Category: Epidemiology
Cuffee accepted into Society of Behavioral Medicine Leadership Institute
March 21, 2023 Written by Amy Cherry | Photo by Ashley Barnas
Year-long professional development opportunity kicks off in April
Yendelela Cuffee, assistant professor in the Epidemiology Program and associate director of the , has been accepted into the 2023-24 Just 30 people were selected nationally for the Institute鈥檚 seventh cohort. Cuffee has been an engaged member of the professional association for more than a decade.
The mid-career year-long professional development program leadership training opportunity kicks off with a two-day conference in Phoenix, Arizona, in April. The professional development opportunity is designed to train leaders in behavioral medicine in collaborative research and mentoring.
鈥淚t鈥檚 going to be a really great and rewarding experience,鈥 she said. 鈥淚鈥檓 honored that I was accepted into the program.鈥
Through the Leadership Institute, Cuffee will be paired with a mentor who will work with her to bolster leadership skills and advance her research.
鈥淚 am at a pivotal point in my career, and this program provides an opportunity to think about transitioning into a leader in behavioral health research and stepping more fully into the role of a mentor and advisor for students.鈥
Cuffee will also be assigned a career coach who will help her determine her leadership style, enhance her communication skills, and strategically align her goals with upcoming opportunities.
Those goals include expanding upon her idea that storytelling can be a powerful approach to changing behaviors. For the past five years, Cuffee has partnered with local federally qualified health centers to recruit patients with hypertension and explore their experiences living and managing the medical condition. Those stories were filmed.
鈥淭he goal is to share their stories with others who also have hypertension and roll that out into an intervention coupled with educational materials from the American Heart Association,鈥 Cuffee said.
Cuffee is in the process of applying for a grant to expand upon the work and develop interventions in conjunction with community-based health centers.
鈥淚 want to think more about integrating lifestyle and behavioral interventions into the clinical flow of community-based health centers,鈥 she said. 鈥淲e have great evidence-based research programs that have been rolled out, but we haven鈥檛 done a great job of how these programs fit within the clinical workflow and how we can make those programs available to people who often bear some of the heaviest burdens of the diseases that we鈥檙e trying to overcome.鈥