Career Development

The Geriatrics Center supports research training activities in geriatrics in an effort to interest junior faculty in pursuing academic careers in geriatric medicine. Programs aim to create future leaders in the field in an effort to address the serious geriatrics work force shortage in the United States. The Geriatrics Center has in place a superb infrastructure for the support of people taking the first steps towards an academic career in geriatrics and has established a strong track record of academic training in geriatrics.  

Funding for research training for junior faculty is provided through the Geriatrics Center as a John A. Hartford Foundation Center of Excellence. This designation supports the Geriatrics Center’s established and successful career development activities for physicians transitioning to become the next academic leaders in geriatrics.

Support for junior faculty research training is also provided through the Claude D. Pepper Older Americans Independence Center Research Career Development Core (RCDC). The primary goal of the RCDC is to recruit, select, support, mentor, and train junior faculty to become independent investigators in aging-related research and academic leaders in geriatrics and gerontology within their respective disciplines. The RCDC focuses on stimulating the translation between basic and clinical research across the spectrum of its training activities including the annual research career development retreat. To this end it serves a critical function in supporting the overall Pepper Center focus by training the next generation of investigators whose research will lead to an improved understanding of the predictors and modulators of the aging phenotype.