radiology – Radiation Oncology and is currently a PH.D. graduate student in the discipline of medical physics. Dr. Deveau’s work incorporates advances in cancer therapy that are occurring with the paradigm shift from a population-based to a personalized patient-based treatment. Currently, Dr. Deveau utilizes a multidisciplinary approach focusing on employing biological information gained from PET Imaging into delivering patient-specific, non-uniform dose distributions using the capabilities of current treatment planning systems and delivery tools.

Korey Kennelty earned her PharmD from Midwestern University College of Pharmacy-Glendale and her Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Toledo. She is currently seeking a MS/PhD in the School of Pharmacy’s Social and Administrative Sciences Division at UW-Madison. Dr. Kennelty is interested in exploring patient management and educational interventions related to utilization of drugs in chronic disease states. She is building on her previous experience as an ambulatory care pharmacist and is currently investigating drug adherence and access to health care for informal caregivers of dementia patients.

David Manthei studied Biomedical Engineering at the University of Wisconsin, earning both Bachelor and Master of Science degrees. He is currently part of the Medical Scientist Training Program as well as the Cell and Molecular Biology graduate program at the University of Wisconsin. David is a graduate student in the laboratory of Loren Denlinger, MD, PhD. David's current research is focused on interactions between an individual's innate immunity and the development or exacerbation of asthma. Of particular interest is the role for nucleotide receptors in patients with or at risk for developing asthma.

Kristin Meyers earned both her Master of Public Health (2006) and PhD in Epidemiology (2009) from the University of Michigan. Her dissertation research was on the genetic architecture of left ventricular traits in a largely hypertensive, African-American cohort. Currently, Kristin is an ICTR post-doctoral fellow working with Dr. Corinne Engelman of the Population Health Sciences department and Dr. Cathy McCarty at the Marshfield Clinic. Her research collaborations with the Marshfield Clinic’s Personalized Medicine Research Project investigate gene-environment interactions associated with hypertensive heart disease. Specifically, she is interested in elucidating the relationships between serum 25-hydroxyvitamin D, vitamin D receptor polymorphisms, and dietary measurements as they are related to congestive heart failure and hypertensive heart disease.

Jeremy Weiss earned his undergraduate degrees at the University of Pennsylvania in mathematics and biochemistry. He is pursuing a combined MD-PhD degree, working towards a doctorate in computer science. Mentored by Dr. David Page, who specializes in machine learning with biomedical applications, Jeremy is developing and applying artificial intelligence algorithms to clinical datasets to help predict patient outcomes. One such application has been in the prediction of coumadin dosing for optimal anticoagulation therapy based on clinical history, genetic markers, and medication interactions.

Grace Welham graduated from the University of Michigan College of Pharmacy with a PharmD in 2002. Since graduation, Dr. Welham has practiced in community pharmacy and drug information settings, and is now pursuing a PhD in Social and Administrative Sciences through the School of Pharmacy at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Dr. Welham has been heavily involved in MedDrop, a program aimed at providing Madison and Dane County residents a safe and environmentally-friendly option for disposing of household pharmaceutical waste. Her research interests center on the intersection of personal health care and the environment, particularly with respect to pharmaceuticals and pharmaceutical waste.

Richard Yang earned his Bachelor of Science degree in Microbiology from the University of Kansas with a minor in Chemistry. He is a student in UW-Madison’s Medical Scientist Training Program and working toward a graduate degree in Clinical Investigation through ICTR. Currently, he is working in the laboratory of Dr. Paul Sondel, a Professor in Human Oncology and Pediatrics, where he is investigating the role of IL-2 therapy in pediatric patients with AML using soluble IL-2Rα as a quality control parameter in a phase 3 clinical trial conducted through the Children’s Oncology Group. Richard’s research interests are in the pathological findings of tumors after immunotherapy in the setting of minimal residual disease.

KL2 and TL1 Fall 2009 & Spring 2010 Seminar Schedule

KL2/TL1 Monthly Seminar
(second Monday of the month)

TL1 Writing Workshop/Seminar Schedule
(fourth Tuesday of the month – note location change in September)

Updated 11/5/09