# IRACDA at University of Illinois at Chicago

> **NIH NIH K12** · UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO · 2021 · $621,239

## Abstract

The University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) is an urban, research intensive university committed to serving and
educating students from diverse and underserved backgrounds. UIC is a national leader in providing education
to under-represented minorities as demonstrated by its status as a Minority Serving, Hispanic Serving, and Asian
American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving institution. We propose the Chicago ARea Excellence
in Education & Research (CAREER) program, designed to provide rigorous and balanced team-based training
in both teaching and research to a diverse group of postdoctoral fellows, with the goal of producing scholars who
are well-equipped to be leaders in academia at research- and teaching-intensive institutions alike. CAREER is
a partnership between UIC and Governors State University (GSU), the only public university in Chicago's south
suburban area and a school that boasts not only a diverse student body, but also a highly diverse faculty. With
the UIC CAREER program we will 1) recruit and retain a diverse cohort of IRACDA scholars and tailor training
for individual career goals/trajectories; 2) structure a research-intensive training experience that supports a
successful transition of scholars to faculty positions; and 3) design a collaborative curriculum with GSU to train
scholars in the core competencies required for excellence in teaching. By drawing upon strong institutional
support from the UI Cancer Center, CCTS, Teaching and Learning Center, and the Office of Diversity, our
program fills a natural void. Not only are there no IRACDA programs in Chicago or any other urban Midwestern
city, but UIC currently has no training programs that support and prepare postdoctoral fellows to be educators
and researchers within our diverse community. The CAREER program will bring together faculty from the UIC
Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine into a collaborative partnership to support the research and career
development of fellows, while Governors State University will provide the support for developing teaching skills
at an undergraduate institution. The structure of the program will not only train postdoctoral fellows, but also help
to solidify a pipeline for GSU students to join graduate or professional programs at UIC. The relationship will also
foster collaboration between GSU and UIC faculty to encourage new research programs and to develop a culture
of educating a diverse community of scientists. The program will encourage postdoctoral fellows to participate
in state-of-the-art research programs in well-funded mentor labs from Pharmacy and Medicine focused on a wide
variety of research related to NIGMS goals. Fellows will engage in teaching and career development workshops
at both UIC and GSU. They will also develop professionally under the guidance of a mentoring team with
continued use of the IDP to ensure adequate progress in obtaining funding, publications, and networking.
Scholars will have the opportunity to t...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10232413
- **Project number:** 5K12GM139186-02
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS AT CHICAGO
- **Principal Investigator:** Joanna E Burdette
- **Activity code:** K12 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $621,239
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2020-08-10 → 2025-07-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10232413

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10232413, IRACDA at University of Illinois at Chicago (5K12GM139186-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-24 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10232413. Licensed CC0.

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