Apply for Gates Fellows Program

Contributed by Jessica Taaffe:

Interested in getting your foot in the door with the Gates Foundation?  Here’s an opportunity to apply for a position in the Gates Fellow Program.  See more information below:

Fellows Program Summary

The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has recently established a Gates Fellows Program, the objectives of which are to:

1. Create a cadre of top talent within strategic partners and the field that aligns with the foundation
2. Access fresh talent and perspectives to advance our thinking and contribute in a substantive way to our work
3. Develop fellows’ capabilities, skills, and understanding of the foundation.

We are seeking Fellows with exceptional qualifications across a variety of backgrounds, to join beginning in Fall 2013, to contribute to program teams in Global Health.

Responsibilities

Fellows at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation will work in close collaboration with foundation employees to support research, evaluation of strategic priorities, grant projects and initiatives. Fellows will have broad access to mentoring from world class leaders and opportunities to leverage the foundation’s network. Fellows will be a part of a two year cohort that will work on a range of responsibilities.

In partnership with foundation team members Fellows will:

Strategic portfolio management

• Plan, design, manage and execute activities in strategic planning, portfolio/grants management and external relationship management. Participate in strategy development, review and evaluation activities.
• Serve as a point of contact on portfolio-related issues for key internal and external stakeholders, including performing technical, scientific, and strategic analysis on portfolio investments.
• Collaborate with other program staff and foundation colleagues as appropriate to ensure that work is aligned, supported, and enhanced throughout the foundation.
• Partner with foundation staff to develop and manage funding partnerships with external stakeholders, including identifying funding opportunities, managing negotiations, developing MOUs, and shaping announcements.
• Identify and engage qualified subject thought leaders, technical experts, and consultants in priority areas for meetings, technical consult, review, and other program activities.

Knowledge management and learning dissemination:

• Write and produce informative briefings, reports, email updates, and other materials on key issues. Provide ongoing research and literature reviews in areas related to foundation strategic priorities, as well as capture and synthesize background and technical progress information from grants and other initiatives.
• Interact with foundation staff as well as partners and outside experts to develop information that contributes to shaping program priorities and strategies. In specific assigned areas, develop drafts and concepts that contribute to shaping program priorities and strategies.
• In partnership with program staff, coordinate and/or manage a wide range of monitoring and evaluation activities in support of strategic planning, grant management and external relationship management.
• In partnership with Business Teams, create and manage content for technical and strategic areas on our internal SharePoint site.
• Undertake special projects, as requested.

Qualifications

To be considered, applicants are required to have an advanced degree such as MD, PhD, PharmD (scientific disciplines highly encouraged), or MBA with backgrounds in management consulting, investment banking, private equity or venture capital, and 7-10 years of related professional experience.

Those with an advanced degree and field experience in global health and development are encouraged to apply.

In addition, heavy emphasis will be placed on:

• Demonstrated interest and/or experience in global health, development, policy and advocacy, or communications
• Strong knowledge across relevant technical area/expertise, proven ability to learn new content quickly, identify connections and second-order implications as well as demonstrate competence and execute good judgment in a variety of areas.
• Demonstrated strong analytical, writing & verbal skills for communicating with a broad and diverse audience, including internal leadership and external high-level stakeholders, on a range of complex technical issues.
• Experience in a role requiring effective collaboration within a complex organization, as well as a proven ability to work with efficiency and diplomacy as part of a team effort.
• Commitment to Foundation's core values of Rigor, Innovation, Collaboration and Optimism
• Demonstrated capacity and initiative to solve problems with energy and positive attitude
• Excellent interpersonal and negotiation skills as well as willingness to work in a flexible environment
• Proactive and flexible nature with reliable follow-through and attention to detail
• Ability to work both independently and in a cooperative and collegial fashion
• Ability and willingness to travel domestically and internationally
• Scope of work will require residency or relocation to the Seattle, Washington area.

As part of our standard hiring process for new employees, employment with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be contingent upon successful completion of a comprehensive background check.

