# Promoting Academic Excellence through Community Engagement and Research Scholars Program (PAECER Scholars Program)

> **NIH NIH R25** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY · 2020 · $82,098

## Abstract

Project Summary
This is a new application for a short term (summer, 10 week) training program in cardiovascular science for
under-represented, undergraduate scholars. We propose a unique training experience that builds upon existing
collaboration with a core group of Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and the American Heart
Association/American Stroke Association (AHA/ASA) that seeks to create a new paradigm promoting the
pathway to health science careers and aspirational life choices for a cadre of under-represented undergraduate
scholars. The proposed program provides an intellectually, socially and culturally rewarding experience to
engage scholars at multiple levels. We leverage the expertise Vanderbilt University to cultivate academic
knowledge and research skills and AHA/ASA's public health leadership position to provide an integrated training
program against a social determinants of health backdrop. We will provide a 10 week research intensive
immersion for a cadre of 10 students, expanding to 15 in years 4 and 5. We have a pool of distinguished mentors
with diverse interests related to cardiovascular science and disease. The leadership team is composed of senior
individuals with overlapping expertise in cardiovascular disease, mentoring, and community engagement. In
addition to an intense, mentored research experience in the area of cardiovascular science, we will offer unique
perspectives and resources, provide a productive framework to fully understand health inequities, and
foster invaluable connections among scholars and their mentors and communities. We posit that students
on the path to professions in science, medicine, healthcare or public policy must also be trained on real-life
community engagement and cultural competency. They must be aware and knowledgeable of the forces
shaping the health disparities so prevalent in the nation, in addition to the social determinants of health that
determine the nature and severity of those disparities. Our overall goal is ambitious and innovative; we seek to
create a cadre of students that will ultimately become the integrators needed to connect science and
systems of health care with underrepresented communities through their academic and professional
credentials, ability to build and retain trust, and cultural competence skills. We will fulfill this vision through:
an intensive academic research and training immersion experience, with mentoring as a central component;
regular opportunities to interact with their peers and acquire the core values of collaboration, teamwork and
personal enrichment; and exposure to AHA/ASA initiatives targeted to address health inequities through public
awareness, education, policy and social change. Together, we will thus provide an exciting and comprehensive
experience to minority scholars poised to make career-defining, life-changing decisions with future implications
for the biological, behavioral, and social determinants of health across ...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9844498
- **Project number:** 5R25HL145330-02
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY
- **Principal Investigator:** Joey Victor Barnett
- **Activity code:** R25 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $82,098
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2019-01-07 → 2023-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9844498

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9844498, Promoting Academic Excellence through Community Engagement and Research Scholars Program (PAECER Scholars Program) (5R25HL145330-02). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9844498. Licensed CC0.

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