Celina Valencia receives Career Development Award

Celina Valencia, DrPH, an assistant professor at the University of Arizona College of Medicine – Tucson Department of Family and Community Medicine, received a U of A Health Sciences Career Development Award.

She is one of three recipients to receive the honor, which provides mentorship, research training and salary support, as well as funding for travel and research supplies. CDA scholars must complete an independent research project that is expected to generate sufficient pilot findings to enable the submission of a National Institutes of Health K-series or R01 grant or equivalent by the program’s second year. 

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Valencia received her CDA for her research focusing on the difference between biological and chronological age and how life experiences either accelerate or decrease biological age based on the body’s reaction to stress, as well as how that influences diseases such as breast cancer. 

“I am excited to see the outcome of Dr. Valencia’s research as the questions surrounding biological and chronological age can have immense impact on healthy aging,” said Michael D. Dake, MD, senior vice president for the  University of Arizona Health Sciences. “These awards are a tremendous boost to early-stage scientists and the important work they undertake while educating the next generation of health care professionals and working to solve critical health care problems in our state and around the world.”

Valencia said the award is especially meaningful to her, a first-generation college graduate.

“For somebody who was told in high school that college was not something for me, it’s just amazing,” said Valencia, who took Pima Community College classes in high school so she could study advanced math. “I’m excited to do this work and to work with my mentors, who are world-renowned researchers in their respective fields. I pinch myself all the time. It’s just so wonderful.”

Valencia’s mentors are Janko Nikolich, MD, PhD, professor and head of the Department of Immunobiology at the College of Medicine – Tucson; director of the Aegis Consortium at the U of A Health Sciences; co-director of the University of Arizona Center on Aging and a member of the BIO5 Institute; and Kathleen E. Rodgers, PhD, professor of pharmacology at the College of Medicine – Tucson, and associate director of Translational Neuroscience at the U of A Health Sciences Center for Innovation in Brain Science.

In her mentorship statement for the award, Rodgers said she was enthusiastic about her collaboration with Valencia on her health span research.

“I look forward to supporting the successful launch of Dr. Valencia as an independent, NIH-funded researcher in the biology of aging,” Rodgers wrote. 

The U of A Office of the Senior Vice President for Health Sciences and the College of Medicine – Tucson sponsor the awards.

Other recipients of the 2024 CDAs are: 

• Erika Austhof, PhD, MPH, an assistant research professor at the U of A Mel and Enid Zuckerman College of Public Health

• Kristin Huntoon, PhD, DO, an assistant professor in the Department of Neurosurgery at the U of A College of Medicine – Tucson