The UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI) this month kicked off its Community Partners Educated as Arkansas Research Leaders (CPEARL) class. The inaugural class includes 12 devoted community leaders.

They are, back row: Meredith Flowers (Leaping Beyond), Demetrius Kelly (Better Community Development, Inc.), Willie Wade (Difference Makers of Hot Springs); front row: Manny Sepulveda (Arkansas Hispanic Health Coalition), Kanesha Barnes-Adams (AR Prostate Cancer Foundation), Jessica Suitor-Burnham (Our House), Esther Dixon (Difference Makers of Hot Springs), Holly Taylor (Better Community Development, Inc.)

*Not pictured: Our House team members: Maureen Martin, Ruthie Hokans, Claire Barton; AR Prostate Cancer Foundation team member Cara Clements.

The 6-week course CPEARL program targets leaders and emerging leaders within community-based organizations (CBOs) located in Arkansas. The program is designed to enhance research partnership and program development competencies within CBOs. The CBOs will receive up to $2,500 in seed funding to implement a real-world project. Academic, practice, and community experts will provide interactive didactic learning sessions during the 6-week intensive. Each team will also have a UAMS researcher assigned to mentor them throughout the year and the opportunity for one-on-one community consultations.

The public is invited to attend a free, one-day Community Scientist Academy workshop Jan. 16 at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS).

The workshop will be held 8 a.m.-5 p.m. and is for anyone interested in health research and even shaping the research UAMS conducts. Attendees will get an overview of UAMS research in a relaxed environment and will become prepared as a potential partner with UAMS on its community-related projects.

To learn more and sign up, contact Nicki Spencer, ndspencer@uams.edu, 501-526-6626.

Academy participants will interact with UAMS researchers and community members involved in research in small roundtable discussions and other interactive sessions. They will learn:

• How researchers decide what health issues to study.
• The research process.
• The benefits of individual and community organizations’ involvement in research.

UAMS conducts clinical research and community-based studies across Arkansas, including its hospital in Little Rock and regional clinics. UAMS faculty also conduct research at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and the Central Arkansas Veterans Healthcare System.

The Community Scientist Academy is sponsored by the UAMS Translational Research Institute, which is supported by the National Institutes of Health’s National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) Clinical and Translational Sciences Award Program, grant UL1TR003107.

Laura James, M.D., director of the UAMS Translational Research Institute (TRI), has been named to the national Clinical and Translational Science Awards (CTSA) Program Steering Committee.

The CTSA Program is administered by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health. TRI received a five-year, $24.2 million CTSA in July and is one of more than 60 CTSA-supported institutions nationally.

James will serve for three years, and as one of 20 Steering Committee members she will enable information and idea sharing among her peers in the CTSA Program and NCATS leadership to advance clinical and translational science.

Translational research is the process of taking findings and discoveries (new medicines, health interventions, etc.) and “translating” or applying them to real-world practices that improve health.

James has been director of TRI since 2014 and is UAMS associate vice chancellor for clinical and translational research. She has a 25-year history of translational research in clinical pharmacology and toxicology at UAMS and Arkansas Children’s Hospital. As a clinician-scientist and founder of the startup company Acetaminophen Toxicity Diagnostics LLC, she is leading development of a rapid diagnostic test for acetaminophen liver injury. In 2014 she was named inaugural fellow of the Arkansas Research Alliance (ARA).

The Translational Research Institute (TRI) has awarded three pilot research grants to UAMS faculty for studies of special populations in Arkansas.

Special populations include children, older adults, minority groups, underserved communities, and rural populations.

The grants of up to $50,000 are for one-year projects, and the researchers’ findings will be used to leverage larger grants from the National Institutes of Health or other federal funding agencies to expand on their work. The awardees were selected by a review committee that included UAMS faculty, faculty reviewers from an outside institution, and local community reviewers.

Below are the College of Medicine researchers and their project titles, including links to their videos explaining their pilot proposals:

Henry K. Wong, M.D., Ph.D., professor, Department of Dermatology; “Targeting the CTCL (Cutaneous T Cell Lymphoma) Microenvironment for Growth Control.” CTCL is a cancer of the immune cells that grow in the skin. It affects men and African-Americans more than other populations. African-American men are also affected at an earlier age and have a higher mortality rate.

Melissa Zielinski, Ph.D., assistant professor, Department of Psychiatry; “Incarcerated Pregnant Women in Arkansas: Increasing Research Capacity and Piloting Lactation and Doula Support Services.” As part of the study, childbirth support will be provided for up to 24 incarcerated women.

Kristin Zorn, M.D., associate professor, director of the Division of Gynecologic Oncology, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology and Division of Genetics; “Assessing Statewide Variation in Hereditary Cancer Care Utilization in Arkansas.” The study will use the Arkansas All-Payer Claims Database, which has de-identified patient care records from Medicaid, Medicare, private insurers and state employees. The data will help researchers better understand gaps in care. The findings will be taken back to the affected communities where the public will be invited to guide future research efforts.

The UAMS Translational Research Institute’s Seventh Annual Community Partner Celebration recently honored 35 community partners for their crucial work in improving the health of all Arkansans and their exceptional partnerships with UAMS.

Held Nov. 8 at the Mosaic Templars Cultural Center in downtown Little Rock, this year’s celebration included a recognition ceremony and dinner, live music, display boards commending the vital services of the nominated community partners, and locally sourced gift bags for the over 100 attendees. The event was organized by the institute’s Community Engagement Program.

Nicki Spencer, program manager for the Community Engagement Program, opened the celebration followed by Dawna Baker, the museum’s program assistant, who shared the historical significance of the celebration’s location.

