Career Enhancement Program - Abstract The long-term success of national efforts to reduce breast cancer incidence and mortality rests in part on the ability of Breast Cancer SPORE programs to attract and build the translational research careers of talented young faculty. Since 1992, the UNC Breast Cancer SPORE has used career development funds to promote the breast cancer research careers of selected investigators. The SPORE Career Enhancement Program (CEP) both recruits externally and identifies internal faculty with interest in translational breast cancer research. The CEP then matches junior faculty with training offerings and senior mentors. We seek to enrich the field with our efforts to recruit qualified women and underrepresented in medicine (URIM) as both participants and mentors in the program. DRP funding for junior investigators also adds to the pool of developing translational faculty. Over the 29 years of the program, approaches to recruitment for funding by the CEP has included a focus on women and faculty from underrepresented-in-medicine (URIM) groups. Our success in this regard is accelerating; during this past cycle we recruited 17 faculty of eight of whom are URIM and twelve are women. Co-recruitment with departments across campus attracts exceptional talent to UNC and its Cancer Center. The SPORE CEP makes available extended training for junior faculty with an interactive group of respected and successful investigators who can influence and help build careers. The combination of an excellent talent pool and an effective training and mentoring program has resulted in an elite cadre of breast cancer researchers contributing to national breast cancer effort. As noted, during the last five years, the CEP has attracted 17 participants; 12 were women and 8 were from URIM groups. Several have already been funded by NCI or foundations. Our CEP participants’ contributions over the programs almost 30 years include published research, funded grants, clinical trials, and collaborative breast cancer research across the spectrum of population, basic, clinical and translational research. Over this time, CEP program participants have become SPORE leaders. On this renewal alone are past CEP awardees, Charles Perou (Multi-PI and co-PI of Project #3), Lisa Carey (Multi-PI and co-PI of Project #3), Melissa Troester (co-PI of Project #1), Katie Reeder-Hayes (co-PI of Project #1), Claire Dees (co-PI on Project #4), and Katie Hoadley (co-Investigator on Project #1, #3 and the Biostatistics & Bioinformatics Core), Gaorav Gupta (co-PI on Project 2), and Benjamin Vincent (co-PI on Project #2). To continue this success this UNC Breast Cancer SPORE requests $50,000 yearly to support career development; these funds will combine with an average of $500,000 yearly in institutional funds provided for recruitment, start- up commitments and career development. SPORE leaders will continue to identify, recruit, and develop talented URIM and women faculty.