New CEPP research mentoring fellowship honors Dimitriadis

Greg Dimitriadis was a beloved member of the UB community: an accomplished scholar and administrator in the Graduate School of Education, and respected and caring mentor to his students, as well as to junior colleagues.

Dimitriadis’ unexpected death in December shocked his UB colleagues and prompted those affiliated with the Civic Engagement and Public Policy (CEPP) initiative to honor him by establishing a research fellowship in his memory.

The Gregory J. Dimitriadis Research Mentoring Fellowship honors the legacy of Dimitriadis, professor of educational leadership and policy, founding member of the CEPP Faculty Advisory Committee and a critical member of its fellowship review committee. As his colleagues noted in the guidelines for the fellowship, “He was an exceptional educator and mentor, committed to research, scholarship and activism on issues of social justice, equity and public policy.”

Susan Vivian Mangold, professor of law and CEPP chair, and Laura Mangan, CEPP coordinator, said Dimitriadis’ “humor, brilliance and attention to detail made him a wonderful colleague. He had great respect for varied interdisciplinary approaches to research. His thoughtful feedback and advice helped enhance dozens of research projects supported by CEPP across many disciplines at UB.”

The Dimitriadis fellowship supports short-term mentoring for full-time faculty members or faculty teams working on community-based research projects. Each fellowship recipient will work with one or more mentors and a community partner or partners.

CEPP recently announced the inaugural recipients of the fellowship: Lucia A. Leone, assistant professor, Department of Community Health and Health Behavior, School of Public Health and Health Professions, and Darryl Somayaji, assistant professor, School of Nursing, and adjunct assistant professor of cancer prevention and population science, Roswell Park Cancer Institute.

Leone is a public health interventionist whose research interests include environmental, community, organizational and behavioral interventions to improve nutrition, increase physical activity and encourage appropriate cancer screening. She will work with mentor Gary G. Bennett, professor of psychology, global health and medicine at Duke University, in conducting a pilot project with community partner YMCA to develop an exercise program to increase physical activity among obese women.

The findings from the pilot project, titled “Development of a targeted exercise program for women with obesity,” along with input from the CEPP Faculty Advisory Committee, will be used to develop a grant proposal to the National Institutes of Health for additional funding to continue this work on a larger scale.

Somayaji, who specializes in cancer and health disparities, health equity and access to health care by underserved populations, with work with mentors Andrea Barsevick, research professor, Division of Population Science, Department of Medical Oncology, Sidney Kimmel Medical College, Thomas Jefferson University, and Laurene M. Tumiel Berhalter, associate professor, UB Department of Family Medicine.

Somayaji’s project, “Promoting a program of cancer survivorship community-based research,” aims to develop a program to address the deficits regarding the physical, psychosocial, provider communication and access to health care needs of cancer survivors in the community.

“The Gregory J. Dimitriadis Research Mentoring Fellowship will provide valuable guidance and education in further developing my program of community-based research on issues related to cancer survivorship, health disparities and access to equitable health resources to improve quality of life,” Somayaji says.

The Dimitriadis fellowship addresses a particular need CEPP had seen for mentoring among its fellows, Mangan notes. “Researchers undertaking community-based research projects face many challenges,” she says. “Partnering with experts to help them develop the best possible projects, undertake a new area of community-based research or critically review funding proposals or manuscripts will strengthen the likelihood for success.”

The Dimitriadis fellowship is one of several fellowships for community-based research offered by CEPP. Others are the Civic Engagement Research Fellowship, the Civic Engagement Research Fellowship for Grant Development, the Civic Engagement Research Dissemination Fellowship and the Community Scholar-in-Residence Fellowship.

The deadline for applications for 2015-16 fellowships is Sept. 22 or Sept. 29, depending upon the fellowship. The deadline for letters of intent for the Dimitriadis fellowship is Sept. 22.

For more information, visit the CEPP website or contact Mangan at Lmangan@buffalo.edu or 645-5376.