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The 2025 Fall Colors Photo Contest drew 42 amazing entries across all of Himmelfarb Library's constituent groups: SMHS, School of Nursing, and the Milken Institute School of Public Health. Our judges, Laura Abate and Valerie Bowles from Himmelfarb, and MD students Nick Van Dyke and Eleanor Ball, had their work cut out for them!

Red autumn leaves
2025 Fall Colors Photo Contest winner: Radiance, photo by Vania Ballesteros Prieto, Horvath Lab staff member, SMHS

The contest winner was Radiance, by Vania Ballesteros Prieto, who is a staff member at SMHS. See below for an interview with Vania!

Autumn colors reflected in a pond with skyscrapers in the background
Second place winner in the 2025 Fall Colors Photo Contest: Fall Reflections, photo by Rana Rahman, MD student, SMHS.
Creek with trees with yellow leaves
Second place winner in the 2025 Fall Colors Photo Contest: Creekside Serenity, photo by Adam Herath, BSPH student, Milken Institute School of Public Health.

Two photos tied for second place: Fall Reflections, by MD student Rana Rahman, and Creekside Serenity, by BSPH student Adam Herath.

There were many beautiful photo entries, all of which are in the online gallery. Additionally, a print display of all photo entries is currently up at the library.

The Rotation asked Vania a few questions:

Can you share your GW journey? Did you study here? How long have you worked here?

I first came to the university in fall 2023 to pursue the MS program in Bioinformatics and Molecular Biochemistry. I successfully graduated in May of this year and have been a very happy part of the Horvath Lab team since then.

How long have you been taking photographs, and what are your favorite subjects?

I started taking photographs with a digital camera when I was young, initially just as a hobby. My favorite subjects are close-up pictures of flowers and small animals. I enjoy uncovering the small details that are often hard to see at first glance.

What can you tell us about how you got that winning shot?

I found a couple of trees with incredibly beautiful red and orange foliage near my house. I stood directly underneath them, and the afternoon sun lit the backs of the leaves making the colors more vibrant. This backlighting also allowed me to capture the veins of the leaves. I especially like how the close-up angle abstracts the location, leaving the surroundings open to the viewer's imagination.

How did you hear about the Fall Colors Photo Contest?

The Fall Colors Photo Contest was a topic of discussion in the lab. An email with the details was shared with all lab members, and I decided to participate.

I am intrigued that you entered the contest just two minutes before the entry form was deactivated! Tell us more about that?

I was planning to submit the picture earlier but my phone ran out of storage, which made every app (including the photos app) crash instantly upon opening. It was a frantic process of repeatedly opening the photos app, deleting one picture, having the app crash, and repeating the cycle. I finally managed to free up just enough storage to submit the entry two minutes before the form closed. Talk about lucky!

--

Vania stopped by Himmelfarb and got to meet some of the members of the Healthy Living @ Himmelfarb Committee, which has been in existence since 2012 and has as its goal creating ways for our community prioritize wellbeing and support healthy eating, exercise, and stress reduction. The committee has been running the Fall Colors and Spring Blossoms photo contests since 2023, along with other events such as beading workshops and the popular Basketball Toss contest, which raises funds for the GW Healing Clinic.

Vania Ballesteros Prieto, second from left, with members of Himmelfarb's Healthy Living Committee (L-R) Lonnie Williams, Deborah Wassertzug, and Valerie Bowles.
2025 Fall Colors Photo Contest winner Vania Ballesteros Prieto posts in front of the photo display of entries to this edition of the contest.

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Himmelfarb Library wishes everyone a Happy Thanksgiving!

As a reminder, the library will be closed for the Thanksgiving holiday. Our holiday hours are as follows:

DATE:HOURS:
Wednesday, November 26, 20256:00am - 6:00pm
Thursday, November 27, 2025CLOSED
Friday, November 28, 2025CLOSED
Saturday, November 29, 20259:00am - 8:00pm
Sunday, November 30, 20259:00am - Midnight

Our electronic databases, journals, and e-books are still available through the Himmelfarb Library website.

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a banner for the art of science image contest with the deadline and cash prizes

Do you work in a research lab? Do you think the sciences and the humanities have more in common than most people think? Then you should submit to the 2025 Art of Science contest here at the School of Medicine and Health Sciences.

