Mentoring fellowship awarded to three investigators

Each year is marked by change and evolution, and the John R. Raymond (JRR) Mentoring Fellowship is no exception. Like the passing of a torch, the names of a new cadre of awardees are etched on the trophy they receive while a new story is written for the accomplishments and triumphs of the outgoing fellows. 

Since 2012, women have been recognized for their commitment to their practice by receiving the JRR Mentoring Fellowship that provides financial support to selected full-time female faculty members, allowing them to initiate relationships with mentors who are experts in their fields of study. John R. Raymond, Sr., M.D., former provost and vice president for academic affairs from 2002 to 2010, created the award. Today, the Office of the Provost and Women Scholars Initiative support and facilitate its mission. 

This year marks a milestone for the award and its history. Namely, there are now three recipients of the 2018 JRR Fellowship. Carol Feghali-Bostwick, Ph.D., chair of the Women Scholars Initiative for the Advancement, Recruitment, and Retention of Women (ARROW), highlighted this monumental development. 

“I think it’s important to emphasize that we were able to give out three awards this year, and the reason we were able to increase the number is because of your generous donations. So either via the YES Campaign in the ARROW fund or independent of the YES Campaign through direct donation, we were able to give out a third award, and that makes a huge difference for us,” she said during the 2018 reception. 

While donations play a significant role in the continuation of the fellowship, Feghali-Bostwick credits the dedication of the committee, which is co-chaired by Gayenell Magwood, Ph.D., RN, professor in the College of Nursing, and MA McCrackin, Ph.D., D.V.M., associate professor in the Department of Comparative Medicine, for the influence it has had in changing the lives of many exceptional women.  

Magwood presented the awards on behalf of the committee. The three women chosen as 2018 fellows embrace diversity and inclusion, a foundation of the JRR Fellowship, and each has an interesting goal they hope to achieve in the coming year. 

Katherine Chike-Harris, DNP, an instructor in the College of Nursing, plans to use the award to develop expertise that will enable her to introduce telehealth into the graduate nursing curriculum. She has chosen Carolyn Rutledge, Ph.D., of the nursing program at Old Dominion University as her mentor. 

Julianne Flanagan, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, intends to use the award to facilitate the development of a formal mentoring relationship with Miranda Olff, Ph.D., a professor at the University of Amsterdam. Olff's research examines neurobiological mechanisms underlying prevention and treatment of post-traumatic stress disorder. While Amsterdam might seem like quite a stretch across the globe, Flanagan’s choice reinforces the possibilities the JRR Fellowship offers. “Dr. Olff is internationally renowned in her studies, and this relationship offers a fantastic opportunity to learn new skills,” she said.

Through her award, Nandita Nadig, M.D., assistant professor in the Department of Medicine's Division of Pulmonary, Critical Care and Sleep Medicine, will receive focused mentorship by a renowned critical care researcher in clinical trial design in the ICU setting, working with mentor Catherine Hough, M.D., of the University of Washington. Nadig said the fellowship provides a wonderful opportunity to extend a connection to professionals that otherwise might be out of reach within the community and works as a great resource to create those lasting relationships that can lead to change.

All three recipients were optimistic about the upcoming year and the opportunities that lay ahead, all of which have the potential to provide long-lasting impacts on their futures. 

The 2018 recipients have big shoes to fill. The 2017 fellows, Wendy Balliet, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, and Angela Malek, Ph.D., a research associate in the Department of Public Health Sciences, achieved the goals outlined in their applications. 

Though the women who receive this award may come from a variety of medical backgrounds, one commonality they all share comes in the growth they experience during their time as mentees and how they are able to utilize these newly formed relationships to further their careers and fields of endeavor.

Balliet was able to create both a professional and personal relationship with Amy Waterman, Ph.D., a renowned social psychologist, who is touted for her leadership qualities and work within the transplant and living donation community. 

Balliet’s research goal was to initiate a project aimed at improving awareness and education about opportunities for living kidney donation, utilizing storytelling via narrative theory, with an emphasis on targeting minority patients. “At the start of my fellowship, I traveled to UCLA and spent several days training with Dr. Waterman and her colleagues at the Teraski Institute and Transplant Research and Education Center at UCLA,” she said. “I learned a new software program called StoryTap, which is a marketing platform that we utilized to help kidney transplant candidates, recipients, family and friends of these patients and living donors share their stories about end-stage renal disease and kidney transplantation.” 

Balliet said they drafted a literature review on the use of narratives within this population that is theory-driven and will soon be submitted for publication. Beyond her research goals, the biggest value she received from the fellowship was the personal and professional growth she reached in the year of working with her mentor. 

“She [Waterman] has been an incredible mentor in helping me grow professionally and encouraging me to push past my comfort zone, and the Fellowship was the opportunity that has paved a way for a lifelong professional collaboration and career-altering year.”

Malek also felt that the fellowship and her work with Leslie A. McClure, Ph.D., chair and professor in the Department of Epidemiology and Biostatistics at Drexel University, transformed her career. 

“Through the fellowship, the association of chronic exposure to air pollution — ozone and particulate matter less than 2.5 micrometers in diameter — and cognitive decline was investigated in the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke study, with comparison of potential racial and regional differences.” 

A manuscript is currently in preparation, she said, and the preliminary data obtained will also be used for a future grant proposal. Through regular meetings and discussion, they were able to gain additional experience conducting environmental epidemiology research and related statistical methodology of health effects of exposure to ambient air pollution. As a result, in February, McClure traveled to Charleston and presented to the MUSC Department of Public Health Sciences. 

The fellowship year may be over for Balliet and Malek, and not only does their valuable work live on, it sets the stage for Chike-Harris, Flanagan and Nadig to aspire to reach their own personal new heights.