CTSI KL2 Scholars

Current KL2 Scholars

Holland
Margaret Holland, PhD, MPH

Project: “ Patterns and predictors of adherence to recommended visit schedules in a nurse home visiting program”

Dr. Holland is a health services researcher in the School of Nursing. Her research focuses on low-income mothers and children, with the goal of improving health and overall life success. She is especially interested in home visitation programs and how to promote their successful translation to real-world (non-research) settings. For her KL2 project, she will examine patterns of attrition (dropping out) and adherence (missing scheduled visits) from the Nurse-Family Partnership program (NFP), a nurse home visiting program for low-income first-time mothers. Click here to view her profile.

Vankee Lin


Feng (Vankee) Lin, PhD, RN

Project: “ Role of Vision-based Computerized Cognitive Training in Preventing Cognitive and Functional Decline in Older Adults with Mild Cognitive Impairment”

Dr. Lin will begin her KL2 award on July 1, 2013.

Dr. Lin is currently a post-doctoral fellow in the School of Nursing and research associate in the AD-CARE program, Department of Psychiatry. Her research focuses on preventing cognitive decline in groups at risk for dementia and promoting successful cognitive aging by delivering neuroplasticity-based behavioral interventions. For her KL2 project, she proposes a randomized controlled trial to establish the preliminary efficacy of comparing two types of neuroplasticity-based cognitive training programs to prevent cognitive and functional decline in patients with mild cognitive impairment, a group at high risk for dementia. Click here to view her faculty profile.

Xiuxin Liu


Xiuxin Liu, DDS, PhD

Project: “ ATP signaling and dental orofacial pain ”

Dr. Liu will begin his KL2 award on July 1, 2013.

Dr. Liu is a Research Fellow and Resident in general dentistry at the Eastman Institute for Oral Health. His research activities mainly focus on glia-neuronal interaction and its implication in developmental and clinical disorders. He concerns the neuropathological related oral health problems. He is especially interested in the pathogenesis and management of dental orofacial pain, and the underlying cellular and molecular mechanisms. For his KL2 project, he will examine the role of intercellular ATP signaling in dentin sensitivity and orofacial hyperalgesia. Click here to view his faculty profile.

Pisani
Anthony Pisani, PhD

Project: "Help-seeking among suicidal adolescents: Testing the role of emotion regulation and connectedness with parents"

Dr. Pisani is an Associate Professor of Psychiatry and Pediatrics. Dr. Pisani's career goal is to reduce youth suicide using mobile communication devices to influence risk and protective in a broad population of adolescents. As part of his KL2, he has published two cross-sectional studies examining risk and protective processes hypothesized to increase adolescent help-seeking and reduce suicide attempts: help-seeking norms, emotion self-regulation skills and youth-adult communication. His empirical studies and school-based field work have stimulated new ideas for using mobile phones to prevent suicide in rural communities.  Click here to view his faculty profile.

Krupa Shah
Krupa Shah, MD, MPH

Project: "Preventing Functional Decline in HIV-infected Older Adults with Central Obesity"

Dr. Shah is a geriatrician in the Division of Geriatrics and Aging, Department of Medicine and Orthopaedics. Her previous research focused on reversing age-related decline in physical function among frail older adults with sarcopenic obesity. Leveraging on this experience, she has begun to research in a field that is still in its infancy, HIV and Aging. Her KL2-funded research project involves preventing functional decline in HIV-infected older adults with central obesity. Overall, her aim is to become independent and contribute to improving the quality of life in our older adult population. Click here to view her faculty profile.

Van Orden
Kimberly Van Orden, PhD

Project: "The role of social connectedness in the etiology and prevention of late-life suicide"

Dr. Van Orden is currently in an NIH-sponsored postdoctoral fellowship in suicide prevention at the University of Rochester Medical Center. Her research interests are in the etiology and prevention of late-life suicide. In particular, a focus has been the empirical investigation of two forms of social disconnectedness—thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness—which are key constructs in the Interpersonal Theory of Suicide. The goal of her KL2 project is to examine risk factors for the constructs of thwarted belongingness and perceived burdensomeness with older adults using a biopsychosocial perspective. Specifically, she plans to examine the social networks of older adults who live in Naturally Occurring Retirement Communities (NORCs), as well as their levels of functional impairment and psychological connectedness (including belongingness and burdensomeness), and a measure of biological stress reactivity to determine characteristics of older adults vulnerable to suicidal thoughts and behaviors. Click here to view her faculty profile.

Past CTSI KL2 Scholars

David Adler, MD, MPH
Project: "Post-Vaccination HPV Genotype Distribution Among HIV-infected and HIV-unifected Young Women in South Africa"
Dr. Adler was funded by the KL2 program from 2009-2010 . Click here for his faculty profile.

Robert Block, MD, MPH, FACP
Project: “The Role of Fatty Acids and their Metabolites in the Pathophysiology of Sudden Cardiac Death”
Dr. Block was funded by the KL2 program from 2007-2010. Click here for his CTSI profile.

