Training Grant: Program Administration
Program Organization/Directors:
Chris Baylis Ph.D. is Program Director with Rick Johnson M.D. and Julie Johnson Pharm. D. as Co-Directors. Drs. Baylis, Johnson and Johnson will jointly supervise the overall performance of the training program.
Program Director:
Chris Baylis, Ph.D., is Professor of Physiology and Functional Genomics, and Medicine, the J. Robert Cade Chair of Physiology and the Director of the University of Florida Hypertension Center. Dr. Baylis moved to University of Florida July 2004 from West Virginia University (WVU) where she was Professor of Physiology. While at WVU she served as member and chair of the Physiology Department Graduate Studies Committee, member and chair on the Advisory Committee for Minority High School Student Apprentice Program, Faculty on Endocrine Postdoctoral Training Program, Pharmacology Ph.D. training program, Nephrology Fellowship Program and Pediatrics Fellowship Program. While at WVU she taught in Graduate and Medical student courses and also in the Nephrology Fellowship Program. In addition she was a member of the M.D., Ph.D. student committee and the Graduate Student Recruiting Committee. In her current role as Professor of Physiology and Functional Genomics and Medicine and Director of the University of Florida Hypertension Center she teaches graduate and medical students as well as Nephrology fellows, serves as course coordinator of a new Advanced Renal Physiology course for graduate students, as well as course coordinator of the renal section of Medical Physiology and Graduate Physiology and in addition to teaching in these course is also participating in the first year IDP program (Course GMS 6008) and the graduate level cardiovascular advanced course. She is a well funded and Internationally recognized researcher in renal and hypertension research and has had continuous NIH support since 1982. She previously reviewed for the NIH study Section CVB (1990-1994), the VA Merit Review Board (Nephrology), serving as Chair during 2002-2003 and is now a member of PBKD NIH Study Section (2003 -2008). She also served as member of the Research Policy and Allocation Committee, AHA-WV Affiliate and Vice Chair, 1995-1996 and as Member, Research Peer Review Committee for Ohio-WV affiliate of AHA, 1996-1997. In addition she has been, and is, ad hoc reviewer for other NIH study sections, the March of Dimes, the Medical Research Council of Australia, the Welcome trust (UK) and the Grant Agency of the Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic. She is a reviewer for numerous journals and serves on the Editorial Board of the American Journal of Physiology, Renal and Water and Electrolyte Sections and Hypertension. She has previously acted as Associate Editor for AJP Renal, Section Editor for Current Opinions in Nephrology and Hypertension and Guest Editor for the American Journal of Kidney Disease.
Program Co-Directors:
Richard J. Johnson, M.D. joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 2003 as the J. Robert Cade Professor of Medicine and Chief of the Division of Nephrology, Hypertension, and Renal Transplantation at the University of Florida. Dr. Johnson is internationally renowned for his work on mechanisms of renal injury and progression and the pathogenesis of essential hypertension. He has published over 300 articles, lectured in over 25 countries, and is currently co-editor with John Feehally of the clinical textbook, Comprehensive Clinical Nephrology. Dr Johnson has trained many Nephrology and postdoctoral fellows, with more than 25 of them currently in academic positions throughout the world. He is the Director of the Nephrology Research Training Program (NIH funded) and is well versed at mentoring fellows for a career in academic medicine.
Julie A. Johnson, Pharm.D., FCCP, BCPS, is Professor and Chair of the Department of Pharmacy Practice, Professor of Pharmaceutics, V. Ravi Chandran Professor in Pharmaceutical Sciences and Professor of Medicine (Cardiovascular Medicine) at the University of Florida Colleges of Pharmacy and Medicine, and Director, University of Florida Center for Pharmacogenomics. She joined the faculty at the University of Florida in 1998. She has been continuously funded by the NIH and/or AHA since 1990. Dr. Johnson is currently on the Nonprescription Drugs Advisory Committee of the FDA and on the Pediatric Heart Disease Clinical Research Network Protocol Review Committee for the NHLBI. She is on the editorial boards of the journals Pharmacogenetics and Pharmacotherapy and serves as manuscript reviewer for numerous other scientific journals.
Advisory Board:
The advisory board advises the Director and Co-Directors on the general direction, goals and operation of the Training Program. The Board also makes recommendations to the Recruitment and Review Committee on training projects, seminar speakers, mechanisms of advertising and recruitment, minority recruitment and retention, and training curriculum. The members of the Advisory Board are: Linda Hayward Ph.D. (Department of Physiological Sciences, College of Veterinary Medicine), Carl Pepine M.D (Chief of the Division of Cardiology, Medicine) ex-officio member Wayne McCormack Ph.D. (Director of the College of Medicine, Interdisciplinary Doctoral Program in Biomedical Sciences). The external Member of the Advisory Board, David Harrison M.D., Chief of Cardiology at Emory University is a natural choice to serve as the External Advisor to the training program. He runs an active research organization and has trained many students and fellows and runs a T32 in cardiology at Emory. Dr. Harrison is the Bernard Marcus Professor of Medicine and Director of Cardiology at Emory University. Dr. Harrison also maintains a clinical cardiology practice at Emory University and actively participates in patient cardiology services at Emory Hospital and the Atlanta VA Medical Center Hospital.
Dr. Harrison has served on numerous study sections, and was chairman of the Experimental Cardiovascular NIH Study Section. He has had continuous funding from the NIH since the early 1980s, and is currently Director of a Program Project Grant to study reactive oxygen species and vascular function. He has been very active in the AHA and has served as past Chairman of the Council of Circulation. Last year, he was the recipient of the Distinguished Achievement Award from the Council of Basic Science of the American Heart Association. This year he was recipient of the Appelbaum visiting Professorship to University of Florida, where he served as guest of the Hypertension Center and interacted with members of Cardiology, Pulmonary and Nephrology Divisions in Medicine, Pulmonary in Pediatrics, Vascular surgery as well as members of the Department of Physiology and Functional Genomics and Pharmacology at UF.
Dr. Harrison will meet with the trainees and the Recruitment and Review committee annually. He will evaluate the training program and make recommendations to the Director, Co-Directors and the Recruitment and Review Committee. He will also ensure external evaluation and compliance with NIH program administration and documentation procedures. As an additional benefit, he will give a special Hypertension Seminar annually.
Recruitment and Review Committee:
The Recruitment and Review Committee is responsible for trainee recruitment, selection and review of each trainee’s progress, review of trainee satisfaction and morale, and monitoring of the program as a whole. The Recruitment and Review Committee is convened and chaired by the Program Director and screens all applications, establishes rules for selection and makes final admission decisions. The committee also reviews the performance of each trainee. Each trainee submits a progress report to the Recruitment and Review committee and meets with the committee twice a year. Recommendations are made by the committee for future support at the end of each trainee’s appointment period. The members of the Recruitment and Review Committee represent the different disciplines. The members are: Chris Baylis Ph.D; David Gilland Ph.D (Department of Biomedical Engineering, College of Engineering), Keith Ozaki M.D. (Division of vascular surgery, College of Medicine) and Nihal Tumer Ph.D. (Department of Pharmacology and Therapeutics, College of Medicine).