UAMS Chancellor Cam Patterson, M.D., MBA, thanked the attendees for helping UAMS address serious health disparities in Arkansas. He cited program examples created by and for the community including the institute’s Community Scientist Academy.

“Your insights infuse and enrich the work we are able to do to improve health care outcomes here in Arkansas,” Patterson said. “These acknowledgements come from the heart. They come from the sense that we would not be able to fulfill our mission to the state without the work that you do.”

The community partners recognized at this year’s celebration were:

• Allstate Insurance – Southern Region
• Apple Seeds Inc.
• Arkansas Bank of America
• Arkansas Birthing Project
• Arkansas Community Health Worker’s Association
• Arkansas Department of Health – Family Health Branch
• Arkansas Department of Education – Special Education
• Arkansas Foundation for Medical Care
• Arkansas Rehabilitation Services
• Arkansas STEM Coalition
• Arkansas Transgender Equality Coalition
• Boys, Girls, Adults Community Development Center

Child Care Aware Central and Southwest

Child Care Aware North Central

Child Care Aware Northeast and Southeast

Child Care Aware Northwest

Child Care Aware West Central

Lee County Cooperative Clinic

Little Rock School District EXCEL Program

Marshallese Educational Initiative

Museum of Discovery STEM Program

North Arkansas Partnership for Career Education

Northwest Arkansas Food Bank

Our House Inc.

Parkinson’s Foundation

Planting a Seed Foundation

The Confess Project

Tri County Rural Health Network

12^th Street Health & Wellness Center Community Advisory Board

Urban League of Arkansas

Individuals

• Linda Young, Little Rock School District
• Annice Steadman, Little Rock School District
• Terry Zuerlein, M.D.
• Kristi Palmer, M.D.
• Sameer Wagle, M.D.

High school student Kaniya Lawson was excited to learn that research could be part of her possible career as a psychiatric nurse practitioner. She was among the 24 Little Rock School District students who graduated from the fall 2019 UAMS Translational Research Institute’s  Community Scientist Academy.

“They had actual researchers come in and show us professions that I didn’t even know existed,” said Lawson, a member of the academy’s fall graduating class of Little Rock School District EXCEL students.

Lawson and her fellow graduates came from across the school district as students in the EXCEL Advanced Medical Sciences Program. The 10-week academy that ended Nov. 21 helped her understand that she could incorporate research into patient care.

“I never thought about that direction of the health care field at all,” she said. “You can be hands-on with patients and still be a researcher.”

The students worked closely with the institute’s Community Engagement team on their PhotoVoice project. The project included taking a photo that depicted a health-related issue affecting themselves, their family, and/or their community. The students wrote a caption to accompany their photos to explain the issue, what has been done and what can be done to help address the issue.

Jaky’ra Bolden, whose poster was titled, “Grief and Mental Health Stigma,” spoke at the graduation, telling her fellow graduates, parents and teachers that the exercise was valuable to her.

“Photovoice gives us a chance to express ourselves,” she said. “We also get a chance to address real-world problems.”

Brian Gittens, Ed.D., vice chancellor for Diversity, Equity and Inclusion, congratulated the students and gave an inspirational talk before they received their graduation certificates. Afterward, the students stood by their posters and discussed them with graduation attendees and other interested visitors outside the UAMS Rahn Building auditorium. During these presentations, the students used the public speaking skills they learned in the academy.

“There is a story in every picture,” Bolden said, encouraging the audience to visit the poster presenters. “Let us take you on a journey through our minds.”

Zoe Holland’s poster was about the harm to sea turtles from discarded plastic straws. She read about the issue and watched videos showing how straws can become lodged in the turtles’ noses. “I wanted to figure out how to prevent it.”

Holland said the academy made her think of research in new ways.

“When I first came in I didn’t really think we were going to learn much – they were just going to talk at us the whole time,” she said. “I wasn’t really a big research person when I first came in and now I’m more open-minded to it, because they really explained the different kinds of research, and the people that work at UAMS came and spoke to us every single class. That really opened my mind to more options for research.”

In the past two years, the academy has been modified to reach different populations by increasing the academy length, including the PhotoVoice project for the students, and adding a one-day intensive academy session for veterans in Arkansas.

The traditional version of the academy, which held its first class in 2016, is six weeks and designed for community members to increase community understanding about the research process and offer research decision-making opportunities to communities, patients and other stakeholders.

Opportunities offered to academy graduates include reviewing grant applications; advising on research projects; serving on community review boards, community advisory boards, and patient and family advisory councils.

The Translational Research Institute (TRI) and the Center for Implementation Research (CIR) have selected five UAMS/ACH clinical faculty as UAMS’ first class of Implementation Science Scholars.

Using the principles of implementation science, CIR faculty will guide the scholars through 10 didactic sessions per year and provide oversight and mentoring for their experiential implementation science projects. The two-year program will provide 20% salary support (up to salary cap).

Below are the scholars and their project titles:

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In this month’s TRIbune newsletter, we feature the recent success of Pearl McElfish, Ph.D., MBA, in acquiring multiple national awards. McElfish and her

team are testing a promising intervention to address the diabetes crisis in the Marshallese community of northwest Arkansas. In recent months she has been awarded more than $10 million, which is in addition to the more than $20 million in federal funding that she was already overseeing as principal investigator. McElfish says a TRI pilot award and community engagement assistance were springboards for her success.

We also highlight the leadership of TRI Executive Director Amy Jo Jenkins, M.S., CCRP, CCRC, CCRA, in her work with the Society of Clinical Research Associates Inc. (SOCRA). This year, Jenkins took over the international organization as its president.

In addition, our Study of the Month features Benjamin Tharian, M.D., principal investigator, and we report what attendees had to say about the first UAMS Research Expo, which TRI co-sponsored with the UAMS Office of Research Compliance.

Read The TRIbune.