Our Research Showcase featured more awards than ever before! The ReTOOL Program gave awards for both academic presentation and for extraordinary participation throughout the program. We awarded 1st and 2nd Place Advanced ReTOOL Presentation; 1st, 2nd, and 3rd Place Basic ReTOOL Presentation; Service Learning Award; ReTOOL Ambassador; and our new Research Dissemination award. Since the poster session took place on Twitter, the program staff decided to award the trainee with the most retweets and likes on their poster. Getting scientific research out to the public is one way to reduce health disparities. The award winners are as follows:
Advanced ReTOOL
Janai Poullard (l) received 1st Place Advanced ReTOOL Award for her presentation titled “Racial/Ethnic Cancer Mortality Disparities among People Living with HIV.” She worked with Dr. Sabina Nduaguba.
Chukwuemelie Okwo (r) received 2nd Place Advanced ReTOOL Award for her presentation titled “Dietetics and Prostate Cancer Risk Reduction among Black Men with a Family History.” She worked with Dr. Motolani Ogunsanya, one of our US mentors.
Basic ReTOOL
Diego Lopez (l) received 1st Place Basic ReTOOL Award for his presentation titled “Exploring Financial Toxicity in White and Non-White Cancer Patients.” He worked with Dr. Michael Gutter.
Guettchina Telisnor (r, top) received 2nd Place Basic ReTOOL Award for her presentation titled “Documentation Methods for Pain of Vulvodynia: Implications for Detection of Vulvar Cancer, A Cancer with Known Disparities.” She worked with Dr. Debra Lyon and Dr. Diana Wilkie.
Jordan Swaby (r, bottom) received 3rd Place Basic ReTOOL Award for his presentation titled “African American Participation in Cancer Clinical Trials: A Systematic Review.” He worked with Dr. Ernie Kaninjing, one of our US mentors.
ReTOOL Program Awards
This year’s ReTOOL Ambassador is Cristina Orozco (l). She went above and beyond throughout the entire program. She overcame her fear of public speaking, gave great constructive feedback to her peers, created a YouTube channel for her Service Learning project, and helped with the Nigeria-Diaspora Biomedical Research Summit in early July.
Our Service Learning Award went to Gerianee Ward (center). Gerianee helped the CaRE2 Center’s Citizen Scientist Program. Gerianee worked with her project mentor to help 3 advocates learn the research process so they may work with scientists to advise and recommend. Her portfolio reflected not only on what it means to be a scientist, but also on being a female scientist. She also reflected on how much work needs to be done to combat social and racial injustice in and out of science. Gerianee made connections between her project and the bigger picture.
The first Research Dissemination Award went to Orlando Rivera Colon (r). The night before the Showcase, Orlando had an amazing 187 retweets and likes on his poster! His poster traveled across the US, reaching people in Puerto Rico and in California.