Sharing our legacy: Reflections from consortium leaders

No matter the size of an institution, everyone is capable of making important contributions to science. 

That’s one of the most important lessons that Sonsoles de Lacalle, MD, PhD, said she learned as the principal investigator for an NIH-funded research grant associated with the Diversity Program Consortium’s (DPC) Dissemination and Translation Awards (DaTA). 

In the last part of the DPC's, “Sharing our legacy: Reflections from consortium leaders” interview series, de Lacalle shares about an initiative at California State University, Channel Islands (CSUCI) aimed at evaluating approaches to mentor training, and increasing the number of students from underrepresented and underserved groups who obtain degrees and pursue biomedical research careers.

De Lacalle is a professor in and the chair of Health Science at CSUCI. 

Read the Q&A below to see what de Lacalle said about her work with the DPC. Watch her full interview on YouTube. 

Q: What is the goal of the project you work on for the DPC?

A: The purpose of the project was to find out whether we could use an academic instrument to drive forward the biomedical research careers of students [and] our intervention has . . . two prongs. One of them has two aspects, [one is to] design a class, we call it the boot camp, . . . that introduces students to biomedical research [and] then the other prong of the project was to train the faculty both in mentoring, particularly mentoring underrepresented minority students, and also train them in ways to incorporate research into their classroom.

Q: What is one of the biggest impacts of the project so far?

A: We are still analyzing all the data we've collected, but I think we have actually accomplished a lot because we have found out that faculty are in need of mentoring [and] we've also learned that [Courses of Undergraduate Research] CURE is possible. It does take quite an investment of time, but we have been very successful [and] there's been a few faculty that already implemented CURE in the classrooms and they are reporting back saying it's working for them. The biggest outcome, I think, is that the students love the boot camp.

Q: What does the future of this project look like?

A: The grant [has] ended but we did request . . . an extension and one of the reasons we did that is because there is a lot of data collection that we still need to continue and it's important for the institution to understand that [the] data collection process is still under the auspices of the grant and not just our own whim or something like that. . . . One thing that we discovered is that there is a lot at the infrastructure level that needs to be improved [so] we just wrote an application [in February 2023] requesting some funding to do a needs assessment . . . focused on the needs of faculty and students regarding biomedical research . . . I think we have an opportunity to change [and] improve the infrastructure mechanisms, processes [and] policies [which] would allow us to really . . . implement the DaTA grant even much more efficiently.

Q: What is something positive that's happened as a result of your project?

A: The best is when . . . you realize that [students] are actually implementing what they learned and that's the biggest satisfaction ever because that's really all I care about, is that they are empowered to move forward with their careers.

Q: What is the most meaningful lesson you learned from your project?

A: The biggest lesson I've learned is the need to be extraordinarily organized [because] it's very easy to let things fall [by] the wayside just because life becomes very complicated. . . . The second big lesson is you should never underestimate the power of having a good research assistant [which is] really essential because they'll keep you moving forward at a good pace.

Q: What do you hope will be the legacy of your work?

A: The biggest legacy of this award is the ability to show my peers, my colleagues and also the students that everything is possible. . . . I think it's very important for institutions such as mine [that are] small with few resources [to know they] have the possibility of contributing something very substantial to biomedical research. 

Q: What advice would you give to a future researcher?

A: Don't postpone it, just go [for it]. . . . I think that with science if you [have] just a little bit of interest and curiosity, then you'll discover a new world and actually the worst that can happen is that you discover that [it’s] not for you.

de Lacalle’s interview is part of the “Sharing our legacy: Reflections from consortium leaders” series that will be released through the spring of 2024.