Goals
- Explore various career pathways in clinical and translational science.
- Learn about alternative funding and collaboration opportunities beyond NIH sources and partners.
- Explore practical strategies to acquire funding, nurture partnerships, and sustain a career at an academic health center.
In these webinars, mid-career researchers from academic health centers share their perspectives and experiences on navigating their career pathways in the current funding and collaboration environment, which means seeking sources in and beyond the NIH. Focusing on cross-cutting core competencies of communication and mentorship, each one-hour session will include short presentations and a discussion moderated by a researcher.
Session dates
Session 2: Communication
August 20, 2026 | 4:00pm ET
Registration deadline: August 19, 2026 | 12:00pm ET
This session will focus on the role of mentorship in navigating funding sources and partnerships beyond NIH spaces. It will look at mentoring practices that lead to a better understanding of the different types of opportunities that exist for researchers in academic health centers, and explore strategies for choosing effective mentors who can guide and support your journey as you pursue alternative sources of funding and collaboration.
Meet the Presenters
Sanjay Divakaran, MD, MPH, is the associate chief and clinical director for the Mass General Brigham Division of Cardiology at Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and assistant professor of medicine at Harvard Medical School. He is also the director of the Cardiac Stress Laboratory, director of the Cardiac Sarcoidosis Program, and associate director of Nuclear Cardiology at BWH. He completed his undergraduate studies at MIT, MD and MPH at Harvard Medical School/Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, and internal medicine, cardiovascular medicine, and cardiovascular imaging training at BWH, where he was also selected to serve as chief medical resident. His research focuses on the use of perfusion and metabolic imaging of the myocardium and skeletal muscle to better understand the pathophysiology of coronary artery disease, peripheral artery disease, and inflammatory cardiomyopathies such as cardiac sarcoidosis and myocarditis.
Sarinnapha (Fah) Vasunilashorn, PhD, is an assistant professor of medicine at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center/Harvard Medical School and in the Department of Epidemiology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health. With training in psychobiology, gerontology, and epidemiology, her research focuses on understanding the pathophysiology of delirium and its associated longer-term outcomes, including Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and AD-related dementias (AD/ADRD). In particular, she is examining the role of genetics, epigenetics, and inflammation underlying the delirium-AD/ADRD relationship. She is currently funded by the National Institute on Aging and was previously funded by foundation grants from the Charles King Trust and Alzheimer’s Association.
Meet the Moderator
Rachel Rosen, MD. (Bio forthcoming)
Time commitment
One-hour sessions on Zoom.
Audience
These sessions are designed for early-career researchers from the clinical and translational science (CTS) community who are interested in pursuing funding beyond NIH sources, developing a diverse funding portfolio, and collaborating across sectors and industries. In addition, attendees who are broadly interested in learning about what it looks like to build and sustain a CTS career by acquiring alternative funding sources and partnerships are welcome to participate.
Eligibility
There are no eligibility requirements.
We believe that the research community is strengthened by understanding how a number of factors including gender identity, sexual orientation, race and ethnicity, socioeconomic status, culture, religion, national origin, language, disability, and age shape the environment in which we live and work, affect each of our personal identities, and impacts all areas of human health.