Please click here to view the agenda.

Please click here to read about meeting reimbursement.

Overview

The RWJF New Connections program hosted the second New Connections Annual Symposium during the June 2008 AcademyHealth Annual Research Meeting in Washington, DC. The vision of New Connections is to create a network of support for diverse researchers. Through a competitive application process, almost 150 diverse researchers were selected to participate in the training, mentoring, and networking event. The symposium was designed to increase the visibility and enhance the skill sets of New Connections grantees and potential applicants. Applicants to New Connections are early to mid career researchers from underrepresented communities.

 

Meeting Highlights and Activities

Check back soon for pictures and video clips!

The New Connections Second Annual Symposium began on Saturday, June 7, 2008 with breakfast at the Marriott Wardman Park (site of AcademyHealth). On Sunday, June 8, 2008 the Symposium moved to Jury's Hotel and ended at 8 p.m. with an awards ceremony. Workshop topics included quantitative and qualitative methodology, grant writing, innovations in disparities research, a conceptual modeling panel, and grantee poster presentations. The Symposium served as a forum for young researchers to network and share best practices.

An RWJF evening reception included "Speed Mentoring" where participants were able to network with 20 top experts in the field of research on Saturday. Concurrently, an RWJF New Connections reception was held, which was open to other researchers interested in learning more about New Connections. Each "Speed Mentoring" session lasted 15 minutes and participants had access to 2 sessions.

Please click here to see the agenda, including the names of the guest speakers and speed mentors who participated.

New Connections was honored to have the support of AcademyHealth Board of Directors Chair Dr. Margarita Alegria, Professor at Harvard Medical School. Dr. Alegria has devoted her professional career to researching disparities in mental health and substance abuse services, with the goal of improving access, equity, and quality of these services for disadvantaged and minority populations. She currently serves as Principal Investigator of three National Institutes of Health-funded research studies, including the continuation of the National Latino and Asian American Study (NLAAS), the Advanced Center for Latino and Mental Health Systems Research, and the University of Puerto Rico/Cambridge Health Alliance Research Center of Excellence. She was awarded the 2003 Mental Health Section Award of the American Public Health Association, as well as the 2006 Greenwood Award for Research Excellence, awarded by the Research Centers in Minority Institutions (RCMI) Program Directors Association, and the First Latino Mental Health Scientific Leadership Award, awarded in October 2007.

Under the leadership of Dr. Sean Joe, we were pleased to have the administrative support of the Emerging Scholars Interdisciplinary Network (ESIN) at the University of Michigan.