For full information visit the original posting:http://careers.gatesfoundation.org/job/Seattle-Gates-Fellow-Job-WA-98101/2584907/?feedId=836&eresc=3-JP-1119

Seminar: International HIV Research: Past, Present and Future Global Health Research Opportunities

Contributed by Jessica Taaffe:

Ever wonder what global health research opportunities are available for biomedical scientists?  Interested in how international field clinical and research sites are set up?  HIV and STD expert Dr. Thomas Quinn will discuss these topics in an upcoming seminar at NIH on May 28, hosted by the NIH Global Health Interest Group.  Dr. Quinn is an excellent speaker, has a wealth of international HIV research experience, and has been involved in global health activities at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health and at NIH.  See more information below:

The Global Health Interest Group presents:

“International HIV Research: Past, Present and Future Global Health Research Opportunities”

Thomas Quinn, MD, MSc

Associate Director for International Research, Chief of International HIV/STD Research

Laboratory of Immunoregulation, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases

NIH

Tuesday, May 28th, 2013

11am –  noon

National Institutes of Health (9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD)

Building 50, Rm 1328/1334 Rear

(Non-NIH badge holders, please go check-in at NIH Visitor Center first with your gov’t issued ID)

Thomas C. Quinn, M.D., M.Sc. is Associate Director for International Research and Senior Investigator and Section Chief of International HIV/STD Research in the Laboratory of Immunoregulation at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.  Since 1981, he has been assigned to The Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine where he is a Professor of Medicine and Pathology, and has adjunct appointments in the Departments of International Health, Epidemiology, and Molecular Microbiology and Immunology in The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. In 2006 he was appointed Director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Global Health.

Dr. Quinn’s investigations have involved the study of the epidemiologic, virologic, immunologic features of HIV infection in Africa, the Caribbean, South America and Asia.  In 1983 he led the first group of scientists to Haiti and central Africa to determine the extent of HIV within those countries.  In 1984, he helped establish the interagency project called “Projet SIDA” in Kinshasa, Zaire which was the largest AIDS investigative project in sub-Saharan Africa.  Since then he has generated numerous global initiatives and research programs in 28 countries.  He was among the first to describe the heterosexual transmission of HIV in Haiti, Zaire, Kenya, India, and more recently, China. He demonstrated that HIV viral load was the single most important predictor of HIV perinatal and sexual transmission, correlating this with timing of infection and natural history.  More recent collaborative studies in Uganda have also provided evidence that male circumcision can reduce HIV acquisition by at least 50%. He is currently the Principal Investigator of the NIAID International Center for Excellence in Research (ICER) in Uganda where he is conducting several studies on HIV pathogenesis, transmission, molecular epidemiology and response to therapy.

Dr. Quinn will discuss opportunities for biomedical scientists to get involved in global health research and touch on his experience setting up international field sites.

 

Check out upcoming seminars hosted by the NIH Global Health Interest Group here.

NTD seminar on Podoconiosis at NIH

Contributed by Jessica Taaffe:

Interested in Neglected Tropical Diseases (NTDs)?  How about a “neglected” NTD?  What about a NON-INFECTIOUS NTD?

Interest piqued yet? Then check out this upcoming seminar this Wednesday hosted by the NIH Global Health Interest Group featuring Dr. Melanie Newport from Brighton and Sussex Medical School on Podoconiosis.  See details below:

 

The Global Health Interest Group presents:

“Podoconiosis: from genes to disease control for a ‘neglected’ NTD”

Melanie Newport, PhD, FRCP, MRCPCH
Professor in Infectious Diseases and Global Health
Brighton and Sussex Medical School, UK

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013
4 – 5 PM

National Institutes of Health (9000 Rockville Pike, Bethesda, MD 20892)
Building 10 (Hatfield), Rm 2-3330

Talk Abstract:
Podoconiosis is a non-infectious, geochemical disease that results in swelling of the lower legs. It is caused by long term exposure of bare feet to red clay soil derived from volcanic rock. Podoconiosis is an important yet neglected public health problem in over ten countries in tropical Africa, central and south America, and north India. Last year the World Health Organization (WHO) officially adopted it as a neglected tropical disease (NTD).

We have developed a podoconiosis research programme over the last seven years involving collaboration between  Addis Ababa University; the Armauer Hansen Research Institute, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; the University of Buea, Cameroon; Brighton & Sussex Medical School; the Natural History Museum in London; the Center for Research on Genomics and Global Health, National Human Genome Research Institute, NIH, USA and a podoconiosis Patients Association in southern Ethiopia. Multidisciplinary studies have generated information on disease epidemiology, aetiology, pathogenesis, and consequences that will be described in this talk.

Directions to Room 2-3330:
From the Main Lobby of the Building 10, go down the left corridor past the Coffee Shop.  (Do not take the Central Elevators.)  Look for the “1 East Corridor” sign on your left and take that door to the end of the hallway. Then take the “Southeast Elevators” up one flight to the second floor. Conference Room 2-3330 is located in the glass enclosure next to the elevator lobby.

