I am an Associate Professor in the Department of Surgery at MMC. Upon joining the MMC faculty, I completed a Master’s of Science in Clinical Investigation (MSCI). Since completing this degree, I have provided research design and research implementation assistance to other MSCI degree candidates as part of their thesis projects and also received independent support for my own translational research endeavors. I have served as PI of 2 translational research grants. The first (NIH, R34), in collaboration with a local YMCA and managed care organization, evaluated the feasibility and early efficacy of translating medical nutritional therapy among African American (AA) women with Type 2 diabetes (T2D). The second, currently funded as a MeTRC collaborative research project, is in collaboration with a 25,000+ member church congregation and it evaluates the feasibility and efficacy of peer support, group-based diabetes and weight management intervention among overweight/obese AA women with T2D. I joined the MeTRC DBRE team in January 2012 and began serving as activity leader in July 2012. Since then, I have been actively involved in key DBRE activities, to include research design grant pre-review and post-grant award consultations. For this award, I will to provide overall DBRE guidance and will be responsible for providing support for qualitative research projects including study design, data collection, analysis, and interpretation.