Physician Scientist Bridge to K Program

Overview

The Department of Pediatrics Physician-Scientist Bridge to K Program (B2K) is designed to provide talented, passionate physician scientists essential financial support and career development mentorship to bridge the years between fellowship training and an academic faculty position. This competitive program will provide funding for selected early career physician scientists to complete up to three years as an Instructor with 75% protected time for research. It is expected that participants in the program will submit an application for an NIH Career Development (K) Award or equivalent.

B2K Info Session

Join our information session for tips & strategies for preparing the research and career development plans for your Bridge to K application.

August 29, 2022, 1-2pm

Eligibility Criteria

Must possess an MD, DO, or MD/PhD degree
Must meet one of the following criteria:
- be a fellow in their terminal year of fellowship
- be a Postdoctoral Scholar + Clinical Scholar pursuing one additional year of postdoctoral training after fellowship
- be an Instructor within the first year of their appointment after fellowship

Details of Support

Financial Support

Instructors in the Physician Scientist Bridge to K Program will receive Departmental support to protect 75% of their salary for up to three years.

Instructors on institutional or individual K awards are also eligible for additional financial support through the MCHRI Instructor K Award Support Program. This program provides a 1:1 match of department commitments up to $25,000, providing total combined support of up to $50,000 per year for up to two years.

Career Development

Participants are expected to attend the monthly B2K meetings. These meetings provide an opportunity for participants to present their research in a number of formats (e.g., chalk talks, job talks, formal research seminars) to a supportive environment for advice and scientific feedback. On alternate months, informative “Hot Topic” issues are discussed among the group with invited faculty. Examples of recent “Hot Topics” include:

How to give an effective chalk talk
Start-up packages and negotiation
How to run a sustainable research program

Peer Support

Resilience is a key determinant of success as a physician scientist. Peer support serves as a valuable source of encouragement, advice, and camaraderie. As the physician-scientist path has become less common, many young trainees and junior faculty may find it difficult to find physician scientist role models and colleagues within their own division. The B2K monthly meetings allow junior physician scientists from diverse specialties and research backgrounds the opportunity to connect with one another within their own community.

General Timeline

It is expected that all participants submit their first application for a K award (or equivalent) no later than October of their second year in the program to allow time for the submission of a revised application prior to the end of the three-year Instructor period. Please click here to download a copy of the proposed 3-year timeline for Instructors with key benchmarks.

B2K Timeline

Questions

For questions, please contact:

Cristina Alvira, MD
Director, Physician Scientist Bridge to K Program
Associate Professor, Pediatric Critical Care Medicine
calvira@stanford.edu

Application Steps

All applicants must discuss their career goals with their Division Chief prior to applying.

A single PDF containing the five components listed below should be submitted via the Application Webform. Applications are due by 11:59pm on October 3, 2022.

1. Applicant’s Career Development Plan (3 pages)
- A personal statement developed with the Mentor and Division Chief describing:
  - Candidate’s background:
    - Summary of research experience to date, including publications, manuscripts in preparation, and prior grant submissions and awards. Include an overview of fellowship research and include information regarding progress to date and any significant obstacles or challenges.
  - Career goals and objectives:
    - Describe your short and long-term career goals.
    - Justify the need for the award by describing how this award will enable you to develop or expand your research career.
  - Career development plan:
    - Explicitly state the training objectives and describe the detailed training plan to achieve each objective, including coursework, conference attendance, provide a three-year timeline corresponding to the stated training objectives. Include planned grant applications with the estimated timeline for submission and the salary support provided by the grant(s).

2. Applicant Biosketch (No page limit)
- For reference; please use the non-fellowship biosketch format: NIH Biosketch Instructions

3. Research Strategy (4 pages, excluding references)
- Description of a 3-year proposed scientific project that includes:
  - Specific Aims (0.5-1 page)
  - Background
  - Experimental Approach
  - Plans for developing an NIH K grant or equivalent Career Development Award, including planned dates of submission

4. Nomination Letter from the Division Chief

5. Mentor Information
- NIH Biosketch (5 pages)
- Letter of Support: (3 pages)
  - The Mentor letter should describe:
    - Mentor’s research qualifications and previous experience as a research supervisor;
    - Mentoring plan that describes the current mentoring relationship and a plan for monitoring the candidate’s research, publications, and development of career development grants;
    - Available resources, such as laboratory space, equipment, and other resources and facilities (including access to clinical and/or other research populations, if necessary) to carry out the proposed research.

