ATLANTIS Administrative Core
The Administrative Core provides oversight for overall core resource use and sets the overall direction for the ATLANTIS Program. It is responsible for prioritization of Program resources (both federal and institutional), undertaking internal and external review of Program and trainee progress, and organizing enrichment activities. A major function of the Administrative Core is to increase the engagement of trainees at all levels at Emory, Georgia Tech, and Morehouse School of Medicine.
Susan M. Wall, MD
ATLANTIS Administrative Core Director, U2C PI
Professor of Medicine, Renal Division
Emory University
Susan M. Wall, MD, is Professor of Medicine as well as the Research Director of the Emory Renal Division and MPI of the NIDDK-funded Renal T32 Program. Her laboratory, which has made major discoveries in the regulation of blood pressure by renal intercalated cells, has had uninterrupted NIDDK-KUH funding for 27 years. She is the recipient of several research awards. Most recently, she was the American Heart Association’s 2020 Donald Seldin Lecturer. Dr. Wall has mentored 6 postdoctoral fellows, many of whom have gone on to receive their own independent funding.
ATLANTIS Training Core
The TL1 Core builds on the considerable strengths and outstanding resources amongst the partner institutions to provide focused, mentored research training supplemented with rigorous didactic training. KUH trainees will be selected by U2C TL1 leadership. The TL1 Core will have the capacity to fund 7 post-doctoral and 5 pre-doctoral trainees and will provide 2-3 years of research training and support for postdocs and 2 years for predocs.
Nael A. McCarty, PhD
ATLANTIS Training Core Director, TL1 PI
Marcus Professor of Cystic Fibrosis
PACS Division, Department of Pediatrics
Director of Emory's Children's Cystic Fibrosis Center of Excellence
Emory University
Nael A. McCarty, PhD, is Professor of Pediatrics and Director of the Emory+Children’s Cystic Fibrosis Center of Excellence. He is co-Director of the innovative CF Scholars Program that ties pre-doctoral and post-doctoral trainees from both PhD and MD tracks. He is former Director of the GDBBS, and former Director of the Atlanta Broadening Experiences in Scientific Training (BEST) Program at Emory and Georgia Tech, funded by an NIH DP7 award, which included both pre- and post-doctoral trainees. For 9 years he directed the Molecules-to-Mankind (M2M) doctoral pathway within the LGS, which sought to train students at the intersection of laboratory and population-based sciences. He is a co-founder of the Atlanta Society of Mentors, which provides mentorship training to faculty. Dr. McCarty’s research focuses on epithelial ion channels.
Vivien Sheehan, MD, PhD
ATLANTIS Training Core Associate Director
Associate Professor, Pediatrics
Director of Translational Sickle Cell Development Research
Emory University
Vivien Sheehan, MD, PhD, is Associate Professor of Hematology & Oncology in the Department of Pediatrics at Emory University. The Sheehan lab uses genomics to unravel the mechanisms of globin switching and the pharmacogenomics of hydroxyurea in SCD, in order to develop new fetal hemoglobin inducing agents to treat people with sickle cell disease. Dr. Sheehan was Director of the K award Workshop at Baylor College of Medicine for four years before moving to Atlanta in 2020.
ATLANTIS Professional Development Core
The overarching goals of the Professional Development Core are to help KUH TL1 trainees, whether there are from Emory, Georgia Tech, or Morehouse School of Medicine, refine their career plans, identify the technical and professional skills they need to learn, and prepare for success in their individualized career plans. Through the opportunities provided by routine meetings with career counselors, career workshops, and executive training, trainees will learn the leadership and management skills necessary to plan, develop, and navigate their careers through a constantly changing research landscape.
