UAMS’ Career Development Scholars Program is led by Mario Schootman, PhD, Associate Director, K12 Program; Associate Director, SMART Program; Professor and Vice Chair for Mentoring and Innovation in the Department of Internal Medicine, Co-Director of the Workforce Development Core at TRI. Dr. Schootman is supported by program Associate Directors, Jason Farrar, MD and Joshua Kennedy, MD.
Program Leadership
Dr. Schootman is Professor and Vice-Chair for Mentoring and Innovation in the Department of Internal Medicine and the Co-Director of the Workforce Development Core of the Translational Research Institute at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences. His research focuses on various aspects of epidemiology using advanced epidemiological methods, including geographic information systems and multilevel models, to examine the effect of neighborhood conditions on various health outcomes. He has been the principal investigator of several NIH grants. He has mentored numerous early-career faculty.
Dr. Farrar is an Associate Professor in the Department of Pediatrics. He is a pediatric hematologist/oncologist with clinical and research interests in childhood leukemia, lymphoma, and inherited bone marrow failure syndromes. His research program focuses on genomics studies to better understand the genetic basis of abnormal bone marrow function that underlies these diseases in children, with the goal of identifying new therapeutic options and improving treatment outcomes. He serves as the Director of the Genomics Core Laboratory at Arkansas Children’s Research Institute and co-directs the Leukemia and Lymphoma Program at Arkansas Children’s.
Dr. Kennedy is an Associate Professor of Pediatrics and Internal Medicine in the Divisions of Allergy and Immunology (Peds) and Pulmonary/Critical Care (IM). He serves as the K12 Program Co-Director and the Associate Vice Chair for Basic and Translational Research in the Department of Pediatrics. His research focuses on viral infections in children with chronic disease, particularly asthma, emphasizing host immune responses that may contribute to worse outcomes
Program Administration
