Institute Directors Series: CTSI Director, Jennifer Kraschnewski
There are seven research institutes under the Office of Senior Vice President for Research at Penn State. In this new series, we chat with those institute directors and discuss their journey in their career, what everyone should know about their institute, the impact their research, faculty, staff and students have in our communities and abroad, and more!
Join us in this first installment of a Q&A with Jennifer Kraschnewski , MD MPH - Professor of Medicine and Public Health Sciences Vice Chair of Clinical Research, Department of Medicine Director, Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI).
What is your area of expertise and tell a little bit about your journey to the field of research you are in.
I was born and raised in a small town in Wisconsin. I’m the first physician in my family and I actually applied to a combined undergraduate/medical school program at the University of Wisconsin during my junior year in high school. I didn’t really know what I was getting in to with this career, I just knew that I enjoyed both science and helping others. I developed a passion for community and public health and spent my summers doing internships at public health departments and the state department of health. I gravitated to internal medicine during medical school because I was fascinated by the complexities of the field and problem solving they required, the ability to provide holistic care, and the integration of every organ system in achieving health.
During my residency training at Duke University, I realized I wanted to have greater impact beyond the one-on-one clinical encounter and that’s when I discovered clinical research. I then pursued a research fellowship and my master’s in public health at UNC. I recognized that engaging patients outside of the clinic walls had the potential for impact beyond the clinical care I could provide as a physician, sparking my interest in community-engaged research. I joined Penn State College of Medicine in 2009 as a clinician-investigator with a research focus on behavioral interventions and electronic health record investigations to promote healthy lifestyles in clinical and community settings. My research utilizes community engagement with stakeholders to serve as partners in our work, providing valuable perspectives to determine effective approaches to improving health disparities.
Why Penn State? And how did you get your start here? Particular facility, faculty member, etc?
I started my faculty career in 2009 as a clinician-scientist at Penn State and selected the College of Medicine because of the incredible colleagues I met during my interview process. Penn State College of Medicine has been an outstanding institution for me to grow my career within over the past 14 years. I am grateful for our outstanding staff and faculty collaborators who are committed to our academic missions!
Tell us a little about your institute/college.
Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute (CTSI) offers research support, tools and resources, consultative services, funding, training and education to Penn State researchers on their path to discovery. Our vision is to improve human health, promote collaboration, make the research process more efficient, and champion translational research across the University. Our mission is to advance rural health equity through collaborations between our translational scientists and community partners.
What are the greatest areas of long-term impact your institute or college have contributed to our world?
Our CTSI is just getting started! I would share that our greatest long-term impact to date are our amazing rural health partnerships with Primary Health Network (PHN), Allegheny Health Network (AHN) and others. Over a quarter of Pennsylvanians reside in rural municipalities, nearly 3.5 million individuals across the 48 rural designated counties. Unfortunately, rural Americans face numerous health disparities when compared to their urban counterparts, including an increased incidence of chronic and preventable diseases and reduced life expectancy. These disparities can be attributed to a complex combination of factors, including lower socioeconomic status, poorer health behaviors, reduced access to high-quality health services, and underdeveloped infrastructure.
Almost a quarter of residents in Pennsylvania reside in federally designated Health Professional Shortage Areas (HPSAs), defined as areas that have a critical shortage of primary care physicians, dentists, or mental health providers. Due to limited healthcare providers in these areas, rural Pennsylvania residents are burdened with excessive travel to visit their healthcare providers. Individuals who reside in rural areas are often underinsured or uninsured, further compounding healthcare access issues. These facts, combined with rising healthcare costs, often result in individuals delaying or foregoing necessary visits to healthcare services, negatively impacting their health and well-being. Optimizing quality of life for rural Pennsylvanians will require innovative approaches to improve access to care in rural areas and support the transformation of the rural health delivery system which the CTSI is uniquely positioned to lead.?
PHN is the largest Federally Qualified Health Center (FQHC) in PA and one of the largest in the nation with 50 sites in 16 counties and 75,000 patients. PHN has provided Penn State CTSI and our affiliated faculty with valuable feedback on innovative research collaborations, methods, and improving the integration of clinical research into healthcare practice across the Commonwealth, particularly central and western rural parts of the state. In December 2021, a virtual workshop with PHN clinicians, staff and Penn State researcher teams, kicked off the collaboration between the two organizations, with discussions focused on social determinants of health, health literacy and mental health. The event provided Penn State investigators with real-world insight into the challenges faced by rural health providers and identified opportunities for future research collaborations to advance health equity. In spring 2023, an in-person meeting was held in Sharon, PA, where PHN is headquartered, to further advance these conversations and identify a research agenda for the partnership moving forward. Serving 29 Pennsylvania counties and portions of New York, Ohio, and West Virginia, Allegheny Health Network (AHN) focuses on advancing rural research, improving the health of underserved populations, and addressing health disparities—making them an ideal partner for our CTSI. Penn State researchers partner with Allegheny Health Network (AHN) clinicians on research designed to address the needs of residents and communities in western Pennsylvania while expanding research education opportunities.