Lou Ann Brown, PhD
ATLANTIS Professional Development Core Director
Division of Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine
Assistant Dean, Emory University School of Medicine
Director, Emory Office of Postdoctoral Education
Lou Ann S. Brown, Ph.D., is an Emory Professor of Pediatrics in the Neonatal-Perinatal Medicine Division and School of Medicine Assistant Dean and Director of the Office of Postdoctoral Education. She is an elected member of the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) Graduate Research and Teaching (GREAT) Group Steering Committee and the 2019-2020 Chair of the Postdoctorate Leaders Section. Through GREAT, she interacts with graduate and postdoctoral programs across the nation. In 2018, Dr. Brown became PI of the NIGMS funded Emory FIRST grant, the oldest IRACDA K12 grant in the nation with continued funding since 2000. She is also a member of the Research Education Executive Committee of the Georgia Clinical and Translational Science Alliance (Ga CTSA). She and Dr. David Guidot, a former K08 mentee, have been MPIs on an NHLBI T32 Acute Lung Injury Training Grant since 2013. Dr. Brown has mentored or co-mentored 11 high school students, 24 undergraduates, 17 medical students, 6 graduate students, 21 postdoctoral trainees (PhD and MD), and 15 junior faculty members (PhD and MD).
Douglas C. Eaton, PhD
ATLANTIS Associate Director, Professional Development and Training Cores
Professor of Medicine, Renal Division
Emory University
Douglas C. Eaton, PhD, is an Emory Professor Emeritus of Medicine and former Chair of Physiology who has served as co-PI of the Emory Nephrology T32 from its inception (1990–2021) and co-PI of the R25 SUPERR program. He also directed the NIGMS funded IRACDA K12 Program (2005-2018) and has been crucial in the program’s sustained success. Drs. Brown and Eaton have collaborated for more than 20 years and will work closely with ATLANTIS leadership to build a robust model that promotes the professional development of all trainees that compliments the rigorous TL1 KUH research training. He will continue offering career guidance and research support to TL1 trainees as he has done through the renal T32, NIDDK R25, and IRACDA K12.
ATLANTIS Network Core
The ATLANTIS Network Core seeks to create a vibrant and engaged KUH community as an overall strategy to enhance the training experience for emerging biomedical researchers in KUH-related disciplines. The Network Core strives to provide framework to help connect current and future KUH researchers across institutions, including those within Atlanta and across the other KUH U2C/TL1 Centers. The Network Core complements traditional face-to-face meetings and activities with interactions through digital platforms to further bring together our community of established, emerging, and future KUH health researchers.
Stacy S. Heilman, PhD
ATLANTIS Network Core Director
Associate Professor
Associate Vice Chair for Research
Emory Department of Pediatrics and Children's Healthcare of Atlanta
Stacy Heilman, PhD, is Associate Professor and the Associate Vice Chair for Research in the Emory Department of Pediatrics. As a trained PhD basic scientist, scientific administrator and educator, she brings a track record of connecting trainees and faculty with vital research resources including facilitating fruitful collaborations, creating and overseeing scientific cores, and directing research education programs. She serves as Director of the monthly K-Club career development symposium and also has formal ties to pediatric resident and fellow research through co-direction of a residency research track and a research course for clinical post-docs. Promoting professional and inter-institutional networking is a centerpiece of Dr. Heilman’s role in the organization and thus is easily and naturally transferable to the ATLANTIS framework. She will hold primary responsibility for planning and executing the Network Core face-to-face events and will serve as the key driver for PhD pre and postdoc outreach and recruitment into ATLANTIS programming and training.
Jason Cobb, MD
ATLANTIS Network Core Associate Director
Associate Professor, Renal Division
Associate Director, Nephrology Fellowship Training Program
Emory University
Jason Cobb, MD, is Associate Professor in the Emory University Division of Renal Medicine and Associate Director of the Nephrology Fellowship Training Program. Dr. Cobb is a graduate of Morehouse College with a BS in biology. He holds a medical degree from Emory University School of Medicine and completed his internal medicine residency and nephrology fellowship at Emory University. He is board-certified in internal medicine and nephrology. He sees patients in nephrology clinic at Emory University Hospital Midtown in the Medical Office Tower seeing patients with nephrology complaints such as chronic kidney disease due to diabetes, hypertension, vascular disease, and glomerulonephritis. Dr. Cobb also takes care of hemodialysis patients at Emory Dialysis Greenbriar and Emory Dialysis Northside as well as home dialysis patients at Emory Dialysis Northside. Research and teaching interests include quality improvement and nephrology fellow clinic at Grady Memorial Hospital.