Teaching the Science of Team Science (SciTS)

Working on a team can be a challenge!  Have you ever said, "I hate group projects" or "It isn't natural for me to work on a team?"  There is a growing body of literature on what makes good teams, but how do you “DO” team science, and how do you “TEACH” team science?  Educating teams about team science involves various levels of education and concepts including developing a vision, engaging in the process, using facilitation, and creating a shared language.  In addition, the critical skills needed for team science are slightly different for pre and post-doctoral trainees compared to PIs.  Join us for this three-part workshop to discuss what training is needed for different research levels, learn about best practices, and participate in a 1-hour mini short course.  The workshop will involve small group work, facilitated dialogues, and an active-learning training session.  Be prepared to learn from each other and the facilitation team. 

Presenters:

Jeni Cross, Ph.D., is currently Associate Professor in the Department of Sociology. She earned a bachelors degree from Colorado State University and received her Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of California at Davis.

Jeni's currently serves and the co-Director, Institute for Research in the Social Sciences. In this center, we direct a variety of applied research and evaluation studies for local partners. She supervises and oversees project managers, postdocs, and graduate students in applied research, especially the development of research plans for formative and summative evaluation of programs and projects.

She is also the PI for the Science of Team Science Core, Colorado Clinical and Translational Science Institute. This site is funded through the NIH, Clinical and Translational Science Award Program. In the recent renewal 2018-2023, she is leading the Science of Team Science Core, whose aims are to initiate institutional change, develop whole team interventions, team science training for PIs, Postdocs, and doctoral students across the University of Colorado medical campus, Colorado State University, health care partners, and citizen science liaisons.

Finally, Jeni is the PI for the Science of Team Science Team, Colorado State University. The Vice President for Research at Colorado State University has funded two cohorts of transdisciplinary teams through the Catalyst for Innovative Partnerships. The Science of Team Science Team is facilitating team formation; developing team science trainings for PIs, postdocs, and doctoral students; and conducting formative and developmental evaluation on the program to improve its success.  They are using social network analysis to examine how interactional processes and network properties influence team performance.

Hannah Love is a Ph.D candidate in sociology at Colorado State University.  She will complete her dissertation in the spring of 2019.  She also has a Master's Degrees, an M.S. in Student Affairs and Higher Education, an M.A. in sociology from Colorado State University; and a bachelors degree from the University of Kansas.  Rock Chalk!

Hannah is a public sociologist and uses mixed methods to solve pressing community problems.  Since 2015 Hannah has been researching and training scientific teams.  To solve many of the wicked problems now facing our world such as climate change, violent crime, or water shortages, scientists will need to work in an interdisciplinary fashion to combine and transform knowledge.  However, working in a team to combine scientific knowledge across disciplines presents many challenges! 

Colorado State University has a Science of Team Science Team, that coaches, trains, collects data, and provides feedback to support interdisciplinary research teams.  The team supports research teams on campus including the Catalyst for Innovative Partnership (CIP) program https://vpr.colostate.edu/rao/team-science/catalyst/.  In addition, Hannah does research, creates and administers trainings, and conducts research, and works with community engagement core for the Science of Team Science Core, Colorado Clinical and Translational Science Institute.

Ellen Fisher is the Assistant Vice President for Strategic Initiatives in the Office of the Vice President for Research (OVPR) at Colorado State University.  She is also a Professor of Chemistry and was the founding director of a cross-disciplinary collaborative science initiative, the School of Advanced Materials Discovery (SAMD).  Dr. Fisher received a Bachelor of Science degree in Chemistry and Mathematics from Texas Lutheran College (now University) in 1986 (summa cum laude) and a Ph.D. in physical-analytical chemistry from the University of Utah in 1991.  She performed postdoctoral research at Sandia National Labs before joining the faculty at CSU in 1993. 

Dr. Fisher has authored/coauthored over 150 original peer-reviewed articles that span diverse topics in plasma science, materials chemistry, chemistry education, the responsible conduct of research, and team science.  Dr. Fisher has graduated 19 Ph.D. and 5 M.S. students (1 international), 7 students are currently pursuing the Ph.D. under her guidance, and she has mentored nearly 50 undergraduate research students, many of whom have gone on to graduate and professional programs.  Ellen has received the NSF CAREER award, the Office of Naval Research Young Investigator recognition, and the Camille Dreyfus Teacher-Scholar award.  She has also received recognition from CSU, including the Jack E. Cermak Outstanding Graduate Advisor Award, the Natural Sciences Award for Mentoring Undergraduate Research, the Hazaleus Award for Empowering Women, and the Pennock Award for Outstanding Service.  Prof. Fisher is a Fellow of American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the American Chemical Society (ACS) and the American Vacuum Society (AVS). She is currently an Executive Editor of the American Chemical Society journal ACS-Applied Materials and Interfaces.  For her outstanding efforts and excellence in research, teaching and service, the College of Natural Sciences at CSU named her a Professor Laureate in 2009 and in 2010 she was honored with the University’s highest award for research, the Scholarship Impact Award.

Ellen is a member of Colorado State University’s Science of Team Science Team that coaches, trains, and studies academic interdisciplinary teams through the OVPR’s Catalyst for Innovative Partnerships (CIP) program.  Ellen focuses on the administrative aspects of nurturing and building team science within the academy, including designing and implementing effective interventions to ensure team success and integrating responsible research practices into team training.