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PI OR NOT PI? THAT IS THE QUESTION

Developing Your Research Identity in a Collaborative Culture of Team Science

Monique PappadisBy Monique R. Pappadis, MEd, PhD,
ECDC Task Force Chair

On Tuesday, 1 November at the Hilton Chicago, we successfully held the 2016 Early Career Development Course (ECDC) during the ACRM Annual Pre-Conference. We had 29 attendees and 20 mentors! This year’s course was geared towards helping our attendees develop their research identity, while working in research teams.

The course started off with an outstanding keynote address during breakfast by Drs. Edelle Field-Fote and Mike Boninger titled, “Perils, Pitfalls, and Possibilities: What to look out for in your career.” They shared what characteristics to seek in a mentor, how to form successful collaborations, how to excite grant or manuscript reviewers, and the key ingredients to negotiations and success.

A panel discussion with experts in rehabilitation, included Drs. Anne Deutsch, Jonathan Bean, Theresa Pape, Elliot Roth, and Claire Kalpakjian, followed the keynote. The panel discussed tenure and promotion through sharing and giving credit in team science, which was moderated by early career attendee, Dr. Yi-Ting Tzen.

Early Career and First-Time Attendee Welcome

Early Career and First-Time Attendee Welcome

Following the panel discussion, the panelists led roundtable discussions with attendees on addressing their challenges in Team Science, such as handling conflict in teams, managing multiple projects, and forming collaborations. During the lunch hour, attendees were able to have lunch with course mentors and discuss different topics, such as

  • Forming Collaborations
  • Working with Large Publicly-Available Datasets
  • Grant Applications
  • Transitioning
  • Choosing a Mentor
  • Balancing Clinical and Research Time
  • Job Negotiations
Welcome reception participants

Welcome reception participants

After lunch, representatives from various funding agencies, including Dr. Ralph Nitkin from NCMRR, Dr. Stuart Hoffman from the VA, and Ms. Ruth Brannon from NIDILRR, shared information with our attendees on funding opportunities. We also had a special presentation from Dr. Mike Jones, who gave an overview of PCORI, the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute. In addition, we had rehabilitation researchers who have been successful with obtaining early career funding, which included Drs. Maria Swartz, Nathalia Jimenez, Dawn Neumann, and Prue Plummer.

Next, we had four exciting roundtable discussions:

  • Getting started in Clinical Trials with Drs. Tessa Hart and Flora Hammond
  • BioSketches with Dr. Edelle Field-Fote
  • Publishing in Team Science with Dr. Jeffrey Basford
  • Productive Writing with Drs. Anne Deutsch and Stephanie Kolakowsky-Hayner—Our highest-rated topic!

We ended the course with a reception for early career and first-time ACRM attendees joined by ACRM leadership and community groups.

Several ECDC attendees stopped me in-between sessions during the core conference to tell me how much they enjoyed the ECDC. A lot of work went into planning this year’s course and it could not have been done without our awesome ECDC Planning Committee and course mentors! We hope we can attract more attendees in Atlanta by providing an even more exciting ECDC!

Left to right: Megan Mitchell, Monique Pappadis, Brooks Wingo

Left to right: Megan Mitchell, Monique Pappadis, Brooks Wingo

THANK YOU to the Planning Committee: Amy Herrold, PhD; Brooks Wingo, PhD; Dawn Neumann, PhD; Deepan C. Kamaraj, MD, MS; Prue Plummer, PhD, BPhysio (Hons); Ralph Nitkin, PhD; Shilpa Krishnan, PhD, PT; and Stephanie Kolakowsky-Hayner, PhD, CBIST, FACRM!

THANK YOU to our keynote speakers and course mentors: Edelle Field-Fote, PT, PhD; Michael Boninger, MD; Anne Deutsch, RN, PhD, CRRN, FACRM; Claire Kalpakjian, PhD; Elliot Roth, MD; Jonathan F. Bean, MD, MS, MPH; Theresa Pape, DrPH, MA, CCC-SLP/L, FACRM; Yi-Ting Tzen, PhD, PT; James Graham, PhD, DC; Flora Hammond, MD, FACRM; Tessa Hart, PhD, FACRM; Stuart W. Hoffman, PhD; Stephanie Kolakowsky-Hayner, PhD, CBIST, FACRM; Ralph Nitkin, PhD; Nathalia Jimenez, MD, MPH; Prudence Plummer, PhD, BPhysio (Hons); Dawn Neumann, PhD; Maria C. Swartz, PhD, MPH, RD, LD; Ruth Brannon, MSPH, MA; Michael L. Jones, PhD, FACRM; Jeffrey Basford, MD, PhD!