Career Development and Mentoring at the CEEH

The CEEH is committed to nurturing the next generation of ecogenetics researchers by ensuring that the University of Washington recruits, supports, and retains a new generation of high-caliber EHS-focused investigators with a strong interest in gene-environment interactions. To this end, Dr. Mike Rosenfeld directs our Career Development and Mentoring Core (CDMC).

The goals of the CDMC are to:

• Recruit to DEOHS and other Center-affiliated departments (e.g., Epidemiology, Genome Sciences, Pharmaceutics) new junior faculty with research and teaching interests compatible with the CEEH mission to identify the interactions between genetic, epigenetic and environmental factors that contribute to the major chronic diseases.
• Provide mentorship to new and current CEEH junior faculty to ensure they achieve their full potential as scientists, teachers, and communicators.
• Provide junior faculty with unique career development opportunities and resources to advance their environmental science careers by incorporating a gene-environment approach into their research projects.

The CDMC uses a customized approach to the career development and cross-training of junior faculty. A mentoring team consisting of three senior CEEH faculty is assigned to each new faculty member. Dr. Rosenfeld, in consultation with the Mentoring Oversight Committee, makes the mentoring team assignments. Each mentoring team includes at least one senior scientist from the junior member's research specialty. Other committee members are from the CEEH Area of Research Emphasis most relevant to the junior faculty member's stated area of interest. Mentoring team membership are decided with input from the mentored junior faculty member to ensure the composition of the team is in alignment with the mentee's goals and vision. Mentoring teams meet at least twice per academic year.

In addition to the more formal mentoring mechanisims described above, the CEEH also hosts periodic informal gatherings for junior investigators and their mentors.

The 2011-12 designated CEEH Outstanding New Investigator is Dr. Sheela Sathyanarayana.

The 2014-15 designated CEEH Outstanding New Investigator is Dr. Julia Yue Cui.

For more information about the CDMC, please contact Director Mike Rosenfeld (ssmjm@uw.edu, 206-543-1738) or Liz Guzy (eguzy@uw.edu, 206-685-5333).