A Message from Dr. Grace Baranek, DAHS Associate Chair for Research

The Research Advisory Committee (RAC) has been actively developing vision and mission statements for research, and drafting goals and strategies to build our interdisciplinary research culture to enhance productive research and scholarship. We welcome your input during this process and will provide ample opportunities for faculty feedback.

Among tasks the RAC has tackled recently are improving data securities (in collaboration with Dennis Schmidt at OIS), and facilitating greater communications internally and externally about DAHS research. Please check out the newly re-organized research webpage (www.med.unc.edu/ahs/research), where you can keep abreast of upcoming DAHS research events/news, up-to-date university policies/procedures and general resources for conducting research. A goal for the near future is to create meta-data tags to facilitate web searches and networking by specifying areas of faculty expertise. We welcome any suggestions for further improvements to the research page to enhance its utility, accessibility, and visibility.

The RAC has also been working in partnership with Susan Pusek, MS, MPH (NC TraCS Education, Training and Career Development Core) to develop a scholarly project on research mentoring experiences. Stay tuned to hear more about this project and upcoming opportunities to engage in focus groups. Finally, I welcome your participation in our research forums, scheduled for the last Wednesday of each month in the spring semester. We especially encourage PhD students and post-docs to network with faculty across divisions around scholarly projects and research methodologies.
Wishing you a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year.