The University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) School of Nursing has been awarded a three-year, $405,000 Susan G. Komen Training Program in Breast Cancer Survivorship Training Grant. It provides pre-doctoral scholars with stipends and other financial support along with a specialized curriculum of didactic coursework, tailored research activities, networking, and research career development skills building as they pursue training in breast cancer survivorship.

Graduate Training in Disparities Research Grants are designed to establish and/or to sustain a training program for graduate students seeking careers dedicated to understanding and eliminating disparities in breast cancer outcomes across population groups. By providing funding to outstanding training programs, Komen seeks to ensure that a diverse pool of highly trained scientists will emerge as the next generation of leaders in the field of breast cancer research focused on disparities in breast cancer outcomes.

“Our Komen trainees will participate in the rich diversity of interdisciplinary research at UAB,” said Associate Dean for Research Karen Meneses, PhD, RN, FAAN. “This includes the Cancer Control & Population Sciences Program, the Center for Clinical and Translational Science, and the Comprehensive Cancer Center.”

Meneses added that this program is important to the School because it allows the PhD in Nursing program to increase pre-doctoral enrollment and funding in order to better meet the goal of training nurse scientists for the future, in particular, attracting top-level graduate students, specifically those from populations affected by disparities in breast cancer outcomes, into research careers; empower these students with the skills and knowledge necessary to effectively explore the causes of differential breast cancer outcomes; and develop interventions to reduce and eliminate such disparities. The program is also important to the University because it also allows for minority students who are interested in defeating disparities in breast cancer.

Karen Meneses, PhD, RN, FAAN and Wendy Demark-Wahnefried, PhD, RD will serve as mentors or advisors for the omen trainees. Meneses is a preeminent internationally known researcher in cancer survivorship disparities research with a prolific and sustained history of scientific contributions, methodological innovations, and evidence-driven ranslational programs that have improved the lives of cancer survivors. In 2013, she was appointment to the Centers for Disease Control Advisory Board for Young Women with Breast Cancer.

Demark-Wahnefried is Professor and Webb Endowed Chair in Nutritional Sciences in the School of Health Professions. She holds a secondary appointment in the School of Nursing. She is the Associate Director of Cancer Prevention and Control at the UAB Comprehensive Cancer Center and is an American Cancer Society Clinical Research Professor.

Meneses and Demark-Wahnefried also serve as co-Directors of the University’s Cancer Prevention and Control R25 Training Program.