Mentorship and Training
View on Mentorship -
I believe that I have a comprehensive approach to mentoring. My effort and my mentee’s effort are synergistic. This approach fosters independence, self-efficacy, and ownership of their productivity. I have worked with dozens of undergraduates in my lab and aided them in defining their next steps, whether that be shepherding them on through medicine or graduate school or guiding them into new career paths better suited for their talents. I have also had several postdocs, many of whom are now faculty members at other respective universities. As a frequent fellowship reviewer at NIH, UMDF and AHA, I guide each trainee to self-identify professional development opportunities that will impact their CV and increase their competitiveness while resonating with their interests. Understanding that academic research is an endurance and resilience exercise and not a sprint is key. Resilience is built from pacing the work, as well as building supportive work relationships.
Training at the VMI
Training within the VMI includes multiple comprehensive postdoctoral, graduate, and undergraduate training programs. These programs include the Postdoctoral Training Program in Translational Research and Entrepreneurship in Pulmonary Vascular Biology, the Postdoctoral Training Program in Vascular Medicine, the Postdoctoral Training Program in Imaging Sciences in Translational Cardiovascular Research, and various mentorship and training programs for current graduate and undergraduate students. These programs are designed to give students at all levels access to lab and research experiences focusing on applications cardiovascular medicine. In addition to these programs, the VMI also offers the Pittsburgh Intensive Training in Hematology Research program, which focuses on spurring engagement and equipping researchers with the elemental tools necessary for research in experimental and translational Hematology.
Kaufman Lab Trainees
2015 - 2018 Yuefu Jiang, PITT Undergraduate Research Assistant. Contributed to two manuscripts
2015 - 2018 Linqing Sun, Carnegie Mellon University Undergraduate Research Assistant, Recipient of the Elizabeth W. Jones Award for Excellence in Undergraduate Research in Experimental or Computational Biology. Contributed to two manuscripts.
2015 - 2018 Frances Belmonte PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (prior Johns Hopkins PhD), Endocrine T32 Trainee and SPRIG Postdoctoral fellow. One first author, two middle author, and one first author pending manuscripts.
2016 - 2017 InHae Kang PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (Asst. Professor, National University, Jeju, S. Korea). Published a first author review.
2015 - 2019 Micol Falabella, PhD, Postdoctoral Fellow (prior U. of Roma PhD), currently postdoctoral fellow at University College of London. 2016 Abhik Mukherji, First Experience in Research Student
2016 - 2018 Nikita Desai, First Experience in Research student, Undergraduate Research Assistant, Research Technician. Currently Medical Student at the University of Pittsburgh
2016 - 2017 Amal Saeed, First Experience in Research Student, Undergraduate Research Assistant. Published one middle author manuscript, one middle author in revision.
2017 - 2018 Bailey Sasseville, Undergraduate Research Assistant, AHA Summer Undergraduate Research Fellow
2017 - 2018 Avantika Yadwad, Biomedical Masters Student
2017 - 2019 Ashley Frye, Undergraduate Research Assistant, Chancellors Undergraduate Research Fellowship. Medical student at Florida State University
2018 - 2019 Mabel Lopéz Garcia MD, Visiting Postdoctoral Scholar.
2018 - 2019 Nija Sunil, Undergraduate Research Assistant.
2019 Katherine Parrish, Undergraduate Research Assistant.
2019 - 2020 Hayley Harvey, Undergraduate Research Assistant
2020 Shrutika Jadhav, Graduate Research Assistant
2020 - current Meghan Johnson, Undergraduate Research Assistant, Lab Technician
2020 Christian Goossen, Graduate Research Assistant
2021 - current Lily Farmerie, Graduate Research Assistant
2022 Alice Jiang, Graduate Research Assistant
2022- current Julia Gesell, Undergraduate Research Assistant
2022 - current Sruthi Ramaswamy, Undergraduate Research Assistant
2022 - current Nikita Reddy, Undergraduate Research Assistant
2022 - current Yugma Patel, Undergraduate Research Assistant