Michelle Burack, MD, PhD
Project: “Dissociating effects of Parkinson disease therapies on motor and nonmotor elements of action control”
Dr. Burack was funded by the KL2 program from 2010-2012. Click here for her CTSI profile.

Jennifer Carroll, MD, MPH
Project: "The Effect of a Primary Care Clinician Communication Intervention linked to a Community Based Exercise Program"
Dr. Carroll was funded by the KL2 program in 2008. Click here for her faculty profile.

Wendi Cross, PhD
Project: "Building Knowledge and Skills in Prevention Implementers"
Dr. Cross was funded by the KL2 program in 2007. Click here for her faculty profile.

E. Ray Dorsey, MD, MBA
Project: “Identify Means to Improve the Productivity of Biomedical Research”
Dr. Dorsey was funded by the KL2 program from 2007-2009. He is currently a Associate Professor of Neurology at John's Hopkins University. Click here for his profile.

Roman Eliseev, MD, PhD
Project: "Validating NF-κB and Runx2 pathways as molecular targets in Osteosarcoma and evaluating the therapeutic potential of an approved proteasome inhibitor, bortezomib /velcade, in Osteosarcoma"
Dr. Eliseev was funded by the KL2 program from 2010-2012. Click here to view his faculty profile.

Barbara Gracious, MD
Project:" Bone Mineral Density in Young Bipolar Women Randomized to Valproate vs. Lithium"
Dr. Gracious was funded by the KL2 program from 2007-2010. She is currently the Principal Investigator for the Center for Innovation in Pediatric Practice at Nationwide Children's. Click here for her profile.

Susan Groth, PhD, RNC, NP
Project: "Clarification of the Gene Environment Interaction of the GNB3 Gene and Establishing a foundation for Genetic –Based Behavioral Intervention Research"
Dr. Groth was funded by the KL2 program from 2008-2009. Click here for her faculty profile.

Mireya Gonzalez-Begné, DDS, MS, PhD
Project: "Identification of salivary and salivary gland-cell-surface biomarkers in patients with early-stage primary Sjögren’s syndrome"
Ms Gonzalez-Begne was funded by the KL2 program from 2009-2012. Click here to view Dr. Gonzalez-Begné's profile.

Chad Heatwole, MD
Project: “The Development and Use of a Disease-Specific Instrument for Myotonic Dystrophy”
Dr. Heatwole was funded by the KL2 program from 2007-2008. Click here for his faculty profile.

Holly Hindman, MD
Project: "Wound Healing Responses and Myofiloblast Activity Following Endothelial Keratoplasty when modified by using Anti TFG-B Therapies"
Dr. Hindman was funded by the KL2 program from 2008-2009. Click here for her faculty profile.

Leesha Hoilette, MD, MS
Project: "Community Health Centers as Patient-Centered Medical Homes"
Dr. Hoilette was funded by the KL2 program from 2010-2012. Click here for her faculty profile.

Robert Matthew Kottmann, MD
Project: "Aryl Hydrocarbon Receptor Ligands and Pulmonary Fibrosis"
Dr. Kottmann was funded by the KL2 program from 2010-2012. Click here for his faculty profile.

Michael McKee, MD, MPH
Project: "Health Literacy among Deaf ASL Users and Cardiovascular Health Risk"
Dr. McKee was funded by the KL2 program in 2010. Click here for his faculty profile.

Supriya Mohile, MD, MS
Project: “Vulnerable Elders with Cancer: Patterns of Care and Comprehensive Outcomes”
Dr. Mohile was funded by the KL2 program from 2009-2011. Click here for her faculty profile.

Luke Peppone, PhD
Project: "Evaluating the efficacy of weekly high-dose calcitriol therapy, and an individually-tailored home-based weight-bearing physical activity program in improving bone metabolism among hormone-receptor positive non-metastatic breast cancer patients undergoing adjuvant hormonal therapy"
Dr. Peppone was funded by the KL2 program from 2010-2012. Click here to view his faculty profile.

Julie Ryan, PhD
Project: "Curcumin Intervention and Biological Analysis of Radiation Dermatitis"
Dr. Ryan was funded by the KL2 program from 2008-2009. Click here for her faculty profile.

Marc Swogger, PhD
Project: "The Impact of Psychopathic Traits on a Cocaine Use Intervention for Offenders"
Dr. Swogger was funded by the KL2 program from 2009-2010. Click here for his faculty profile.

Wakenda Tyler, MD, MPH
Project: "Role of Angiopoietin-2 in the pathogenesis of metastatic renal cell carcinoma to bone: Implications for therapeutic intervention"
Dr. Tyler was funded by the KL2 program from 2010-2012. Click here for her faculty profile.

Melanie Wellington, MD, PhD
Project: "Phagocyte Receptors in the Host Response to Candida"
Dr. Wellington was funded by the KL2 program from 2007-2011. Click here for her faculty profile.

 

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