Pelvic floor disorders, food allergies, autism, cancer, and development of new methods to analyze genetic data
Biostatistics, improving health outcomes in maternal and fetal health, and women’s health across the lifespan
Hypertension, Chronic diabetes, Non-Alzheimer's dementia
Statistics, statistical methods
Substance abuse and mental health clinical pharmacist
Understanding the experiences of children and families after child maltreatment, and interventions to improve outcomes for these families
SUD among pregnant and postpartum people; Women's Health
Dr. Molly Conroy is a practicing primary care physician, academic leader, and clinician investigator with the requisite qualifications to serve as Co-Primary Mentor to Dr. Halliday in the proposed K01 project. She is a Professor of Medicine and Chief, Division of General Internal Medicine (DGIM) at the University of Utah (UU), where she is also the John Rex and Alice C. Winder Presidential Endowed Chair in Internal Medicine and an Adjunct Professor of Health Sciences, Division of Health System Research Innovation and Research. Throughout her career, Dr. Conroy has mentored medical students, residents, fellows, and early career faculty in their research projects and in leadership development. She has more than 18 years of continuous extramural funding to lead research focused on maintaining healthy weight, increasing physical activity, and improving cardiovascular risk profiles, with a special emphasis on pragmatic randomized controlled trials conducted in routine clinical care settings. Supporting the next generation of clinician investigators is at the heart of her professional activities. At the University of Utah, Dr. Conroy plays an active role in mentoring clinician investigators in the Department of Internal Medicine and other departments across campus. She has demonstrated commitment to mentoring Dr. Halliday consistently over the past 4 years and is the Primary Mentor for her current KL2 award. She is also the co-PI/co-Director of two University-based programs designed to promote diversity, equity, and inclusion through research training and leadership development: The Utah Stimulating Access to Research in Residency (Utah StARR) program (an NHLBI-funded initiative to increase the number of clinician investigators with a health disparities focus), and the Utah Health Equity Leadership & Mentoring Program (U-HELM; a locally funded program to increase support underrepresented post-docs and junior faculty in health sciences). Dr. Conroy is well-suited to serve as Primary Co-Mentor for Dr. Halliday’s K01 given her expertise in randomized controlled trials and weight management, as well as her scholarship and leadership in diversity, equity, and inclusion. Dr. Halliday and Dr. Conroy currently meet bi-weekly and will continue to meet at least bi-weekly during the proposed K01 award period. She will also be joining the team meetings for Dr. Conroy’s current NIDDK R18 (1R18DK123372-01A1) on a regular basis as part of her training aims related to qualitative research methodology; clinical trial design; clinical trial implementation; and diversity, equity, and inclusion.
Opioids for chronic pain and opioid use disorder and documentation of clinical impact of pharmacy services
Family Medicine
Racial, ethnic, and geographic inequities and disparities in perinatal outcomes, including low birthweight, small for gestational age, maternal morbidity and maternal mortality
Emergency medicine, pharmacotherapy and quality improvement
Dr. Julie Fritz is a Distinguished Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy & Athletic Training at the University of Utah. Dr. Fritz’s research career has focused on developing and evaluating nonpharmacologic interventions for patients with chronic pain. She is currently a Principal Investigator for clinical trials investigating nonpharmacologic interventions for persons with chronic musculoskeletal pain funded through the NIH-VA-DoD Pain Management Collaboratory, the NIH HEAL Pragmatic and Implementation Studies for the Management of Pain to Reduce Opioid Prescribing (PRISM) and Back Pain Consortium (BACPAC) programs, PCORI, and the Department of Defense. Federal agencies have continuously funded Dr. Fritz’s research since 2008, and her work has included rigorous clinical trials published in high-impact journals. In addition, these studies have provided Dr. Fritz with the opportunity to engage with interdisciplinary teams of physical therapists, physicians, behavioral health specialists, informaticists, biostatisticians and healthcare economists. Her experience and expertise in developing and evaluating interventions for persons with chronic pain, and leading inter-disciplinary teams conducting clinical trials will be invaluable in the role as a Principal Investigator for the University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK) along with Dr. Adam Gordon. Dr. Fritz has worked with Dr. Gordon in collaborative research and mentoring efforts, and she looks forward to working with him to train clinical pain researchers. Dr. Gordon and Dr. Fritz share a commitment to mentoring the next generation of investigators dedicated to clinical pain research that improves the lives of persons with chronic pain and related conditions. In her role as Associate Dean for Research in the College of Health at the University of Utah, Dr. Fritz mentors and