6. Appendix (no page limit): Please submit as an appendix any abstracts related to your proposed project or any completed manuscripts that have not yet been published.

Selection Criteria & Timeline

Timeline

Application Deadline: October 3, 2022
Notification of Decision: November 2022

Evaluation Criteria

Application evaluation:
- Applications will be reviewed by all members of the B2K Review Committee.
Interviews:
- Each applicant will be interviewed by two members of the review committee.
- The study section will meet after completion of the interviews to determine final ranking of applicants based on composite scores from the application review and interview.

Application Evaluation Rubric

B2K Review Committee

Mary Leonard, Department Chair
Cristina Alvira, Director of the Physician Scientist Bridge to K Program
Crystal Botham, Director of Research Development
Becky Blankenburg, Associate Chair of Education
Gary Shaw, Associate Chair of Research
Bonnie Halpern-Felsher, Professor
Suzan Carmichael, Professor
Robertson Parkman, Professor
Anisha Patel, Associate Professor
Natalia Gomez-Ospina, Assistant Professor

2022-2025 Cohort

Neha Joshi, MD, MS

Neha Joshi, MD completed her medical education at the University of California, San Francisco prior to residency in pediatrics at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital / Stanford University. She additionally completed fellowship in Pediatric Hospital Medicine at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital / Stanford University. She works clinically as a pediatric and neonatal hospitalist. Dr. Joshi’s research aims to identify and develop high value care practices that prioritize late preterm and term infants receiving care within a mother-infant dyad whenever safely possible. She was previously involved in the implementation of a clinical examination based approach to identify well-appearing infants at risk for early onset sepsis; this approach has greatly reduced the number of infants undergoing empiric antibiotic treatment and NICU admission, and allowed them to remain safely with their mothers in couplet care. Dr. Joshi’s current work seeks to identify evidence-based criteria for late preterm admission to well newborn care.

Research Mentor: Henry Lee, MD
Fellowship: Pediatric Hospital Medicine
Residency: Stanford Children's Health / Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

Adrienne Long, MD, PhD

Dr. Adrienne Long is a pediatric oncologist dedicated to developing novel cancer immunotherapies for children with cancer. She completed her Bachelors’ degree in biomedical engineering at Northwestern University, prior to matriculating to their medical school through the Honors Program in Medical Education. During medical school, she also obtained a PhD in cancer immunology through an NIH-Northwestern partnership, where she worked with Dr. Crystal Mackall studying CAR T cell therapies. Dr. Long went on to complete her pediatrics residency at Boston Children’s Hospital. There, she participated in their Integrated Research Pathway, where she worked with Dr. Nicholas Haining on cancer antigen presentation. She arrived at Stanford in 2019 to complete her training in pediatric hematology/oncology, and is now pursuing her post-doctoral research with Dr. Mark Davis, where she is studying how thymic selection, designed to prevent autoimmunity, may contribute to poor antitumor immunity in children.

Research Mentor: Mark Davis, PhD
Fellowship: Pediatric Hematology/Oncology
Residency: Boston Children's Hospital

Jonathan Reiss, MD

Jonathan Reiss is interested in the intersection of metabolomics, multi-omics, machine learning and precision medicine as applied to 1) fetuses susceptible to maternal conditions that impact that intrauterine environment, and 2) neonates vulnerable to acquired disease of prematurity. I work closely with various mentors including Gary Shaw, David K. Stevenson, Nima Aghaeepour, Karl Sylvester and Michael Snyder who each have expertise in these areas. Dr. Reiss’s ultimate goal is to develop novel screening, diagnostic and therapeutic measures for the care of premature newborns.

Research Mentor: Gary Shaw, DrPH
Fellowship: Neonatal & Developmental Medicine
Residency: University of California San Diego

2021-2024 Cohort

Rebecca Dang, MD

Rebecca Dang is an MD/MSCE who received her bachelor’s degree from Johns Hopkins University and medical degree from Georgetown School of Medicine. She first became interested in clinical research during her residency training at Kaiser Oakland, but it was not until Pediatric Hospital Medicine fellowship that her passion for research truly flourished. With the support of her fellowship directors Drs. Srinivas, Rassbach, and Wang as well as her primary research mentors Drs. Schroeder, Patel, and Wang, Rebecca has learned how to code in STATA, use large databases, and explore contemporary pediatric temperature values and the frequency and impact of temperature measurement at well-child visits. This work was supported by the Maternal Child Health Research Institute (MCHRI) Clinical Trainee (MD) Award and The Gerber Foundation Novice Researcher Award. Rebecca was also awarded the MCHRI Master’s Tuition Program, which funded her Master’s of Science degree in Epidemiology and Clinical Research at Stanford. Combining her long-term goal of promoting value-based health care, particularly surrounding temperature measurement and temperature values, with her clinical specialty of hospital medicine, Rebecca has pivoted to the newborn nursery to describe normal newborn temperature percentiles and evaluate patient characteristics and clinical outcomes of neonatal hypothermia in late preterm and term infants. For this research, Rebecca is supported by the Physician Scientist Bridge to K program and The Gerber Foundation.

