No longer accepting applications
for Summer 2023

Summer Scholars in Pediatric Clinical Research (SSPCR)

The Center for Pediatric Population Health (CPPH) is focused on training the next-generation of researchers and public health leaders. The Summer Scholars in Pediatric Clinical Research (SSPCR) provides undergraduate students an opportunity to work with leading researchers focused on pediatric and adolescent research. This program is designed to provide stage-specific competencies for undergraduates in science knowledge, research skill development, professionalism, and communication.

Summer Scholars will have a 10-week faculty mentor-guided research training experience with enrichment activities (e.g. didactic workshops, scientific seminar, role model seminar, mentoring workshops and ethics training) expected to provide a comprehensive introductory exposure to epidemiological and public health research. The program will take place from June 5-August 11, 2023 (tentative).

Seminar Topics

• Developing a Research Center Infrastructure
• The Role of the Family Environment on Adolescent Health Outcomes
• Finding for an Audience
• Twitter is Your Friend: Building a Network and Professional Identify Online
• Conducting Literature Reviews
• Overview of Research Electronic Data Capture (REDCap)
• Research Data Management
• Additional seminar topics planned

Eligibility

1. Currently enrolled undergraduate student at a US college or university.
2. In good academic standing.
3. Must be at least 18 years old as of June 5, 2023.
4. Must have proof of current health insurance.
   
5. Cannot be an employee of UTHealth Houston.
6. Can participate remotely, hybrid, or in-person at our Dallas location.

Application

Applications for Summer 2023 closed on Friday, March 31, 2023. Selected applicants will be contacted soon.

Media Release

If you authorize UTHealth to use your name and photos in publications or promotional material, complete the media release form.

• UTH Student Media Release Form
• UTH Adult Media Release Form

Faculty

Sarah E. Messiah, PhD, MPH Professor and Director	Dr. Messiah is the director of the Center for Pediatric Population Health and a tenured Professor of Epidemiology, Human Genetics & Environmental Sciences at UTHealth School of Public Health. She is a perinatal/pediatric and life course epidemiologist whose research focuses on childhood obesity and cardiometabolic disease risk factors and the implementation of evidence-based practices into clinical and community-based settings to improve health outcomes.
Alejandra Fernandez, PhD Assistant Professor	Dr. Fernandez’s research generally focuses on the health of Hispanic adolescents and their families. Her research is centered around improving family functioning between Hispanic adolescents and their family members in order to prevent and reduce adverse health outcomes, including substance use behaviors, sexual risk behaviors, adverse mental health outcomes, and obesity related outcomes. The mechanism primarily used in Dr. Fernandez’s research to improve health outcomes is the development and testing of family-based interventions.
Gregory Knell, PhD, MS Assistant Professor	Dr. Knell’s research broadly focuses on the distribution, determinants, and health outcomes associated with physical activity and other physical behaviors (sleep and sedentary behaviors). This includes understanding what factors make people more physically active, and the health implications of being physically active or inactive. Dr. Knell’s research is population-based; therefore he takes an epidemiological approach to answering these questions.
Jenil Patel, MBBS, MPH, PhD Assistant Professor	Dr. Patel conduct research on congenital heart defects, along with designing new studies to create optimal occupational exposure assessment techniques in order to draw implications to reduce overall burden of birth defects. Additionally, he also works on conducting new epidemiological studies to identify environmental and occupational risk factors for pediatric asthma in North Texas.
Sharice M. Preston, PhD, CHES Assistant Professor	Dr. Preston's research involves the use of evidence-based, mixed research methods to improve provider and patient communications among underserved populations. She is interested in health disparity elimination and the impact of racism and implicit bias, particularly on adolescent health in the clinical setting.

Postdoctoral Fellow

Luyu (Amber) Xie, PhD, PharmD NIH Postdoctoral Fellow

Dr. Xie is a NIH postdoctoral fellow. She received her PharmD in 2017 from University of Nebraska Medical Center and her PhD from UTHealth Houston School of Public Health in 2022. Her ongoing research mainly focuses on 1) population-based, pharmacoepidemiological studies in asthma; 2) epidemiological research on the health outcome and behaviors of pediatric patients diagnosed with COVID-19; and 3) genetic risk factors detection using Mendelian Randomization. Dr. Xie is also collaborating with multiple research teams from the Parkland Center for Clinical Innovation, Departments of Internal Medicine and Obstetrics and Gynecology at The University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. She has co-authored over 30 manuscripts in peer reviewed journals and has presented her research at various national and international meetings. Dr. Xie has received the Women in Science and Medicine Advisory Committee Travel Award for outstanding poster presentation at UT Southwestern. She is also the recipient of the Denton A. Cooley, MD, Transformation and Hope Scholarship and the J. Fred Annegers Memorial Scholarship.

Contact Us

For more information about SSPCR contact the Center manager, Elishia Barnett. Learn more about the research conducted at the Center for Pediatric Population Health.