Faculty & Staff

Dear Colleagues,

As the academic year draws to a close, I want to acknowledge the continuing achievements your leadership and collaborative efforts have brought. The tremendous progress we have made on curriculum renewal is one exciting measure of what we can do together. Our recent elevation into the Top 5 Schools of Public Health on the U.S. News and World Report rankings is another reflection of our accomplishments, aspirations and forward momentum. Congratulations to all!

While most of our achievements and our goals ahead require a team effort, there are moments when one must acknowledge the difference that an individual can make.  I want to take the opportunity in this final edition of Momentum for the academic year to acknowledge one such person: Robyn Gershon.

Two and a half years ago, I tapped Dr. Gershon for the newly defined position of Associate Dean for Research Resources. Her assignment: create and provide the support and resources needed to help our faculty more successfully compete for research grants in an ever more challenging environment, and to succeed in having their work published. Thus was born the initiative now known as “R-squared,” a program that has served hundreds of faculty members.

Dr. Gershon was in many ways a perfect choice for this role. She is, herself, an accomplished scientist and prodigious publisher of research—with over 120 papers to her credit, and she has a track record in securing grants from an extraordinary variety of sources, including the National Institutes of Health, the National Science Foundation, the Department of Defense, the National Institute of Justice and the Agency for Research on Health Care Quality. This reflects the interdisciplinary nature of her field of study—occupational health. Moreover, Robyn brings an insider’s insight into the grant evaluation process, having served on NIH study sessions.

Now as Dean Gershon prepares to depart for the University of California, San Francisco—where her husband, former Epidemiology department member David Vlahov, was recently appointed Nursing School Dean—the moment seems ripe to review and celebrate her many achievements in leading R2.

Step one for Dean Gershon was building a website to support grantspersonship and research success. The resulting site has been the envy of researchers at many other institutions, who regularly call Robyn to comment on the quality of the website’s resources.

Step two was surveying faculty to learn more about the kind of supports they would find most useful and then creating online tools and training sessions that would fit these needs. “People needed help becoming more efficient,” Robyn explains. “Applications are very onerous and the deadlines keep getting shorter. This means you have to be completely structured: you have to have your pilot data, you have to have your team in place, you have to be ready when opportunity strikes.” Faculty also asked for help setting up a system of alerts to new grants in their research areas.

Under Dean Gershon’s direction, R2 developed an inventory of winning grant samples to guide faculty, and kept them updated as grant formats changed. In addition, the R2 group began offering training sessions in early 2009.  For grant preparation, these range from “boot camps” to more targeted sessions on grant applications. They also include a variety of professional development sessions on subjects such as public speaking, manuscript preparation, and email etiquette & management. To encourage cross-disciplinary thinking, R2 has also done a series of  “Meet the Methodologist” sessions on topics that include nanotechnology, genomics, infomatics and geographic information systems. A recent popular addition has been campus visits and presentations from Extramural Directors of NIH Institutes.

“We’ve had hundreds signing up for the training sessions,” says Dr. Gershon, “and it’s not just junior faculty.”

The results? Mailman faculty applying for NIH K grants (aimed at early-career investigators) have a nearly 100% success rate for their second resubmission. The average number of grants submitted per faculty member at the School increased from 3.0 grants per faculty member in fiscal year 2008 to 4.2 grants per faculty member in fiscal year 2010.

Professors Gina Lovasi and Helena Duch are just two faculty members who say that Dr. Gershon’s program helped them secure grants.

“The group at R2, and Robyn especially, have been an honest, helpful and hopeful source of support throughout my K submission and resubmission process,” says Dr. Lovasi, a member of the Epidemiology department who studies the built environment and walkability.  “Robyn walked me through the process of getting great letters of support, communicating with my program officer, and understanding the outcome. She has been my most meticulous editor. When I e-mailed her my final score on a Sunday, she invited me to call her at home right then, and offered a warm blend of congratulations and cautious advice for moving forward.”  

Dr. Duch is no less appreciative. “I joined Robyn’s groups knowing close to nothing about how to prepare an NIH grant,” says Dr. Duch, a child psychologist and member of the Heilbrunn Department of Population & Family Health. “Robyn walked me through every step, reading numerous iterations of my aims, my grant, sending me readings and samples to help tighten my submission. The same is true for science articles. I will greatly miss her guidance, but I know her mentorship will be longstanding.”

Dean Gershon leaves a legacy of gratitude, success, and a research infrastructure that makes for a more inclusive environment for success.  Our recent move into position as the third largest recipient of NIH grants among schools of public health is due in part to Robyn’s efforts.

We are beginning our search for Dean Gershon’s successor as Associate Dean for Research Resources from among our professors and associate professors. Please contact Executive Vice Dean Tom D’Aunno if you are interested in applying for this critically important position. We want to build on the strong foundation that Robyn so ably created.

Finally, as I complete my third year as dean, I want to express my deep gratitude for everyone’s hard work and for the honor of working with all of you.

With warmest regards, and cheers,

Linda P. Fried, MD, MPH
Dean and DeLamar Professor