Research Mentor: Alan Schroeder, MD, Anisha Patel, MD, MSPH, MSHS, Adam Frymoyer, MD
Fellowship: Pediatric Hospital Medicine
Residency: Kaiser Permanente Oakland

David Staudt, MD

Research Mentor:
Fellowship: Pediatric Cardiology
Residency: Stanford Children's Health / Lucile Packard Children's Hospital

Lea Steffes, MD

Dr. Lea Steffes completed medical school and pediatric residency at the Medical College of Wisconsin. She then moved to the Bay Area and completed her clinical fellowship in pediatric pulmonary medicine at Stanford University in 2020. Dr. Steffes received further post-doctoral training in the laboratories of Dr. Maya Kumar and Dr. David Cornfield, studying the cellular and molecular mechanism driving pulmonary vascular disease. In addition to her role as an Instructor in Pediatrics in the division of Pulmonary Medicine, Dr. Steffes is also completing an advanced clinical fellowship in Pediatric Pulmonary Hypertension at Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital Stanford. Her research is focused on the vascular changes seen in pulmonary hypertension, more specifically understanding the cellular characteristics of occlusive neointimal lesions, the abnormal cells that block pulmonary blood flow in pulmonary hypertension. In her most recent work, Dr. Steffes identified a subset of healthy vascular smooth muscle cells that are the cell of origin for the pathologic neointimal cells and a specific signaling pathway, that when blocked, inhibits the formation of neointimal lesions.

Dr. Steffes is currently employing advanced single cell sequencing technologies to further understand neointimal cells with the ultimate goal identifying new therapies for pulmonary hypertension, a fatal disease with no known cure.

Research Mentor: David Cornfield, MD & Maya Kumar, PhD
Fellowship: Pediatric Pulmonary
Residency: Children's Hospital of Wisconsin

2020-2023 Cohort

Ananta Addala, DO, MPH

I am an early career physician scientist committed to becoming an independent investigator addressing disparities in type 1 diabetes management and outcomes. My longstanding research and clinical interests are to promote equitable care for youth with type 1 diabetes informed by the biological, social, psychological, and systemic determinants of health. As a physician with a background in pediatric endocrinology, epidemiology, and behavioral health, I am uniquely qualified to understand and address the medical, social, and economic inequities of diverse youth with type 1 diabetes. I am supported by the division of endocrinology’s K12 grant which provides me with the additional mentor supported time required to further my statistical, communication, and leadership skills foundational to my early career grant application and my future as an independent physician scientist.

Research Mentor: Korey Hood, PhD
Career Development Award: Institutional K12 Career Development Program
Fellowship: Pediatric Endocrinology
Residency: University of Southern California-Los Angeles County Hospital

Sarah Dubner, MD

Dr. Sarah Dubner is a developmental-behavioral pediatrician. The goal of her research is to design interventions that promote healthy development in children at risk for developmental disorders, based on an understanding about how early-life biological and social experiences affect the developing brain.

Dr. Dubner completed her undergraduate degree at Tufts University, where she majored in Physics, her medical degree at the University of Pennsylvania, and pediatric residency at the University of Washington. Following residency, Dr. Dubner practiced as a general pediatrician in the Stanford Divisions of Neonatal and Developmental Medicine and Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics, before completing subspecialty training in Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics at Stanford in 2020. During fellowship, she conducted clinical research focused on diffusion MRI tractography measures of brain white matter microstructure and language and cognitive outcomes in children born preterm, under the mentorship of Dr. Heidi Feldman.

She applies a multimodal approach to understanding modifiable social and biological influences on early human development in at-risk children in order to design and implement innovative, scalable, and effective interventions to promote child development. Her two main lines of inquiry supported by the Bridge to K program are 1) Integrating advanced neuroimaging with modern social network analysis to adapt existing evidence-based language health interventions for network-level intervention; and 2) Applying neuroimaging modalities to elucidate relations between neonatal conditions and treatments associated with systemic inflammation, brain, and cognitive and language development.