Programmatic collaboration components between Penn State CTSI and AHN include: the undergraduate, Clinical Research Practice didactic course offered at Penn State Greater Allegheny, Penn State University Park, Penn State Harrisburg, and Penn State New Kensington, funded internship opportunities for Penn State undergraduate students at AHN Facilities and expansion of internships located at Penn State University, Joint research programming including research seminars, training opportunities, and lectures for researchers and staff and Collaborative research programs and endeavors to strengthen partnerships and expand research efforts. Our team has hundreds of other community organizational partners, presenting a tremendous opportunity for addressing research that matters and advancing health equity.
What's the number one thing about your institute/college that you think everyone should know?
The CTSI is here to help! We provide tools, services and training for researchers at every stage of their learning and career and in an effort to make health research more efficient at Penn State. Although our resources are focused on our research community, we also offer opportunity for partnering with industry and state and federal agencies. For example, we have a health policy consultation service that can assist our researchers in understanding how to take the next steps in supporting policy with their research. We also provide support for lay dissemination of our research, which helps to make this accessible to the community. ?Contact us if you need assistance with:
"The course has evolved into a full program that prepares the new generation of clinical researchers..."
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What major discovery, innovation or partnership has been the highlight of your institute or college in the last year or so?
The HHD 410: Clinical Research Practice course began at Penn State University Greater Allegheny through an ongoing partnership with Allegheny Health Network (AHN). This initial course offered health science students a unique opportunity to get hands-on experience in the clinical environment before graduation. In addition, the course served to recruit a more diverse workforce to the Pittsburgh-based hospital system. Now, an expanded version of this course offers the same benefits as the initial course but broadens the geographical reach to students across four campuses: Greater Allegheny, New Kensington, University Park, and the Harrisburg campuses. The course has evolved into a full program that prepares the new generation of clinical researchers, thanks in large part to the continued collaboration with Penn State CTSI, and support from the College of Medicine to advance its strategic plan. In fact, the College of Medicine just hosted its first group of clinical research interns.
Tell us about a specific facility or equipment in your institute/college that sets you apart from the rest.
The CTSI has Clinical Research Centers available to Penn State researchers that are dedicated spaces and infrastructure for human subjects research located at both the Hershey and University Park campuses. The University Park location includes nutrition services and the Hershey location includes an observational suite and Exercise Research Center. Both Centers have dedicated clinical staff to support research protocols.
With 95% of Pennsylvanians living within 30 minutes of a Penn State Campus, the CTSI is uniquely positioned to address residents’ psychological and physical health in rural commonwealth communities.
Where do you think your institute or college will bring the greatest impact in the future?
With 95% of Pennsylvanians living within 30 minutes of a Penn State Campus, the CTSI is uniquely positioned to address residents’ psychological and physical health in rural commonwealth communities. As one of a handful of CTSA (Clinical and Translational Science Award) programs with a rural focus, Penn State CTSI’s mission is to foster collaborative research and provide the necessary tools and resources to help new or proven discoveries reach the people who need it most. We can do this several ways including engaging Penn State faculty across the commonwealth and establishing and growing our partnerships to address rural health disparities. Additionally, the Community-Engaged Research Core (CERC) and Community Health Equity & Engagement Research (CHEER) program at CTSI offer tools and resources to Penn State researchers and the community to assist in forming strategic partnerships, the inclusion of communities as partners in research, ensuring inclusive clinical trial research recruitment, and developing community health coalitions.
How do you spend your time, when not leading a research Institute or College?
I’m a dance mom! I am blessed to have two talented daughters who dance competitively across the region. My husband and I enjoy supporting their sport, although I’m the one who tackles the hair, make-up, and lightning-fast costume change requirements. They did a duo from the musical Cats last year and I learned a new skill in applying cat make-up to add to my resume!
Last question -- if you could have dinner with any scientist/researcher living or deceased, who would it be and why?
Marie Curie! Her amazing research and discovery of radioactivity led her to be the first woman to earn the Noble Prize and the first scientist to win two Nobel Prizes in different fields. I admire her advocacy for women’s rights and education. I imagine she would have incredible stories to tell about how she was able to accomplish so much during a time when women were seen as anything but equal in society. Plus, we both have Polish ancestry.
About the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute
Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute provides tools, services and training to make health research more efficient at Penn State. It is an advocate for translational science and is a bridge between basic scientists and clinical researchers. The institute encourages collaboration to discover new treatments, medical procedures and ways to diagnose disease.
Learn more about Jennifer Kraschnewski and CTSI.
About Penn State Research / OSVPR?
The Office of the Senior Vice President for Research is responsible for facilitating the $1B+ research enterprise at 美国宾夕法尼亚州立大学 by working with a broad range of units across the University. The mission of the Office of the Senior Vice President for Research is to support a rigorous program of faculty and student research and creative accomplishment by enhancing the environment for scholarly and artistic endeavors, encouraging the highest standards of quality, and fostering ethical conduct in research.??
OSVPR oversees seven institutes at Penn State: Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences , the Materials Research Institute , the Penn State Clinical and Translational Science Institute , the Institute of Energy and the Environment , the Penn State Institute for Computational and Data Sciences , the Penn State Social Science Research Institute , and the Penn State Hershey Cancer Institute . The office also oversees advanced research facilities like the The Applied Research Laboratory at Penn State University , Penn State College of Medicine and more.