Check out upcoming seminars hosted by the NIH Global Health Interest Group here.

 

Charity event April 5: An Evening Under The Stars with Global Playground

Contributed by Jessica Taaffe:

Global Playground is a non-profit organization whose mission it is to build schools, libraries and/or technology centers in underserved areas of the world.  Over the past seven years, they have given more than five thousand children in five countries on three continents an opportunity to learn and to connect with their peers around the world.  Global Playground has been able to build schools in Uganda, Cambodia, Thailand, Honduras and Vietnam.  They have begun to place recent college graduates at the project sites as Teaching Fellows and this year, they will be deploying several more.

On Friday, April 5, from 5-8 p.m. at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 18th and Massachusetts N.W., please join Global Playground at their annual cocktail party, to celebrate their accomplishments and to raise money to do more. For tickets and more information, please visit their website at http://www.globalplayground.org/news/dc13.php.

World Bank Launches Book on Investing in Communities, Thursday, March 21 at 12:00 PM

Contributed by Jessica Taaffe:

World Bank will be holding an event tomorrow at their DC Headquarters discussing an evaluation of community responses to HIV/AIDS.  For those interested in the population based aspects of HIV/AIDS responses, this looks like an interesting event to attend.  See more information below.

 

Investing in Communities Achieves Results: Findings from an Evaluation of Community Responses to HIV and AIDS by Rosalía Rodriguez-García, René Bonnel, David Wilson and N’Della N’Jie

Thursday March 21 at 12:00 PM in J1-050

Community level results have not always been the focus of systematic and rigorous evaluations. A series of studies – including evaluations in Burkina Faso, India, Kenya, Lesotho, Nigeria, Senegal, South Africa and Zimbabwe – were undertaken in 2009-2012 to help build a robust pool of evidence on the effects of community responses to HIV/AIDS. The evaluation findings suggest that communities have produced significant results, improved knowledge, change behaviors and increased use of services at varying levels.

For more information and to see the panel, click here.

RSVP to infoshopevents@worldbank.org or click here.

 

Information regarding this event was originally posted at here.

 

 

NIH webinar on BEST awards to support and train young scientists for diverse career options

Contributed by Jessica Taaffe:

In response to the need to train and prepare the next generation of biomedical scientists for diverse career options, the NIH Common Fund’s “Strengthening the Biomedical Research Workforce” program has announced a new Funding Opportunity Announcement (RFA-RM-12-022) to solicit applications from institutions willing to support early career scientists in these activities through Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) awards.  NIH will hold an informational webinar to describe the program and answer questions on March 26, 2013 from 3:00pm-4:00pm EDT.  See information below or to register, visit https://www4.gotomeeting.com/register/218085999.

The NIH is committed to supporting a sustainable and robust workforce equipped to address the greatest challenges and opportunities in biomedical research, recognizing that traditional research-intensive positions are not the only means by which PhD graduates can meaningfully contribute to the biomedical research enterprise. To address this need, the NIH Common Fund is launching the “Strengthening the Biomedical Research Workforce” program as one component of a trans-NIH strategy to enhance training opportunities for early career scientists to prepare them for a variety of career options in the dynamic biomedical workforce landscape. This program will support the Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) awards (also called the NIH Director’s Workforce Innovation Award to Enhance Biomedical Research Training). These awards will provide support for institutions to develop bold and innovative approaches to complement traditional research training in biomedical sciences. Collaborations with non-academic partners are encouraged to ensure that experts from a broad spectrum of careers contribute to coursework, rotations, internships, or other forms of exposure. Awardee institutions will establish a network to disseminate best practices within the training community.

 

Interviewing advice from the hiring partners perspectives

Reblogged from OITE Careers Blog:

We had a workshop on interviewing this week, here is a wrap-up of what was said, and more information to make your interviews a success.  If you want to watch the videocast, it is archived here.  We had three speakers to highlight multiple aspects of the hiring process; a hiring manager, a human resources person, and a recruiter.  The advice here is mostly for non-faculty positions (although we have information on the faculty job hunt at…

Read more… 501 more words

Contributed by Jessica Taaffe:

Hi all, I found this great post on NIH's Office of Intramural Training and Education blog. As someone currently in the process of making the bench to non-bench science career transition, I'm eager for interviewing advice, especially as it relates to presenting skills and experience acquired through scientific and research training. This post had good examples on how best to communicate this to a future employer.