Research Mentor: Heidi Feldman, MD, PhD
Fellowship: Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics
Residency: Seattle Children's/University of Washington, Pediatrics

Gregory Goldstein, MD

Gregory Goldstein’s research interest is in prematurity prevention and improving outcomes from complications related to prematurity. As a trained epidemiologist, he is specifically interested in studying between-hospital variability in preterm birth to better understand the causes of preterm birth. He is also interested in the epidemiology of necrotizing enterocolitis, with the long-term goal of improving prevention, diagnosis and developing new therapies for this devastating disease.

Research Mentor: Gary Shaw, DrPH
Fellowship: Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Residency: Hasbro Children's/Brown University, Pediatrics

William Goodyer, MD, PhD

William Goodyer is an MD/PhD who graduated from McGill University with a BS with Honors in Biology prior to completing his medical and graduate studies at Stanford University in the Medical Scientist Training Program. His undergraduate research focused on the molecular regulators involved in C. elegans meiosis, while his PhD centered on the molecular mechanisms governing pancreatic beta-cell maturation and proliferation in vertebrates. He next pursued accelerated research tracks for both Pediatric Residency (Boston Children’s Hospital) and Pediatric Cardiology Fellowship (Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital), where he developed a passion for Electrophysiology. As such, he pursued a postdoctoral fellowship in the Sean Wu laboratory at the Stanford Cardiovascular Institute, focusing on the discovery of novel regulators underlying the development of the cardiac conduction system (CCS). To overcome the inherent hurdles of studying the CCS (small cell numbers, cell type heterogeneity, etc), he developed a comprehensive transcriptional profile of the entire CCS at single-cell resolution, providing a gene atlas for facilitating future efforts in conduction cell identification, isolation, and characterization in the context of development and disease. He has recently completed his Pediatric Electrophysiology Fellowship and is staying on at LPCH as an Instructor, pursuing both clinical Pediatric Electrophysiology and basic science research focused on CCS development and disease in order to stimulate future translational opportunities aimed at the prevention and treatment of rhythm disorders.

Research Mentor: Sean Wu, MD, PhD
Fellowship: Pediatric Cardiology & Pediatric Advanced Cardiology - Electrophysiology
Residency: Boston Children's/Harvard University, Pediatrics (Accelerated Research Pathway)

Jen Iklé, MD, PhD

Dr. Jen Iklé completed her undergraduate degree in Biology at the University of New Mexico, prior to earning her MD and PhD through the Medical Scientist Training Program at the University of Colorado Denver, Anschutz Medical campus. While earning her PhD, she worked in the lab of Dr. David Clouthier studying genetics and transcriptional regulatory networks, with an emphasis on craniofacial development in the embryo. After completion of her MD, Jen completed both Pediatrics Residency and Fellowship in Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes at Washington University in St. Louis and St. Louis Children’s Hospital. During her fellowship, Jen worked in the lab of Dr. Colin Nichols where she developed a passion for regulation of insulin secretion from the beta cells of the pancreas. She has a specific interest in the role of ATP-sensitive potassium (KATP) channels. Genetic disruption of these channels leads to neonatal diabetes (in KATP gain of function mutations) or congenital hyperinsulinism (in KATP loss of function mutations). Jen also has a clinical interest in diabetes and hyperinsulinism.

Jen is interested in the genetic factors that lead to abnormal beta-cell function and insulin secretion, causing disorders such as hyperinsulinism and neonatal diabetes. Jen’s current research focus is the use of zebrafish models, combined with genetics and genomics, to understand cellular and molecular mechanisms of glucose metabolism and elucidate previously unknown players involved in the regulation of insulin secretion.

Research Mentor: Anna Gloyn, DPhil
Career Development Award: Institutional K12 Career Development Program
Fellowship: Pediatric Endocrinology and Diabetes, Washington University in St. Louis/St. Louis Children’s Hospital
Residency: Washington University in St. Louis/St. Louis Children’s Hospital, Pediatrics

2019-2022 Cohort

Yair Bannett, MD

Yair Bannett is interested in improving health care delivery in community-based primary care for children with developmental-behavioral disorders, such as attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and autism spectrum disorder. As an instructor in the Division of Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics (DBP), he is engaged in innovative health services research that leverages recent advances in machine learning and natural language processing technology to mine electronic health record data. Dr. Bannett's ultimate goal is to develop novel quality measures that can be used to implement clinician- and systems-level interventions in primary care aimed at improving health care delivery for children with developmental-behavioral disorders.

