Dr. Sindy Escobar Alvarez, Program Director for Medical Research at DDCF, Spoke About the COVID-19 Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists and the Program It Was Born Out of at a Webinar Hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences.
In a webinar hosted by the American Association for the Advancement of Sciences STEMM Equity Achievement Change, Dr. Sindy Escobar Alvarez, program director for medical research at the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, spoke about the Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists program as a model to retain and advance the research of physician scientists with family caregiving responsibilities and the factors contributing to its successful implementation. She also shared details about the COVID-19 Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists competition, a new grant opportunity that builds on DDCF’s original Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists to provide support to medical schools aiming to strengthen their policies, practices and processes to aid the research productivity and retention of faculty with caregiving responsibilities that have been exacerbated by the pandemic.
Dr. Reshma Jagsi, who has been the national evaluator for the program over the past five years and was also on the panel, shared the promising outcomes of the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation’s original Fund to Retain Clinical Scientists initiative. Participants additionally heard remarks from three current program directors at medical schools that participate in the program: Dr. Amelia F. Drake from the University of North Carolina School of Medicine, Dr. Judith Regensteiner from the University of Colorado Anschutz and Dr. Victoria J. Fraser from Washington University School of Medicine.
Watch a replay of the webinar above.