The competition is open to GW SMHS medical students, graduate students, and postdocs. Submissions should reflect original research here at SMHS, and each person can submit one image. If your work is selected as a winner, you can win a cash prize. Previous winners have also had their work displayed in Ross Hall and Himmelfarb Library. 

Need more information? Check out the announcement page for the competition on the School of Medicine and Health Sciences Website! 

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Photo of a manuscript spread out on a desk with highlighted sections and notes written on it.
Photo by Catherine Cronin; CC BY-SA 2.0

Do you have an article manuscript ready to submit for publication, but aren’t sure how to find the right journal? Finding an appropriate journal for your research can be daunting. With so many scholarly journals to choose from, it can be difficult to know where to start when selecting a journal. But don’t fret - Himmelfarb Library is here to help! There are tools available to help you navigate your options and find the right journal for your research!

Journal Selection Tools

There are numerous tools available to help you identify possible journals that could be a good match for your research. 

Abstract Matcher Tools

The following tools let you copy and paste your abstract into the tool, and they provide you with a list of possible journals that could be a good fit for your manuscript:

Publisher Manuscript Match Tools

Multiple large publishers also have services that will help you match your abstract to an appropriate journal. 

Journal Information Tools

Once you have a list of potential journals, do your research about each title to determine which journal would best fit your needs. The following tools provide information about specific journal titles that can help you decide where to submit your manuscript:

  • Journal Citation Reports: Look up key journals in your field, sortable by impact factor, Eigenfactor, and other metrics.
  • Cabells Directory of Publishing Opportunities: Look up journal titles to find contact information, manuscript and submission guidelines, and metrics to support selecting titles for submission. Cabells also tracks predatory journals, which are described further below..

Learn more about these tools in Himmelfarb’s video tutorial: Journal Selection Tools: Choosing the Right Journal for Your Research

Is Your Manuscript a Good Match for a Journal?

Journals usually have “information for authors” pages on their websites that lay out the Aims and Scope of the research they publish. Once you have a list of possible journals, take a look at the Aims and Scope sections of each journal's website and decide whether or not your manuscript matches the research and topics the journal normally publishes. If you’re not sure if your paper is a good fit for the journal, reach out to the journal editor, send them your abstract, and ask them if they think your manuscript is a good fit for the journal.

Making Sense of the Metrics

Journals advertise citation metrics to demonstrate their relative importance in the field. Journals with higher citation metrics are usually more selective in the articles they publish. Various metrics evaluate relative journal quality, and each metric uses different methods. These metrics signify how frequently articles published in a specific journal are cited in other journal articles. Two important metrics to consider are Journal Impact Factor and CiteScore.

Journal Impact Factor

Journal Impact Factor (JIF), calculated by Web of Science, can be found on the Journal Citation Reports website (may be paywalled for non-GW affiliates). The Journal Impact Factor is the number of times a journal is cited during a given year divided by the sum of the number of articles published during the previous two years. Learn more in our Journal Impact Factors: What You Need to Know tutorial.

CiteScore

CiteScore, similar to JIF, is calculated by Elsevier’s Scopus. CiteScore is the number of citations articles in a journal received during the last four years divided by the number of articles published in the same four-year period. Check out CiteScore Methodology to learn more about this metric.

Metrics and Your Manuscript

It’s important to have realistic expectations when selecting a journal for your research. Journals with higher JIF or CiteScores are more likely to publish cutting-edge research with novel or important findings. Research with less novel findings tends to find homes in journals with lower JIF or CiteScores. Knowing how likely your article is to be published in a journal with a higher or lower JIF and CiteScores can help you save time by submitting your manuscript to a journal with an appropriate JIF or CiteScore.

Open Access Journals and Support From Himmelfarb

Deciding whether to publish your manuscript as open access is another key decision to make when considering where to publish. Publishing open access will make your article publicly available to everyone. Publishing in a traditional subscription-based journal means that your article will be paywalled and only available to readers who subscribe or have access through a library's purchased subscription to the journal. The following terminology is important to know when considering publishing open access:

  • Fully Open Access: Every article is published Open Access and made publicly available to read. Authors are often required to pay Article Processing Charges (APCs) to cover the cost of publication.
  • Hybrid Journal: These journals allow authors to choose to pay an APC and publish their articles as Open Access or not pay an APC and have the article published behind a paywall.
  • Subscription Only or Closed Journal: These journals do not offer Open Access options, and all articles are published behind a paywall. These journals rely on revenue from libraries and other subscribers to pay for access via yearly subscriptions.

