Nolan Breitenstein, CCHMC RPAC Member Nolan Breitenstein is a 12-year-old boy with Tourette’s Syndrome and a new member of the Cincinnati Children’s Research Participant Advisory Group (CCHMC RPAC). Along with his mother, Heidi, Nolan attends the monthly CCHMC RPAC meetings to provide feedback from the perspective of a child who has participated in research. Read below to learn more about Nolan and his experience with research! Tell us a little about you! I love playing sel

2026 REACH Graduates The REACH (Research Education for Action, Collaboration and Health) program launched its inaugural cohort from February 20 - March 20, 2026, welcoming eight participants. REACH is a dynamic learning series that seeks to provide community members and organizations with the skills to use data to show the benefits of their programs for improving health, gain skills in developing partnerships and conducting research with individuals in academic settings (hosp

The CCTST K Scholars Career Development Award program will welcome a new cohort of K Scholars beginning June 1, 2026. The K Scholars program is an institutional K award program that is focused on developing cohorts of exceptional early-career investigators from a broad range of disciplines across the academic health system who aspire to lead clinical and translational programs of research. Please join us in welcoming our newest K Scholars! Stephanie Davis-Rodriguez, MD, MS As

Many members of our CCTST community recently attended the Translational Science 2026 meeting in Milwaukee, which brings together teams from Clinical and Translational Science Award hubs across the United States. This year’s meeting focused on building trustworthy translational science through rigor, reproducibility, and real-world impact. CCTST faculty and staff were prominently featured throughout the conference, contributing posters as well as highly regarded presentations

Team Science 101, created by the CCTST Collaboration and Team Science program (CaTS), has officially launched and can be accessed through UC Skills. Team Science 101 is an introductory course focused on foundational team science principles. Through a series of brief, self-paced video modules designed to be completed in 30 minutes or less, learners explore the skills, mindsets, and practices that support high-functioning teams. By the end of the course, learners are equipped t

Victoria Straughn - UC RPAC Member Victoria Straughn is a member of the UC Research Participant Advisory Council (UC RPAC) and was asked to share her experience and thoughts about her research journey, the importance of research and joining the UC RPAC. In her professional life, Victoria is a Clinical Research Coordinator, and she has personal experience participating in research. We value Victoria’s practical feedback during UC RPAC meetings, her love of research, and her w

While the Research Participant Advisory Group (RPAG) works with individual researchers to provide feedback on individual studies, another critical role of the RPAG has been to partner with institutional research leadership and divisions over the years to improve institutional research practices across the Academic Health Center. One such on-going relationship has been with the Institutional Review Boards (IRBs) for Cincinnati Children’s and the University of Cincinnati (UC),

The Community Health Research Investment System (CHRIS) program is an academic/community collaboration to design a process and select priorities for investment in health initiatives locally. The purpose of CHRIS is to guide the investment of CCTST resources into collaborative research with high community impact. CHRIS Workgroup In February, the CHRIS program had its first workgroup meeting. Utilizing a community-engaged research approach called “Group Level Assessment (GL

Jason Blackard, PhD, with medical students and faculty at Madha Medical College and Research Institute Jason Blackard, PhD, who leads pipeline and community outreach for the CCTST Workforce Development program , recently spoke with medical students and faculty at Madha Medical College and Research Institute in Chennai, India about the importance of scholarly activity. During his presentation, he discussed the Research 101 series developed by the Workforce Development team

Andrea Ford, PhD, a speech-language pathologist and assistant professor in the University of Cincinnati (UC) Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders, has been awarded a four-year, $765,000 K23 grant from the National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders. Dr. Ford marks the first UC College of Allied Health Sciences NIH K grant recipient. Andrea Ford, PhD Dr. Ford’s research focuses on collaborating with educators and caregivers to increase acce

Respiratory Therapists : Lauren Lampkin and Regina Brandon CCTST’s West End Community Research Advisory Board (WE C-RAB) often has ongoing relationships with researchers across the Academic Health Center who see the opportunity to connect with community beyond just coming to one of the monthly meetings. Cincinnati Children's Emergency Department’s Michelle Eckerle, MD, is one of these individuals. Over the years, in addition to coming to the WE C-RAB for feedback on research

