Kidney disease affects nearly one in three adults worldwide and is associated with significant morbidity and mortality. Throughout the last three decades there has been tremendous progress in understanding kidney disease mechanisms that have led recently to new therapies including healthcare delivery strategies to enhance delivery of health information and promote successful self-care, however quality of life as well as survival remains poor especially for those living with advanced kidney disease including kidney failure. Importantly the NIH/NIDDK has invested in ensuring that patient partners are integral to the process of prioritizing as well as carrying out research. Similarly, NIH/NIDDK is further investing in ensuring the academic research workforce is also diverse and representative. This is a critical objective across the spectrum of kidney disease research including basic science, clinical and translational, and policy research. Dr. Cavanaugh is a well recognized expert in kidney disease clinical trials, health literacy and its implications, formative research to elucidate and integrate stakeholder perspectives into research and community engagement. Her objective is to use the support of the K26 NIDDK Investigator Award to Support Mentoring of Early Career Researchers from Diverse Backgrounds to focus on training the next generation of scientists to bring transformative advancements in kidney disease research. The candidate’s immediate and long-term career objectives to be a leader in research faculty development are directly in line with the goals of the NIH K26 award, to provide support for protected time for awardees to devote to mentoring training and culturally-sensitive mentoring for post-doctoral students. Specifically, this award will allow her to focus on the development of a multi-level mentoring program to facilitate the career development of emerging early investigators. This award will provide protected time for the candidate to devote specifically to executing rigorous research, serving as a primary, collaborative, advocacy and network mentor, and to developing mentoring skills in research. Her objective is to recruit and mentor post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty for successful clinical research careers in kidney disease and to support the career advancement of her current trainees. She will accomplish this objective by leveraging her research program resources as well as the robust institutional, regional and national resources. The aims include (a) continued impactful research to expand opportunities for mentees; (b) development and deployment of a novel culturally tailored psychological and instrumental advocacy kidney disease research mentor program; (c) acquisition of mentoring skills training informed by an expert advisory committee; and (d) execution of recruitment programs to identify and engage mentees from diverse backgrounds. Completion of these aims will enhance the career advancement of kidney disease sc...