BUILD PODER

BUILD PODER

Welcome to BUILD PODER!

Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity (BUILD) Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research (PODER) is a large undergraduate biomedical research training program established in 2014 by a $21.3 million grant from the National Institutes of Health. Under the auspices of the NIH Diversity Program Consortium (DPC), BUILD PODER is one of ten NIH-funded BUILD sites that train undergraduates to become biomedical researchers. Along with the National Research Mentoring Network (NRMN) and the Coordination and Evaluation Center (CEC), BUILD sites coordinate their activities and data to develop a national database of best practices.

Why PODER? 
PODER stands for Promoting Opportunities for Diversity in Education and Research. Poder also means “power” or “to be able to" in Spanish. Through the lens of Critical Race Theory (CRT), we focus on social justice and reducing health disparities in communities. CRT is the basis for many programmatic activities including the student Summer JumpStart program and faculty mentor training. At BUILD PODER, we believe that when we diversify the biomedical workforce, researchers will generate innovative and relevant research questions, methods, and interpretations that will lead to health equity. 

BUILD PODER is sustained by the formation of a new Health Equity Research and Education (HERE) Center that supports 4 cluster-hired faculty members and postdoctoral scholars in engaging undergraduates in biomedical research.

 

In 2014, CSUN was awarded $21.3M to create an experimental undergraduate research training program to increase the diversity in the biomedical workforce. The result was BUILD PODER, a training program for undergraduate students, faculty mentors, research faculty, and our community college partner institutions, guided by critical race theory (CRT, Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) and community cultural wealth (Yosso, 2005). In 2019, we were awarded another $18.1M aimed at disseminating and institutionalizing our evidence-based practices. Over the past 8 years, our BUILD PODER team has been working towards these goals. And we wanted to share some student highlights with you.

We are launching the first of the student infographics about the impact of BUILD PODER. You will find five infographics an overview of all CSUN trainees, and one for each of the Biomedically-related Colleges. More infographics on faculty and student-related activities is forthcoming! 

 
Spotlights

Paving the Way for Future Breast Cancer Treatments

June 21, 2016

News

CSUN Biology Professor and BUILD PODER Mentor Jonathan Kelber and a team of 9 students, including BUILD PODER Scholars Julie Hong and Erika Duell, are leading the pack in breast cancer research. The results of their research have been published in the Public Library of Science.  Read more

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