Samantha Garcia, PhD receives National Institutes of Health MOSAIC Postdoctoral Career Transition Award (K99/R00)

Samantha Garcia, PhD, a postdoctoral fellow based in the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences at Keck School of Medicine of USC, has recently received the Maximizing Opportunities for Scientific and Academic Independent Careers (MOSAIC) Postdoctoral Career Transition Award to Promote Diversity (K99/R00). The award is funded by National Institutes of Health (NIH) Minority Health and Health Disparities (NIMHD) and Office of the Director. Garcia was previously funded in part by the Multidisciplinary Cancer Disparities T32 postdoctoral fellowship funded by the National Cancer Institute (NCI) and based at USC Norris Comprehensive Cancer Center and the University of Hawaii Cancer Center.

Garcia is an early-career health disparities scholar focused on cancer equity, and was previously awarded a Loan Repayment Program award by the National Cancer Institute. During the five-year MOSAIC funding period, she will use a multi-level approach to explore ways in which social capital can address delays in cervical cancer screening and follow up among Latina patients in safety-net settings.

The MOSAIC award is designed to facilitate mentored research and transition a select cohort of awardees to tenure-track faculty positions. The award also aims to promote diversity in faculty bodies. As a first-generation student, Garcia is proud to be part of this group, and looking forward to the network the award provides. “What’s special about this award is that there’s training that goes along with your K99. They offer additional training for those selected into your cohort – things like grant writing – and you kind of build a social support network with the other K99 MOSAIC recipients,” says Garcia. “So, this really drew my attention and is one of the major reasons why I wanted to apply.”

The K99 phase of Garcia’s research will take place over the next two years. Garcia will apply a mixed-methods study design using All of Us Research Program data and primary data to ultimately develop a social capital intervention focused on improving cervical cancer screening and follow up care for Latina women.

According to Garcia, social capital presents a challenge in that it is often not measured consistently. “Social capital has different camps of theory,” she explains. “It has led to various ways social capital has been measured across different studies, making it harder to reproduce findings.” Garcia aims to circumvent this issue by taking multi-level measurements at both the individual and community levels. “I’m measuring both how people self-report engaging with their communities, and assessing what resources exist within their community,” says Garcia. “There can be an assumption that if someone is in an area that is densely resourced, that they are interacting with their community more, but that might not always be the case. We need to measure if both levels of measurement are providing consistent results.”

Once securing a faculty position, Garcia will move into the three-year R00 phase of the award. During this phase she will collaborate with healthcare systems and professionals to develop and test community-based interventions to enhance cervical cancer screening and follow-up care.

Garcia has long been interested in health equity, having witnessed health disparities in her own community. As a master’s student in public health, she took an internship with Es Tiempo, a cervical cancer prevention campaign overseen by Lourdes Baezconde-Garbanati, PhD, distinguished professor of population and public health sciences and associate dean for community initiatives at Keck School of Medicine. “Working in cancer and trying to alleviate disparities among vulnerable populations is something that really caught my attention and I wanted to pursue in my own research,” says Garcia.

Reflecting on her journey, Garcia expresses deep gratitude to her mentors, particularly her postdoctoral mentor Jennifer Tsui, PhD, associate professor of population and public health sciences, whose guidance has been instrumental in shaping her career. “I couldn’t have asked for a better mentor. She’s very thoughtful with her feedback, and helps me plan career steps, and even life goals, and balancing it all,” says Garcia. Tsui will serve as Garcia’s primary mentor for the K99 along with co-mentors Baezconde-Garbanati, Brenda Hernandez, PhD, MPH, and Lawrence A. Palinkas, PhD.

Beyond her research goals, Garcia is committed to mentoring the next generation of researchers from underrepresented backgrounds. As part of the MOSAIC award planned activities, she will actively engage in mentoring underrepresented students.

Looking ahead, Garcia is already eyeing an R01 grant, where she plans to conduct a randomized controlled trial testing the social intervention she will develop with the K99/R00, and has planned trainings to help her write a competitive R01 application. She is set to participate in the Health Disparities Research Institute, hosted by the National Institute on Minority Health and Health Disparities at the National Institutes of Health, where she will hone her grant writing skills. Once securing a faculty position, she is also looking forward to applying to the Early Investigator Advancement Program at the National Cancer Institute to continue her professional development. “Everything has to be planned years in advance,” she explains. “I’m working on getting as much training as possible to write that grant.”