CANCER RESEARCH CAREER ENHANCEMENT (CRCE) CORE: SUMMARY The CRCE Core leads, facilitates, and coordinates cancer research education and training. It provides educational opportunities throughout the training pipeline from high school to junior faculty. This is achieved through a rich research environment, numerous training grants, and the conduct of scientific seminars, journal clubs, workshops, networking, and mentoring activities; all part of HICCC membership activities. A new initiative will be the CRCE Core’s emphasis on unique training opportunities in precision medicine and health disparities for basic, clinical, and population scientists. The CRCE Core works with the Community Outreach and Education (COE) Core to ensure that training is focused on enhancing our deep commitment to the HICCC’s catchment area (CA), which is racially, ethnically, and socioeconomically diverse. The CRCE Core coordinates and collaborates with other institutional efforts including Columbia’s NIH Clinical Translation Science Award (CTSA) and the Columbia University Precision Medicine initiative in order to maximize impact while reducing overlap. Wendy K. Chung, MD, PhD leads the CRCE Core, and she is also a member of the Cancer Genomics and Epigenomics (CGE) Program. Chung, Kennedy Family Professor of Pediatrics and Medicine, is a clinical and molecular geneticist who directs the clinical cancer genetics program at Columbia University and has led fellowship programs in molecular and cytogenetics. A CRCE committee and program manager support Chung. As Associate Director of Education and Training in the HICCC, Chung plays critical roles in the strategic plan of the HICCC. The CRCE Core has interrelated Specific Aims that span all training stages and promote patient focused and transdisciplinary, collaborative research. Aim 1: High school and undergraduate students: Provide engaging exposure to cancer research with the HICCC mentors for a diverse community of high school and undergraduate students in New York City. Aim 2: Graduate and health professional students: Provide integrated, interdisciplinary cancer research education, training, and mentoring opportunities for graduate (Master and PhD in the medical, nursing, dental and public health schools) and medical, nursing and dental students. Aim 3: Postgraduate fellows and faculty: Enhance career development for postgraduate trainees and faculty at all levels by supporting continuing education and training, developing critical thinking, grant writing, and presentation skills, and providing mentorship support to mentors and mentees. The CRCE core trains a transdisciplinary workforce, recruits and retains underrepresented minority trainees and faculty, and uses a data-driven approach to develop and refine enduring educational resources across the pipeline of trainees. The CRCE Core facilitates the training of the next generation of cancer researchers for successful careers in diverse settings. Testimony to the equivoc...