Free APCs at GW

GW has current “transformative agreements” with Cambridge University Press and The Company of Biologists that allow GW authors to publish research as open access at no cost to authors. Article Processing Charges (APCs) are waived with these publishers! Cambridge University Press publishes roughly 50 health sciences-related journals covered under this agreement. The Company of Biologists agreement includes 5 titles: 

Look Out for Predatory Journals

Before submitting your manuscript to a journal, do your due diligence to ensure that the journal is not predatory. Predatory journals pretend to be legitimate academic journals, promote false or misleading metrics, and have unethical business practices that fail to follow scholarly publishing best practices. Predatory journals often promise quick article publication, frequently lack a peer review process, and don’t have archiving policies, which can result in your work disappearing from the internet. 

Cabells Directory of Publishing Opportunities tracks predatory journals and provides violations of scholarly publishing best practices to help you avoid submitting your paper to a predatory journal. Be aware that not all predatory journals in the medical and health sciences fields are listed in this resource. If you have reservations about a title and can’t find it in Cabells, contact Ruth Bueter (rbueter@gwu.edu), who will investigate the journal on your behalf.

Learn more about how to identify predatory journals on Himmelfarb’s Predatory Publishing research guide.

Questions? Himmelfarb Can Help!

Still have questions about choosing a journal for your manuscript? Reach out to us at himmelfarb@gwu.edu, and we can help you navigate the resources discussed in this post!

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Diabetes, photo by Artem Podrez on Pexels

November is National Diabetes Month. According to the CDC, 38.4 million people in the United States of all ages have diabetes. Among adults, this comprises 14.7% of the total population. (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention [CDC], 2024)

While the CDC statistical report provides one way of navigating available data on diabetes, PolicyMap, a resource available to you via Himmelfarb Library, can help you visualize data by showing its distribution across a geographic area.

Screenshot of searching the word diabetes on the mapping website PolicyMap
PolicyMap screenshot (PolicyMap, 2025)

Percent of births to mothers diagnosed with pregnancy-induced diabetes in 2023, PolicyMap screenshot (PolicyMap, 2025)

You can browse PolicyMap by topic (including health indicators) or by level of geography, and the resulting map can be saved, printed, edited, or annotated. PolicyMap also includes a handy citation button for attribution of its content.

The three most commonly seen types of diabetes are:

  • Type 1 diabetes mellitus, in which the body stops producing insulin;
  • Type 2 diabetes mellitus, the most prevalent type, which is linked to genetics, lifestyle, and weight;
  • Gestational diabetes, which occurs during pregnancy and can increase the chances of developing Type 2 diabetes later on.

Gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) develops in 5-9% of pregnancies in the United States each year. While it may be asymptomatic, GDM testing, which occurs around the 24th week of pregnancy, can catch the condition before complications develop. All pregnant patients should be tested for GDM. (DynaMed, 2025) The testing involves a 1-hour non-fasting oral glucose test. If results from the 1-hour test show the blood glucose level as too high, a second, fasting test is conducted over three hours. (NIDDK, 2017)

In those patients who are diagnosed with GDM, treatment includes dietary changes and regular exercise targets. Initially, patients may need to self-monitor and log blood glucose. Medication is only required when target glucose levels cannot be attained through diet and exercise. (DynaMed, 2025) If blood glucose is well-controlled, patients with GDM can carry their pregnancy almost to term (39 weeks). (ACOG, 2018) The Canadian Diabetes Association, meanwhile, suggests doctors offer induction of labor between 38 and 40 weeks gestation to decrease the risks of stillbirth and cesarean birth. (Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines Expert Committee, 2018)

References

ACOG Practice Bulletin No. 190: Gestational Diabetes Mellitus. (2018). Obstetrics and gynecology, 131(2), e49–e64. https://doi.org/10.1097/AOG.0000000000002501

Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. (2024). National Diabetes Statistics Report. https://www.cdc.gov/diabetes/php/data-research/index.html Accessed on November 12, 2025.