promotes the professional development of junior faculty and trainees, helping them to gain the resources they need to be successful in their research agendas. She has personally mentored a total of 38 pre-doctoral trainees, 4 post-doctoral trainees and 7 junior faculty researchers including 5 K current of former awardees. This mentoring experience has helped Dr. Fritz gain the ability to align expectations in the context of a mentoring relationship, assess mentees’ level of understanding and ability. All of the post-doctoral and junior faculty researchers she has mentored remain in academia and several have highly successful independent research programs with sustained extramural funding, demonstrating Dr. Fritz’s ability to foster independence in my mentees. She has been a mentor in the University of Utah’s Vice President Clinical and Translational (VPCAT) Research Scholars Program from 2014-2021, providing mentorship to 14 junior faculty members at the University of Utah from a variety of disciplines including medicine, nursing, psychology, and physical therapy. The VPCAT mentoring model promotes matrix mentoring structure with an emphasis on effective communication and inter-disciplinary relationships. From 2018-2022, Dr. Fritz was a mentor in the University of Utah’s Health Equity Leadership & Mentoring (U-HELM) program that provides mentoring and leadership development opportunities to junior faculty and postdoctoral scholars from under-represented populations in the health sciences. She received training as a U-HELM mentor from the National Research Mentoring Network and additional training in cultural diversity which has provided invaluable skills to address diversity and work effectively with mentees from backgrounds that differ from her own. The research and mentoring experiences and training Dr. Fritz has engaged in make her well-suited to serve as a Principal Investigator for the UP3RK program at the University of Utah. The VPCAT mentoring model serves as a foundation for the UP3RK. Serving as a scientific and institutional mentor in the VPCAT program, Dr. Fritz learned strategies to help mentees set and achieve their research goals, understand their personal strengths, and identify areas for development. The U-HELM program is not a traditional research mentoring program, but instead focuses on supporting trainees from under-represented populations with a focus on cultural identities, micro-aggressions and lack of diversity in the workplace and resilience. Dr. Fritz is excited to bring her experience and mentoring background to the UP3RK program.
Internal Medicine; Primary Care; Women's Health; Addiction Medicine
Mindfulness; Addiction; Opioid Management
VA SLC Health Care
Behavioral health, addiction health, endocarditis
Addiction Health, Chronic Pain, Internal Medicine
Euromodulation modalities including Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS) for the treatment of perinatal substance use and mood disorder
Genetics; Epigenetics of Pain; Clinical Pharmacology; Medical Device Development
Access and Quality of Mental Health/Substance Abuse Services; Primary Care-Mental Health Integration; Patient Experiences with Care; Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Mental Health and Mental Health Services
Global health, anesthesia education, and hospice and palliative medicine
Epidemiological investigations and evidence-based interventions, particularly those targeting Veteran health and chronic complex comorbidity following traumatic brain injury
Access to care for vulnerable populations, with focus on immigrants, veterans, and individuals covered by Medicaid
Advancement of medication therapy management, medication safety and immunization services within community pharmacies
University of Utah, Infectious Disease
University of Utah, Emergency Medicine
University of Utah, Physical Therapy & Athletic Training
Learn more about Dr. Magel's Projects
Dr. Jake S. Magel is a Research Associate Professor in the Department of Physical Therapy & Athletic Training in the College of Health at the University of Utah. He has over 15 years of clinical experience specializing in the management of patients with complex chronic orthopedic conditions and in the management of patients with musculoskeletal conditions who take prescription opioids for pain management. His research career has focused on developing and refining interventions for patients with musculoskeletal pain. Dr. Magel is currently a Principal Investigator for an NIH funded clinical trial investigating the integration of physical therapy with mindfulness-based interventions for patients with chronic musculoskeletal pain and long-term opioid treatment. He is also currently the Principal Investigator for Foundation for Physical Therapy funded and University of Utah funded studies that aim to improve the knowledge and skills of physical therapists for the management of patients taking prescription opioids for pain. These studies have provided him the opportunity to engage with and lead teams of physical therapists, physicians, social workers and biostatisticians. He has collaborated with Drs. Fritz and Gordon, the MPIs on the “University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK),” on multiple research projects involving patients with pain and patients taking prescription opioids for pain and I am excited to participate on UP3RK as a mentor.
