Education - Outreach Core

PROJECT SUMMARY/ABSTRACT The goal of the Education and Community Outreach Core (Core B) is to provide and publicize structured and transformational educational outreach and mentoring research programs in reproductive sciences, focused on underrepresented and socio-demographically disadvantaged students and engage and provide resources for

the San Francisco Bay Area community about NCTRI research and disorders that can compromise fertility studied herein. Core B will leverage long-standing and newly formalized UCSF partnerships with programs across the pipeline of high school, undergraduate and graduate student, and post-baccalaureate trainees as

well as community networks in which our faculty are actively engaged. These include the: Science and Educational Partnership (SEP; high school interns), Obstetrics, Gynecology and Reproductive Sciences (OGYN/RS) Undergraduate Research Internship (URI); San Francisco State University (SFSU) CIRM Bridges

Program (undergraduate interns) and the SFSU-UCSF NIH BUILD Program (Building Infrastructure Leading to Diversity; undergraduate interns), and new programs: Artificial Intelligence for all (AI4All) for high school girls, Summer Program to Accelerate Regenerative Medicine Knowledge (SPARK) program for high school

students, and PROPEL (Post-baccalaureate Research Opportunity to Promote Equity in Learning) for post- baccalaureate scholars to be trained in our NCTRI labs. These pipeline programs are key to engage future researchers from all backgrounds for success in the reproductive sciences. Through these programs, all NCTRI

faculty and lab members will participate in providing innovative research and didactic experiences to these students. To promote community involvement in NCTRI activities and reproductive science literacy in the Bay Area, we will disseminate our research opportunities via social media and will highlight student research and

other UCSF NCTRI Center research in activities hosted by the Bay Area Science Festival (>100,000 attendees annually), at NCTRI and professional society meetings, and at the annual UCSF CRS Research Retreat. The Core B website will host trainee research webinars and webinars focused on the clinical inflammatory disorders

affecting fertility and pregnancy and our NCTRI research on these disorders. We will assemble a Community Stakeholders’ Advisory Board and will participate in the UCSF Mini-Medical School series for community and patient education and engagement. Coordinating these teaching and community outreach programs, under the

aegis of Core B, will provide a rich cross-generational and cross-educational mentoring and teaching experience, will highlight our passion for basic and translational reproduction and infertility research, and will engage the Bay Area research and lay communities in NCTRI Center activities.