Research Mentor: Heidi Feldman, MD, PhD
Fellowship: Developmental-Behavioral Pediatrics
Residency: Kogan Pediatrics Hospital/Assaf Harofe Medical Center, Pediatrics

Sharon Paige, MD, PhD

Sharon L. Paige, MD, PhD completed her undergraduate training at the University of Rochester, earning bachelor's degrees in both Cell/Developmental Biology and Political Science. She then completed her combined MD and PhD training at the University of Washington. There, she completed her graduate thesis in the laboratory of Dr. Charles E. Murry with a focus on the role of Wnt signaling and chromatin dynamics during cardiac differentiation from human embryonic stem cells. Dr. Paige came to Stanford in 2013 as a Pediatrics resident and continued as a Pediatric Cardiology Fellow through the Accelerated Research Pathway.

As a clinical fellow, she became motivated by the overall lack of understanding of the underlying mechanisms behind congenital heart disease. Funded by the Training in Myocardial Biology T32, she joined the laboratory of Dr. Sean M. Wu, where she began using patient-specific induced pluripotent stem cells to explore cardiac developmental perturbations associated with hypoplastic left heart syndrome. This research led to the discovery of cardiomyocyte-intrinsic impaired contractility associated with mitochondrial dysfunction in HLHS, representing a novel therapeutic target for disease prevention. Co-mentored by Dr. Wu and Dr. Euan Ashley, Dr. Paige received an NHLBI K08 career development award and will expand her research to include other forms of single ventricle heart disease. In July 2019, she was appointed as an Instructor in the Division of Pediatric Cardiology, Department of Pediatrics, at Stanford as part of the Bridge to K Program. Clinically, Dr. Paige is an attending with the Cardiovascular Connective Tissue Disorders and Cardiogenomics programs

Research Mentor: Sean Wu, MD, PhD
Career Development Award: NIH K08 Mentored Clinical Scientist Award
Fellowship: Pediatric Cardiology
Residency: Lucile Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford, Pediatrics (Accelerated Research Pathway)

Ken Sutha, MD, PhD

Ken Sutha obtained his MD and PhD in Biomedical Engineering at Emory University and Georgia Institute of Technology before completing pediatrics residency at University of Washington/Seattle Children’s Hospital and pediatric nephrology fellowship at Stanford University/Lucile Packard Children’s Hospital. He is now pursuing postdoctoral training in the lab of Calvin Kuo, MD, PhD. Dr. Sutha’s research is focused on developing new ways of growing and studying kidney tissue from patients as kidney organoids, to better understand processes in the kidney, kidney diseases, and potential treatments. In addition to the Stanford Department of Pediatrics Bridge to K Instructor Program, Dr. Sutha is currently supported by KidneyCure – American Society of Nephrology Research Foundation through their Ben J. Lipps Research Fellowship Program as a Jared J. Grantham Research Fellow.

Research Mentor: Calvin Kuo, MD, PhD; Vivek Bhalla, MD
Fellowship: Pediatric Nephrology
Residency: Seattle Children's/University of Washington, Pediatrics

2018-2021 Cohort

Elizabeth Burgener, MD

Dr. Burgener completed her undergraduate at Stanford in 2005 followed by graduation from medical school at University of Texas Health Science Center in San Antonio in 2011. She then returned to Stanford University for internship and residency in pediatrics, chief resident year in pediatrics and clinical fellowship in pediatric pulmonary medicine, which she completed in 2018. Additionally, Dr. Burgener has obtained further post-doctoral training in the laboratories of Dr. Paul Bollyky and Dr. Carlos Milla. During her fellowship she participated in the Translational Research and Applied Medicine program at Stanford and also received support from an MCHRI Trainee Award and the Program in Pulmonary Biology T32 grant. As a physician-scientist her clinical work consists of taking care of patients with pediatric pulmonary disease such as cystic fibrosis, asthma, bronchopulmonary dysplasia and other systemic illnesses that affect pulmonary health. In her research she has identified that Pf bacteriophage, a virus which infects Pseudomonas, has effect on clinical outcomes in patients with cystic fibrosis. Patients who have this virus, which makes biofilms more adherent and viscous, in their sputum are more likely to have chronic Pseudomonas infection and have higher levels of antibiotic resistance. Dr. Burgener is currently supported by the Parker B Francis Fellowship, and Harry Swhachman Clinical Investigator Award through the Cystic Fibrosis Foundation and has received the Cystic Fibrosis Research Innovation Award through Vertex Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Dr. Burgener is currently growing her research program with a focus on infection and inflammation with the goal of bringing new therapies and improving the lives of patients with cystic fibrosis.

