LITeS participant Jori Leszczynski receives her program certificate from university leadership
Collaboration was the theme of the day as this year's cohort of the Leadership in Innovative Team Sciences Program (LITeS) gave presentations and were recognized on April 5.
Twenty-seven LITeS participants were honored during the event in the Skaff Boardroom, School of Pharmacy and Pharmaceutical Sciences, at the Anschutz Medical Campus. More than 20 members of university leadership, including President Bruce Benson and his wife, Marcy, and CU Vice President for Health Affairs and Executive Vice Chancellor of the Anschutz Medical Campus Lilly Marks, attended the celebration. Benson and Marks concluded the event by presenting each participant with framed certificates.
LITeS is offered annually by the Colorado Clinical & Translational Sciences Institute to a group of 24 to 30 university senior and emerging leaders for clinical and translational research. Judith Albino, Ph.D., president emerita of the University of Colorado and associate dean of the Colorado School of Public Health, directs the program, with the support of Kathy Kennedy, DrPH, MA, director of the Regional Institute for Health and Environmental Leadership, and Mary Coussons-Read, Ph.D., provost of the University of Colorado-Colorado Springs.
In the year-long program, participants were placed on four teams and given university specific projects to tackle. The teams, which met in a quarterly series of two-day sessions, delivered recommendations on four tasks: Funding Strategies for Team Science; Education and Training for Team Science; Physical Environment for Team Science; and All The Tools for Team Science.
"This has really been terrific," said CCTSI Director Ron Sokol, MD, who commended the teams' work and asked the LITeS cohort for ideas on ways to implement their recommendations. One next step, as noted by the teams, would be setting up challenge grants to work toward implementing various solutions.
"We could probably come up with prizes that (grant winners) could put into an educational or research fund ... so they're used for academic activities," Sokol said.
In the past four years, LITeS participants have included all of the Anschutz Medical Campus deans and a number of department chairs, as well as CCTSI senior leadership. This year, participation was extended to additional mid-career faculty who demonstrate interest and potential for expanded leadership roles.
Richard Traystman, Ph.D., vice chancellor for research, encouraged the group to think in terms of intercampus and inter-institutional research. "We should try hard to include our other campuses," he said. "... The more different kinds of people you can get the more likely you're going to be able to apply for grants that are unique from a collaborative point of view."
Marks said collaboration is key in everything the university does -- whether it's education, research or the clinical delivery system. "This was a wonderful conversation and I thank you for your insights," she said. "... What we were talking about today is really central to our future and our ability to remain not only competitive over the next 10 years, but relevant."
Benson told the LITeS participants that "you're singing my tune." He said, "Across the university and its four campuses we're seeing lots of benefits of collaboration. It's particularly true in the sciences, where the answers to complex questions often come from looking at a problem from different angles."
Nominations from deans, department chairs, LITeS alumni and others are welcomed to identify emerging leaders who may be considered for the LITeS in coming years. For more information or to make nominations, contact LITeS Program Director Judith Albino (judith.albino@ucdenver.edu) or CCTSI Education Training and Career Development Program Manager Emily Warren (emily.warren@ucdenver.edu).
This year's LITeS cohort participants were: John Adgate, David Bain, Michelle Barron, Kathryn Beauchamp, Suzanne Brandenburg, Amy Brooks-Kayal, Lori Crane, Sonia Flores, Lynn Heasley, Dwight Klemm, Alison Lakin, Jori Leszczynski, Anne Lynch, Robert MacLaren, Debbi Main, Jill Norris, Cindy O'Bryant, Mary Reyland, Eric Simoes, Jeffrey Stansbury, Jody Tanabe, Sally Tarbell, Stephanie Teal, David Tracer and Inge Wefes.