Hartmann supports research, makes connections as vice president for research integration at Vanderbilt University Medical Center

August 18, 2020

Dr. Katherine Hartmann

Vanderbilt University Medical Center (VUMC) has named Katherine Hartmann, MD, PhD, vice president for research integration. The UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health alumna also serves as the institution’s associate dean for clinical and translational scientist development.

In this newly created position, she will coordinate efforts across the medical center.

“Dr. Hartmann is extremely dedicated to the scientific community and has a proven ability to develop and lead programs that amplify the success of our investigators and institutional research strategy,” said Jennifer Pietenpol, PhD, executive vice president for research at VUMC and director of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.

Along with building synergy across existing areas of expertise, Hartmann will work to create new research opportunities.

“My image is that Vanderbilt is a fabulous, immense loom,” said Hartmann. “We have an extremely wide warp with amazing threads of every kind. I see opportunities to add to the weft: to make new connections, provide resources to smooth the way for research teams and increase the visibility of their accomplishments.”

She aims to build new scientific, training and educational collaborations related to research; extend career development resources available to researchers; and establish a system to evaluate career trajectories, equity, interdisciplinary collaborations, and extramural funding and awards. And, though she’s not an infectious disease researcher, she’s worked to support those conducting research on COVID-19 and the broader community affected by the pandemic.

Hartmann credits the training she received at the Gillings School for her effectiveness in leadership roles throughout her career.

“My doctoral training in epidemiology, clinical training at UNC and opportunities that Gillings provided to me early in my career set me on path to leadership in research and in academic administration in the research enterprise,” she said.

The success of early career researchers at Vanderbilt has brought Hartmann national recognition for her role as principal investigator of the National Institutes of Health-funded Career Development Awards.

“Dr. Hartmann’s commitment at the institutional and national level to creating practical tools to promote research success, demystify the nature of academic life and teach career strategy is unparalleled,” said Gordon Bernard, MD, executive vice president for research at VUMC. “She exemplifies unstinting investment in the research community,”

Hartmann’s team has built databases to track faculty expertise, grants and awards, and they run a national platform, edgeforscholars.org, that provides a space for candid discussions about life in academics. This platform also contains an extensive list of funding opportunities related to COVID-19 that Hartmann ensured is open to all. She hopes that the list will serve as a public good and allow researchers see where their expertise aligns with knowledge gaps and funding, noting that “many other institutions have not made this a public resource.”

She also volunteered hundreds of hours to oversee nonmedical staff who were conducting health screenings – to help keep the medical center operating and to keep people employed during the pandemic. To that end, the school’s valet drivers were recruited to conduct screenings. Hartmann took the opportunity to connect with the research staff who were coming into labs, many of whom she had the chance to talk to every day.

The Nashville area experienced a devastating tornado and a separate power outage, which affected many for 10 days, right before they began to shelter in place. To help lift spirits and create a necessary sense of community, Hartmann hosted events with coffee, snacks and music at the health screening stations and talked to people about what they needed to get through the pandemic and continue their work. Her office even provided a recliner for one lab so exhausted researchers could nap while their assays ran.

Hartmann’s training as an obstetrician and gynecologist and epidemiologist gives her a unique set of skills. As an epidemiologist, she is known for her leadership of Right from the Start, an early pregnancy study with more than 7,900 participants that began at UNC.

She earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in writing and a Doctor of Medicine degree from the Johns Hopkins University, and holds the Lucius E. Burch Chair of Reproductive Physiology and Family Planning at Vanderbilt.

Hartmann earned a doctoral degree in epidemiology from the Gillings School of Global Public Health in 1999 and was a Robert Wood Johnson Clinical Scholar. As a faculty member at UNC, she was the founding director of the UNC Center for Women’s Health Research, division director of health care epidemiology, and vice chair for research in obstetrics and gynecology.

“I cannot fully convey my gratitude to the Gillings School for making my career not only possible but tremendously rewarding,” said Hartmann. “My education and time on the faculty have allowed me to serve other researchers and promote human health through research.”

Contact the UNC Gillings School of Global Public Health communications team at sphcomms@unc.edu.