Research Mentor: Paul Bollyky, MD, PhD
Fellowship: Pediatric Pulmonary
Residency: Lucile Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford University, Pediatrics

Zachary Sellers, MD, PhD

Research Mentor: Calvin Kuo, MD, PhD
Career Development Award: NIH K08 Mentored Clinical Scientist Award
Fellowship: Pediatric Gastroenterology
Residency: Lucile Packard Children's Hospital/Stanford University, Pediatrics (Integrated Research Pathway)

2017-2020 Cohort

Who is eligible to apply?
The following individuals are eligible to apply:
- Subspecialty fellows in their 3rd year of training
- Subspecialty fellows in two-year programs who remain at Stanford for an extra year in a training role as a Postdoctoral Scholar + Clinical Scholar
- Fellows one year post-fellowship, appointed as either a Postdoctoral Scholar or Instructor
- Clinical Assistant Professors are eligible to apply if they are able to devote 75% effort to research and willing to move from rank of Clinical Assistant Professor to Instructor

Who covers the cost beyond what the Bridge to K Program provides?

An Instructor appointment has a 75% research commitment and 25% clinical commitment. The Department pays for the 75% research time and the remainder is paid through the individual's clinical work.
Note: for the divisions of Neonatal & Developmental Medicine and Cardiology, the department and division split the cost of the research time.

What support will the trainee get in the Bridge to K Program to help them successfully receive a K award?

The individual will receive 75% salary support, as outlined above. Instructors who successfully obtain an institutional or individual K award are eligible to apply for additional financial support of their project through the MCHRI Instructor K Award Support Program. The Bridge to K program does not provide any funds for research expenses and it is expected the trainee's mentor provides adequate funds and space for the individual to complete their research. Awardees also have access to the Bridge to K curriculum and peer support network to help them successfully pursue a career development award.

What if a trainee wants to apply for a different career development award?

Although NIH K Awards represent the most common form of Career Development Award, there are many other Career Development Awards that provide similar levels of support to facilitate a transition to independence. All participants in the program will be expected to broadly apply for all Career Development Awards in their area of scholarship.

How long can a trainee be on the Bridge to K program?

Trainees can be part of the Bridge to K Program for up to 3 years and must show sufficient progress towards attaining a career development award. Sufficient progress will be evaluated by the Director of the Bridge to K Program (Cristina Alvira, MD) based on the established timeline.

What if the trainee doesn't receive a career development award after 3 years?

The goal of the Bridge to K program is to provide junior pediatric physician-scientists with the support, resources, and protected time to sufficiently build their research career in order to obtain their first academic faculty position as Assistant Professor. The attainment of a Career Development Award is an important benchmark that will increase the Instructor’s competitiveness for top academic jobs. It is anticipated that all participants will begin interviewing for faculty positions in the beginning of their third year in the program so that they have secured a faculty position by the end of their third year in the Bridge to K program.

Are Bridge to K awardees considered faculty?

The rank of Instructor is intended for those primarily engaged in mentored research and scholarly activities that advance clinical medicine, and may have secondary roles in teaching and clinical care. Instructors are not considered part of the Stanford University professoriate. Instructors are generally in transition from training towards a career as a full-time faculty member at an academic institution. However, there is no expectation of a Stanford professoriate appointment following an Instructor appointment. Please see additional information in the Stanford School of Medicine Faculty Handbook.

If the trainee receives a Career Development Award, what happens next? Do they automatically become faculty?

As noted above, the goal of the program is to provide support to allow the transition of the Instructors to their first full-time faculty appointment at an academic institution. The attainment of a Career Development Award is one important benchmark that will increase the applicant’s competitiveness. There is no expectation of a Stanford professoriate appointment following completion of the Bridge to K program. Stanford School of Medicine faculty appointments can be attained if the applicant successfully competes in a national search for an open position.

Who will provide the trainee with space and other research resources?

It is expected that the trainee’s research mentor and Division Chief will provide adequate funds and space to support for the trainee to complete their research project as proposed in the application. It is crucial that the Mentor letter and the Division Chief letter detail this commitment of support.

I don’t need salary support at this time because I have other funding (i.e., K Award or division funding), should I still apply to the Bridge to K Program?

Yes! Starting in 2021, all instructors that are interested in joining the monthly Physician Scientist Bridge to K meetings must apply. As a B2K awardee you will also have access to specialized career development mentorship.