Dr. Magel shares Drs. Fritz’ and Dr. Gordon’s commitment to mentoring the next generation of investigators dedicated to clinical pain research that improves the lives of persons with chronic pain and related conditions. In his role as an Associate Professor in the College of Health at the University of Utah, he has personally mentored and served as the chair or as a committee member for 8 Rehabilitation Sciences PhD students. Dr. Magel has also been the research mentor for more than 25 University of Utah Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Residency residents and taught and mentored more than 30 Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Fellows and approximately 500 Doctor of Physical Therapy Students. His extensive mentoring experience has fostered an ability to Align Expectations with those of the mentee. While bringing the mentee into his own projects, Dr. Magel encourages and supports the mentee to explore their interests and initiate their own projects with his support. In Addressing Diversity, Dr. Magel is keenly aware that he is a middle-aged White male and strive to understand the unique experiences of those with genders and or racial and ethnic backgrounds that are different from his own. He has attended multiple diversity, equity and inclusion seminars offered by the University of Utah. Moreover, Dr. Magel worked on the Navajo Indian Reservation as a physical therapist clinician for eight years, which taught him the skills required to effectively manage patients from a culture quite different from the culture in which he was raised.
Dr. Magel routinely Assesses a Mentee’s Abilities and their Level of Understanding longitudinally during the mentoring relationship. This relationship does not end when the mentee leaves the University of Utah; he continues to have mentoring relationships with past PhD students after they have left his institution. Dr. Magel views mentoring toward independence to be a critical aspect of the mentoring relationship. The fact that his most recent PhD student, for whom he served as committee chair, is currently a successful university faculty member with recent funding is testament of my ability to Foster Independence. Dr. Magel is a graduate of the VPCAT program which supported his development of Effective Communication skills. He attended and actively participated in 2 VPCAT sponsored leadership and communication seminars. These seminars provided him with foundational skills with which to mentor professionals from different professional, academic and social backgrounds. Finally, in Promoting Professional Development, Dr. Magel commits to having dedicated mentorship meeting time allocated to the PhD students and Orthopaedic Physical Therapy Residents. During these meetings, we discuss a variety of aspects of professional development, included but not limited to, research development, the importance of publishing the results of research and strategies for promotion.
