skip to Main Content

Request for Core Support

Professional Development Core Resource Collection Library

NIH Podcasts

Inventory of Potential Mentors

The Professional Development (PD) Core will expand, strengthen, and diversify the clinical and translational research workforce engaged in the science of minority health and health disparities in Hawaii. To achieve this goal, the PD Core will collaborate with other Center for Pacific Innovations, Knowledge and Opportunities (PIKO) Cores and leverage career-development activities of previous and current research infrastructure programs at the University of Hawaii, Hawaii Pacific University, and Chaminade University of Honolulu.


Services provided:

  • Mentoring & Career Development
    • Mentor identification
    • Mentor-mentee agreement
    • Individualized Development Plan
  • Grantsmanship
    • Identifying funders
    • Grant/proposal writing
    • Grant/proposal review by experts and peers prior to submission
  • Research Training
    • Research with Indigenous Pacific Islanders
    • Translational Research
    • Implementation Research

Workshops Offered:

Specific Aims: Every Fall, the PIKO Professional Development Core hosts the Specific Aims Page Writing workshop. This is a multi-week workshop to assist investigators in writing and refining their specific aims page. A specific aims page is a one-page summary of your research proposal and is the most important page of an NIH grant proposal. This online training includes a lecture on how to prepare a specific aims page based on the “hourglass” approach and two or three post-lecture meetings with mentors and peers to review and refine your aims.

Gumshoe: Every Spring, the PIKO Professional Development Core hosts the tailored GUMSHOE (Grant-writing Uncovered: Maximizing Strategies, Help, Opportunities, Experiences) training in advanced grant writing. GUMSHOE is a 4-month, online training session that includes: six sessions on NIH grant-writing, assistance improving your specific aims, academic/peer mentorship while writing or revising your proposal and a final mock review of your proposal. Applicants should be ready to apply for an NIH award, e.g., diversity supplement, K award, R03, R21, R01, R15, R16.


Core Leaders

headshot of Kathryn Braun
Kathryn Braun, DrPH
Core Director
Thompson School of Social Work and Public Health, UHM
Merle Kataoka-Yahiro, DrPH, MS, APRN
Associate Core Director
Nancy Atmospera-Walch School of Nursing, UHM
David Horgen
Associate Core Director
Hawaii Pacific University
headshot of Dedra Buchwald
Dedra Buchwald, MD
Core Advisor
Washington State University
Back To Top