CBCH Post-Doctoral Fellowship Program

No current open positions.

Fellows will train at CBCH for 2 years. They will have a mentor from among the CBCH faculty, in addition to receiving ongoing mentorship from the co-directors. PhD-trained fellows will work alongside MD-trained fellows who are recruited through clinical fellowships at Columbia University Irving Medical Center.

CBCH thrives by embracing a collectivist approach to sharing resources, expertise, and creativity, to produce ground-breaking research. Fellows will receive training in how to conduct true team-based science with curricula weaved through the 2-year fellowship dedicated to writing research grants, balancing research/grant budgets, research dissemination, negotiating in the workplace, developing one’s CV, building professional identity/personal branding, hiring and managing a research team, and others.

Below are some examples of opportunities and skills development that will be part of the trainee experience:

• Direct Mentorship
• Research advancement
  • e.g., data collection/analyses, manuscript and grant submission, conferences
• Skills and competencies
  • e.g., data management, presentation skills, leading a research team/lab, budgeting, hiring, conflict resolution
• Education advancement
  • e.g., didactics, attending talks, opportunities to lecture and mentor
• Career/professional advancement
  • e.g., bi-annual review of Independent Development Plan (IDP) progress, meeting with fellowship directors, career advising, job talk preparation, faculty job application development
• Promoting work/life balance
  • e.g., community engagement, volunteer opportunities, book club, runners club, flexible work scheduling

Fellows will conduct research alongside CBCH investigators. Areas of focus include cardiovascular behavioral medicine, implementation science, applied hypertension research, and psychosocial factors in relation to health and disease. Over the course of the Program, fellows will leverage the diversity of investigation occurring at CBCH to ask their own unique questions, apply their research skills, and develop their distinct research focus.

CBCH fellows will be provided with office space within CBCH, in the hub of the medical campus of Columbia University Irving Medical Center. Accordingly, fellows will have opportunities for direct involvement in studies that are enrolling patients from our hospital floors and outpatient clinics. Fellows will also have the opportunity to interact with some of the innovative labs and Centers within CBCH including the Implementation Science Lab, the Physical Activity, Sleep, and Health Lab, the Emotion and Health Lab, and the Roybal Center for Fearless Behavior Change.

Fellows will also have an opportunity to participate in the diverse activities conducted by the Center including community engagement, our mentoring program that links our research coordinators with fellows and faculty with common professional interests, and our Keeping the Momentum initiative that was developed to respond to racist policies that were laid bare in the aftermath of the George Floyd killing in the Spring of 2020. A fellow with a firm commitment to equity, inclusion and diversity is strongly preferred.

Benjamin Boudreaux, PhD, physical activity and sedentary behavior. Mentor: Keith Diaz

Maia ten Brink, PhD, dynamics of emotions, sleep, and biobehavioral mechanisms of emotion regulation in daily life. Mentor: Jeffrey Birk

Postdocs Affiliated with CBCH

Kelton Minor, PhD, climatic stressors and human behavior and wellbeing, Data Science Institute, Columbia University. Advisor: Donald Edmondson

PhD Track

Jennifer Sumner, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, UCLA; 2015-2016

Talea Cornelius, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; 2017-2018

Jeffrey Birk, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; 2017-2018

Andrea Duran, PhD; Assistant Professor, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; 2019-2021

Ciaran Friel, EdD; Behavioral Scientist & Exercise Physiologist; Center for Personalized Health, Department of Medicine, Northwell Health; 2018-2020

Ipek Ensari, PhD; Assistant Professor; Department of Artificial Intelligence and Human Health, Icahn School of Medicine; Hasso Plattner Institute for Digital Health, Mount Sinai; 2016-2018

MD Track

Nadia Liyanage-Don, MD; Assistant Professor, Division of General Medicine, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; 2019-2021

D. Edmund Anstey, MD, MPH; Assistant Professor, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; 2017-2019

S. Ali Husain, MD, MPH; Assistant Professor, Division of Nephrology, Department of Medicine, Columbia University Medical Center; 2015-2017

Eligibility: Completion of PhD, MD, or comparable doctoral degree by the fellowship program start date.

Applicants are encouraged to apply in the Fall of 2023 for positions starting in August/September of 2024.

To apply for the CBCH Fellowship please send your CV and a 1-page personal statement outlining relevant experience and research interests and goals to Ari Shechter at as4874@cumc.columbia.edu.

To learn more about the CBCH Fellowship Program, contact Ari Shechter at as4874@cumc.columbia.edu.