Health policy, chronic disease management such as diabetes, coronary artery disease, congestive heart failure, hypertension, HIV management, PrEP and PEP, and preventative care
Health Economics, Infectious Disease, Rural Health, Health Services Research, Vulnerable Populations, Homeless Persons
Anesthesiology; Cancer Pain; Chronic Pain
Dr. Mary Jo Pugh is excited to be a mentor on the “University of Utah Program to Provide Pain Research Knowledge (UP3RK)” that will train the next generation of pain investigators. Over the past 20+ years Dr. Pugh’s research funded by the VA, DoD and NIH has focused on complex comorbidity, and more recently complex comorbidity in Veterans with traumatic brain injury (TBI). Major components of that complex comorbidity include pain, substance use disorder and mental health conditions. She has conducted foundational longitudinal epidemiological research identifying phenotypes of pain and pain treatment and associated outcomes using large database, clinical evaluation, biological and neuroimaging biomarkers, longitudinal survey, and ecological momentary assessment. The emerging work is focusing on quality and equity of care for Veterans with complex comorbidity phenotypes in conjunction with long-term outcomes. Dr. Pugh has mentored undergraduate, graduate, MD, and PhD trainees, and junior through tenured faculty. In addition, her post-doctoral mentees have received research career awards and have obtained large research grants. She uses a matrix mentoring approach where each mentee has at least one scientific mentor, one professional development mentor, and one content mentor. Dr. Pugh involves graduate students, post-doctoral fellows and junior faculty in mentoring research staff, undergraduate students, graduate students, and post-doctoral fellows so that there is a near peer component that allows each mentee to gain some experience in mentoring. As a testament to Dr. Pugh’s mentoring expertise, she was recently funded by the Department of Defense to co-lead a national program for Post-traumatic Epilepsy Research. Throughout Dr. Pugh’s career she has been strongly supportive of hiring, training, and working with diverse staff and collaborators as she believes only through Addressing Diversity can we move the needle on improving the quality of research, clinical care and patient outcomes. Over the years her staff/mentees have included over 30 individuals meeting criteria by NIH for under-represented minorities, including 10 (of 30) current staff, fellows, and graduate students. Dr. Pugh has been a mentor for junior faculty for the Utah Health Equity, Leadership and Mentoring program for the past two years and mentor diverse junior faculty across the country related to epilepsy research. She believes the diversity in her teams over the past 20 years, and her approach to Addressing Expectations, where mentees explore their own interests while working on my projects, is a large part of the success of the work and the success of mentees. She meets weekly with junior mentees and monthly with more senior mentees. These meetings are led by the agenda of the mentee. Dr. Pugh has learned that Maintaining Effective Communication requires that she also adapts to the communication styles of the diverse mentees. This approach has allowed her to Foster Independence, by supporting personal, professional and scientific accomplishments. While professional and scientific accomplishments are often the focus of mentoring outcomes, she celebrates personal accomplishments as much or more because Dr. Pugh knows without personal accomplishments and priorities, scientific accomplishments are hollow and less likely to occur. In addition to research expertise, Dr. Pugh believes it is critical to Promote Professional Development in mentees. As the first person in her family to attend college, she realizes how critical this is—particularly for those who do not grow up in a home with academic cultural capital. In addition to regular mentor-mentee sessions, Dr. Pugh’s team has developed a dedicated monthly seminar to provide peer mentoring on issues relevant to professional development focused on how to communicate individual research programs using “elevator speeches” and issues specific to advancing academic promotion. Dr. Pugh encourages (and financially supports) her mentees to attend professional research conferences, introduces them to colleagues with similar or related interests to facilitate additional collaborations which allow them to develop independent research careers.
Epidemiology/Nosocomial Infections; Infectious Diseases
Pharmacoepidemiology; Medical Informatics; Health Care Quality and Patient Safety; Quality of Medication Use; Causal Inference
Health Services Research, Population Health, Policy Analysis, Spatial Analysis, System Dynamics Modeling
Research focus is on the promotion of health equity for persons with mental illness. Dr. Siantz uses qualitative methods, social network analysis, and mixed methods.
Perinatal addiction, interventions for pregnant and postpartum individuals with substance use disorders, maternal mortality and maternal mental health
Patterns and drivers of antimicrobial use, methods to assess appropriateness, and development and evaluation of methods to improve antimicrobial use
University of Utah, Anesthesiology
University of Utah, Emergency Medicine
Addiction Health Psychiatry
Substance abuse and mental health clinical provider
Substance abuse and mental health clinical pharmacist
Impact of policy change on access, quality, and cost in large healthcare systems, with a focus on health equity and mental health