Kellogg-NUCATS Course Offers Investigator Guidance, Insight on Lab Leadership
Kathryn Macapagal, PhD, suddenly had a lot more to think about.
It was April 2022, and the associate professor of Medical Social Sciences was embarking on her first R01 grant from the National Institutes of Health. She would spend the next five years exploring the effectiveness of a text message-based intervention on HIV testing behaviors among adolescent sexual minority males, transgender girls, and gender diverse teens.
Course Interest Form (for faculty)
“It was a time of transition for me as I moved from being a co-investigator on other’s projects to primarily being a principal investigator,” says Macapagal. “I was just beginning to think about my leadership and management style, building a team, budgeting, and strategizing for future funding opportunities to sustain my work beyond federal funds.”
I was just beginning to think about my leadership and management style, building a team, budgeting, and strategizing for future funding opportunities to sustain my work beyond federal funds.”
A month later, Macapagal found herself in a lecture hall … being taught by faculty from the world-renowned Kellogg School of Management. Enrolled in Leadership and Management Strategies for Clinical Investigators, Macapagal expected the course would help her learn about the many nuances that accompany running a successful research laboratory.
“What I didn’t expect was that it also provided me time to learn about myself, reflect on and plan for my future, as well as learn from my peers about their strategies.”
Led by Kellogg faculty in an interactive classroom setting, the course is a highly successful collaboration between Kellogg and the Northwestern University Clinical and Translational Sciences (NUCATS) Institute.
What we have worked to design is a course that helps researchers harness unique leadership skills often not taught in the many years of clinical and scientific education they’ve already received.”
“Clinical investigators, physician-scientists, and multidisciplinary teams interfacing with clinical departments balance many tensions in their work,” says Course Director Divakar Mithal, MD, PhD, assistant professor of Pediatrics. “As responsibilities increase and diversify, success on individual merits becomes less sustainable and many researchers are beginning to build teams critical to their missions. What we have worked to design is a course that helps researchers harness unique leadership skills often not taught in the many years of clinical and scientific education they’ve already received.”
Register for November 15 Info Session
Participants in the course are exposed to practical and effective approaches to topics including organizational culture, strategic time management, feedback and persuasion strategies, and diversifying funding sources.
“The course provided pivotal ways to optimize management of my research lab while combining my clinical responsibilities,” says Prakash Jayabalan MD, PhD, associate professor of physical medicine and rehabilitation, who completed the course in 2021. “Lessons from the course continue to help me to improve my efficiency in these different roles. Those four days also provided a wonderful way to meet other clinician-scientists at Northwestern who were at a similar stage of career and facing many of the same challenges and opportunities.”
It’s rare to get the opportunity to learn about leadership and management skills directly from professors at a world-renowned business school, and all of the professors were willing to engage with us after the course ended.”
Jayabalan is also an alumnus of the NUCATS Institute’s Multidisciplinary Career Development (KL2) Program.
Launched in 2020, Leadership and Management Strategies for Clinical Investigators is designed for faculty members who are early to mid-career and building their research program. The four-day program offers clinical investigators and their administrative team leaders a chance to build a foundation of evidence-based management and leadership skills that can be applied to the business side of science. Eligible individuals can apply their Employee Certificate Tuition Benefit to cover the complete cost of the course.
“This program provides an extremely unique experience as a clinical investigator,” Lajja Desai, MD, assistant professor of pediatrics and a KL2 scholar. “It’s rare to get the opportunity to learn about leadership and management skills directly from professors at a world-renowned business school, and all of the professors were willing to engage with us after the course ended.”
In 2024, Leadership and Management Strategies for Clinical Investigators will take place May 13-16.
Interested faculty are welcome attend an informational session on November 15 from noon to 1 p.m. via Zoom.
Faculty can also complete this course interest form.
The NUCATS is supported in part by the National Institutes of Health's National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences, Grant Number UL1TR001422.
Written by Roger Anderson