Article written by Claudia Rebola and published in UC News. To read the original article, please click here . UC designers, researchers and community partners are working together to co-create and share research in accessible ways, helping accelerate the movement of scientific discoveries into real-world impact driven by community-identified needs. A $37.2 million Clinical and Translational Science Award (CTSA) from the National Institutes of Health to the University of Cinci

The CCTST Workforce Development team’s “Roadshow” initiative, launched in 2022, began as an effort to introduce undergraduate students at the University of Cincinnati (UC) to career pathways in clinical research. Led by a volunteer group of principal investigators (PIs) and clinical research professionals (CRPs), the Roadshow brings first-hand perspectives into classrooms and highlights the many opportunities available in the field. Workforce Development Roadshow Presenter R

CaTS Team The CCTST’s Collaboration & Team Science (CaTS) team recently hosted its first Team Science Fair to highlight collaboration in research. The event brought the Academic Health Center community together to share tools, skills, and resources that support team science. Featured at the fair were several posters on past and present team science initiatives, a most recent CaTS publication list, and a handout featuring CaTS services and resources. The interactive "Commun

Brittany Rosen, PhD, MEd We are excited to announce the appointment of Brittany Rosen, PhD, MEd as the Director of Dissemination and Implementation (D&I) for the CCTST. In this leadership role, Dr. Rosen will be responsible for guiding efforts to accelerate the adoption, integration, and sustainability of evidence-based discoveries across healthcare and community settings to improve health. As a component of the Clinical and Translational Learning System (CTLS), Dr. Rosen wi

Congratulations to those that received funding through the CCTST's Pilot Translational Science and Mentored Science Grant Program , along with the Community Engagement Translational Science Pilot Grant Program. Funding for the Community Engagement Translational Science Pilot Grant Program will run from December 19, 2025 - May 31, 2026: Co-Designing Data Governance for Trust and Agency PI: Lauren Forbes, UC School of Public and International Affairs Funding for the Pilot Tra

The CCTST Collaboration and Team Science (CaTS) team partnered with the University of Kentucky (UK) Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) for a two-day summit designed to advance cross-institutional collaboration. CCTST CaTS Team with UK Collaborators This event was inspired by UK’s initial visit to the CCTST, during which they provided a team charter workshop for our K scholars. Following that visit, they met with our CaTS team and invited them to deliver two

The CCTST Community and Stakeholder Engagement team successfully published an article in the Journal of Clinical and Translational Science titled, “ Using the translational science benefits model to evaluate the impact of community-engaged programs ”. The study utilized the Translational Science Benefits Model (TSBM) for assessing impact of three CCTST community-engaged research programs (CEnR). The TBSM is a framework designed to help public health and clinical scientists

Earlier this year, CCTST’s Research Participant Advisory Group (RPAG) received recognition as an “Area of Distinction” as part of the Association for Accreditation of Human Research Protection Programs' (AAHRPP) re-accreditation of Cincinnati Children’s Institutional Review Board (IRB). Cincinnati Children's Research Participant Advisory Council The RPAG was recognized for meeting AAHRPP’s Community Engagement standard I.4.C for demonstrating a “ strong commitment to communi

Published originally by UC News Krista Metz, Meg H. Zeller, PhD, Moises A. Huaman, MD, MSc The K Scholars Program, in collaboration with the Center for Clinical and Translational Science and Training (CCTST), has received a new five-year mentored research career development program award (K12) from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health. Since its inception in 2009, the K Scholars Program has supported over 50 ear

Meera Kotagal, MD, MPH CCTST K Scholar program graduate, Meera Kotagal, MD, MPH , associate professor in the Division of Pediatric General and Thoracic Surgery at Cincinnati Children’s, was recently awarded a K01 Mentored Research Scientist Career Development Award from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Dr. Kotagal’s project, titled “Use of System Dynamics Modeling and Human-Centered Design to Address Structural Drivers of Youth Firearm Violence,” aim