Any early to mid-career research faculty member within the School of Medicine is eligible to apply to participate in the ECAP. While NIH defines early career as a faculty member who has not yet secured funding for an R01-level grant, we encouraged participation of early career faculty at all stages, including non-tenure track Research Assistant Professors. Further, many faculty with previous R01-level funding participate as well.

How to apply

ECAP maintains an open, rolling enrollment, so early career faculty may apply at any time. To apply, please complete our application form. A letter of support from your department or division head is required for participation.

Letter of support requirements

The candidate's department or division head provides a letter of support explicitly stating the candidate's eligibility and the department's commitment to the candidate for the following items:

• Candidate has a significant research component as part of their duties;
• Candidate is on an independent PI or equivalent trajectory;
• Candidate has protected time for research and to attend ECAP workshops;
• Candidate is allocated resources for lab and research.

Letter of support example

Every year, workshop topics are selected based on areas of interest identified by ECAP members and the ECAP Steering Committee. Faculty who complete the program are also invited to participate again as mentors, trainers, and workshop leaders. This second tier of training is referred to as “Train the Trainer”, or Module 2 of ECAP training.

The four guiding principles of ECAP

Generally, ECAP's curriculum is built around four guiding principles, which are:

1: Leadership Development

• Workshop Examples: Establishing Workplace Culture; Effective Communication; Personnel Management and Team Building; Conflict Resolution

2: The Business of Science

• Workshop Examples: Grant Writing with focus on development of specific aims; Promotion & Tenure; Financial management; Time, Task, and Self-management

3: Mentoring

• Workshop Examples: Establishing a mentoring committee that supports you; Managing the PhD journey as a mentor

4: Sponsorship

• Workshop Examples: Owning Your Research and Tech Transfer; Team Science and Collaboration

The level of participation is entirely up to you. All ECAP workshops are voluntary. So pick and choose workshops aligned with your goals and needs. Outside of formal group workshops (6 annually, each 90 minutes), faculty are encouraged to meet with their mentors 1-2 times per year to allow for goal setting, finance and budget review, and progress evaluation.

Upon completion of ECAP Module 1, which equals approximately 9 hours of workshop participation, faculty are awarded a certificate of accomplishment from the Dean of the School of Medicine.

At that point, the faculty member advances to a 'Train the Trainer' model, whereby the faculty member contributes to the next generation of workshop content while advancing their own leadership training. Completion of an additional 10 hours at this level of leadership training satisfies the requirements for the ECAP Module 2 certificate of accomplishment.

These accomplishments reflect well in early career faculty P&T dossiers, grant submissions, and more.

Program directors

Pepper Schedin, Ph.D.
Leonard Schnitzer Chair in Breast Oncology
Professor, Department of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology
Schedin@ohsu.edu

Christina Lancioni, M.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, Division of Infectious Diseases
lancioni@ohsu.edu

Steering committee members

Ramon Barajas, M.D.
Associate Professor of Diagnostic Radiology

Jonathan Brody, Ph.D.
Associate Director of Translational Research at Brenden-Colson Pancreatic Center for Patient Care, Professor of Cell, Developmental & Cancer Biology 

Andrea Cedfeldt, M.D.
Associate Dean for Faculty Development, School of Medicine, Professor of Medicine, Division of General Internal Medicine and Geriatrics

Summer Gibbs, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Biomedical Engineering

Mary Heinricher, Ph.D.
Associate Dean for Basic Research, Office of the Dean, School of Medicine, Professor of Neurological Surgery

Anna Wilson, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Pediatrics, School of Medicine

Missy Wong, Ph.D.
Associate Professor and Vice Chair, Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology

Emeritus committee members

Marc Freeman, Ph.D.
Director and Senior Scientist, Vollum Institute
2021-2023

Andrew Adey, Ph.D.
Associate Professor of Molecular and Medical Genetics
2019-2023

Susan Ingram, Ph.D.
Richard J. Traystman, Ph.D., Endowed Chair in Anesthesiology
2019 – 2021

Joshi Alumkal, M.D.
Hematology & Medical Oncology
2016 – 2019

Lisa Coussens, Ph.D.
Endowed Chair, Department of Cell, Developmental and Cancer Biology
2014-2016