Fellowships & Training
About Our Fellowship Program
The Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition offers postdoctoral fellowships every academic cycle. Applicants are accepted from the fields of Nutrition, Exercise Physiology, Public Health, Psychology, Physiology or related fields to work with our multidisciplinary team. The two-year positions have a strong focus on research, with hours toward licensure available after specific negotiation.
All applicants must have completed all requirements for their doctoral degree prior to beginning the fellowship and must have a primary mentor for the duration of their fellowship; secondary mentors can be added as is appropriate. Positions typically start each fall, but other options can be negotiated. All fellows will be expected to submit an NIH F32 or similar grant, and to take advantage of the excellent training opportunities available across our key academic institutions.
Fellowship Announcements
Two-year Postdoctoral Fellowship in Active Living and/or Healthy Eating through the University of Kansas Medical Center and Children’s Mercy Hospital
The Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition is delighted to offer 4 two-year postdoctoral fellowships for the 2025-2027 cycle broadly focused on healthy lifestyles in children and/or adults. The Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition is a joint partnership between the University of Kansas Medical Center and Children’s Mercy Hospital. Applicants will be accepted from the fields of Nutrition, Exercise Physiology, Public Health, Psychology, or a related field. This position is fully research, with hours toward licensure only available after specific negotiation when relevant. All applicants must have completed all requirements for their doctoral degree prior to beginning the fellowship. The position start date is expected to begin in the summer/fall of 2025 but is negotiable, and salary will follow current NIH guidance.
Multiple faculty who are members of the Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition are accepting Postdoctoral Fellows for 2025-2027. Our faculty study many facets of active living, healthy eating, and related topics spanning public health, clinical intervention, and basic science (see www.chlnkc.org for list of faculty). One of the fellowship positions is with Dr. Jordan Carlson, one is with Dr. Ann Davis, and two are open (allowing candidates to choose a primary mentor). Candidates will select a primary mentor prior to acceptance into the fellowship program and will have the support of a 4-member scholarship oversight committee to help align the training with the candidate’s individualized career goals. We are specifically seeking candidates who plan to pursue NIH funding, likely by submitting an F or K application during their fellowship, and are interested in future research faculty positions.
Postdoctoral fellows will have the support from the Office of Postdoctoral Affairs at KUMC (https://www.kumc.edu/academic-and-student-affairs/departments/postdoctoral-affairs.html), the NIH funded University of Kansas Clinical and Translational Science Institute (http://www.kufrontiers.org/), and the postdoctoral training program at Children’s Mercy Hospital.
HOW TO APPLY:
To apply, please submit the following documents to Ann Davis, PhD, MPH, ABPP at adavis6@kumc.edu: 1) A cover letter indicating your interest in the position, qualifications, specific research interests, preferred primary mentor, and goals for the postdoctoral training years; 2) Curriculum vitae; and 3) names and titles for 3 references. Applications will be reviewed immediately upon receipt.
Current Fellows
Training Opportunities & Support
The University of Kansas Medical Center
Our center is part of the vibrant research community at the University of Kansas Medical Center. KUMC is one of 36 U.S. public institutions in the prestigious Association of American Universities, an invitation-only organization for the nation’s top research universities. In addition, KU is one of 26 U.S. universities that have a National Cancer Institute-designated cancer center, a National Institute on Aging-designated Alzheimer’s disease center and a National Institutes of Health Clinical and Translational Science Award. Our center fellows and trainees have full access to the many trainings at KUMC in the schools of Medicine, Nursing and Allied Health, as well as at the main campus in Lawrence. The CTSA at KUMC is called Frontiers and brings especially rich training resources to our fellows, as well as the TL1 grant funding program and the KL2 career development award funding program.
Children's Mercy Kansas City
Our center is also part of the vibrant research community at Children’s Mercy Kansas City, including the state of the art Children’s Mercy Research Institute. The Children’s Mercy Research Institute (CMRI) integrates research and clinical care with multidisciplinary teams at the point of care while bringing together nationally recognized expertise in genomic medicine, precision therapeutics, population health and health care innovation. As a result, we accelerate the development of groundbreaking individualized therapies and treatments that transform the potential of all children, one child at a time. The CMRI and Children’s Mercy have a strong commitment to research training evidenced by an ongoing grant writing club and trainings on topics such as qualitative research methods and clinical trials conduct.
Open Employment and Student Opportunities
Kansas City is located in the heart of America. It has small-town friendliness, with big-city dining, a variety of entertainment options, incredible jazz, professional sports, world-renowned museums, great shopping and more fountains than any city in the world, other than Rome. The city, a metropolitan area of more than 2 million people, has some of the best public school districts in the nation.
The Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition at the University of Kansas Medical Center and Children’s Mercy Kansas City prepares promising new scholars to conduct groundbreaking, interdisciplinary pediatric research related to all aspects of healthy lifestyles. Our predoctoral trainees and postdoctoral fellows benefit from CHLN noon seminars, institutional didactic workshops, personalized mentoring, and project-based research experience to launch their independent research careers. Our training program is tailored to meet each fellow’s unique career goals, stretching their previous training into new and exciting areas.
Each fellow (in partnership with their primary mentor and/or mentorship team) will develop an individualized training plan composed of coursework as well as paper and grant submission goals that will be overseen by a team of senior level scientists who will ensure that the postdoctoral fellow and their mentor have all the tools necessary to meet the goals described in the plan. Following this plan, the fellow is quickly immersed in training, working with their mentor and their team, and integrated into ongoing research throughout the center. Following these steps, the center prepares our fellows for positions as junior faculty in the health sciences at universities or children’s hospitals, as investigators in nonprofit research institutions, and staff members at the National Institutes of Health.
Our Building
The Center for Children’s Healthy Lifestyles & Nutrition is located on the first floor of the Donald Chisholm Building on the campus of Children’s Mercy Kansas City. The Center is a 14,000-square-foot facility designed to support clinical and bench research, individual clinical and group educational interventions, as well as offices for faculty and research staff.
The Center’s 800-square-foot demonstration kitchen features four prep stations, each with a GE Profile refrigerator and microwave. The kitchen contains four oven/stove/exhaust hood combinations and two dishwashers. The 500-square-foot wet lab features extensive countertop space, an exhaust hood and a -80 degree freezer. Testing rooms contain an indirect calorimeter, treadmill and DEXA. Clinical exam rooms and a waiting room are also available. The Center’s 2400-square-foot exercise facility features treadmills, stationary bicycles, elliptical trainers and weight machines, and has a large area for group physical activity. Locker rooms, showers and laundry facilities are also available. The Center provides conference room facilities for 10-50 attendees.
Please read our Center Use Guidelines. If you are interested in using space at the Center, please complete this
application. Once it’s submitted, it will be reviewed by the leadership team, and someone will respond within 10 business days.