Diabetes Canada Clinical Practice Guidelines Expert Committee, Feig, D. S., Berger, H., Donovan, L., Godbout, A., Kader, T., Keely, E., & Sanghera, R. (2018). Diabetes and Pregnancy. Canadian journal of diabetes, 42 Suppl 1, S255–S282. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcjd.2017.10.038

DynaMed. Gestational Diabetes Mellitus (GDM). EBSCO Information Services. Accessed November 12, 2025. https://www.dynamed.com/condition/gestational-diabetes-mellitus-gdm

PolicyMap. (n.d.). Crude percent of diagnosed diabetes among adults in 2022 [Map based on data from CDC_PLACES: Data downloaded from https://www.cdc.gov/places/index.html, August 2023]. Retrieved November 12, 2025, from http://www.policymap.com

National Institutes of Health. National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases. (2017) Tests & Diagnosis for Gestational Diabetes. Accessed November 12, 2025. https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/what-is-diabetes/gestational/tests-diagnosis

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Screenshot of a slide presentation. Text: Introduction to Systematic Reviews.

Do you have questions about systematic reviews? Ever wonder what the difference is between a systematic review and other types of literature reviews? Not sure what the steps are to conduct your own systematic review? Himmelfarb Library has a new Introduction to Systematic Reviews video series that can help answer these questions! Tom Harrod, Himmelfarb’s Associate Director of Reference and Instruction, breaks down key aspects of systematic reviews in five short videos (6 minutes or less), each covering easily digestible aspects of systematic reviews to help you learn the basics.

Types of Literature Reviews

Part 1 covers the different kinds of literature reviews and what makes systematic reviews unique. You’ll learn about the time frame, purpose, methodology, search strategy, article searches, and protocols of systematic reviews and how they compare to other types of literature reviews.

Systematic Review Steps

In Part 2, you’ll learn the steps involved in conducting a systematic review. Systematic reviews follow a well-defined methodology intended to minimize bias and ensure a high level of reproducibility. Learn more about this methodology in this video!

Effective Search Strategies

Part 3 examines how to create effective search strategies. Learn how to convert a research question into a PICO or PEO framework, use the PICO or PEO framework to create an initial search strategy, test and refine your search, and use your search in other databases in this video.

Overcoming Common Search Problems

Part 4 of this series explores common issues that arise with search strategies and how to address them. You’ll learn strategies for what to do when your initial search strategy doesn’t work as planned and you don’t get the results you expected.

Covidence

In Part 5, you’ll learn how to streamline the process of conducting systematic reviews with the Covidence software, available to GW Affiliates through Himmelfarb Library. Covidence is designed to guide you through the process of conducting a systematic review, facilitate teamwork, and help you document and maintain the records needed to write your systematic review. In this video, you’ll learn how to access Covidence through Himmelfarb and how to use the key features of this software.

Take the mystery out of systematic reviews and watch these easy and approachable videos!

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Himmelfarb Library offers a variety of databases and search platforms to users for the discovery of scholarly literature and full-text services. We’ve recently made some changes to streamline full-text options in EBSCO research databases including CINAHL, Ovid MEDLINE, and Scopus using ThirdIron’s LibKey linking services. 

When you select Full-text options @ Himmelfarb, a window providing options to either open a PDF directly or view the article on the journal platform website will display.  

Screenshot of Full-text options button in Scopus.
Screenshot of LibKey full-text selection screen with Download PDF and Article Link options.

If the article has been retracted or withdrawn, LibKey’s retraction alert services will display a warning and links for further information.

In the event that the content you want is not open access and Himmelfarb Library does not have a subscription, you will be passed through to Health Information @ Himmelfarb, the library catalog, to request document delivery services for the item through Documents2Go. 

Screenshot of article record in the Himmelfarb catalog with Documents 2 Go link.

EBSCO databases, like CINAHL, and Scopus include additional full-text options when content is available open access or when we subscribe to the content directly with them. In Scopus, you will frequently see a View PDF button in the results.  

Screenshot of Scopus article record with blue View PDF button.

In EBSCO,  the Access options button allows a similar selection of direct PDF or full-text on the provider’s website.

Screenshot of EBSCO article record with Access options selections for PDF or Online full text.

For the best linking experience, we recommend launching literature searching services from the Himmelfarb website. The most used services are in the Popular Resources box at left, and you can access a full list of available databases with the All Databases link there.

We also recommend installation of the LibKey Nomad browser extension to find Himmelfarb full-text wherever you are on the web!

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"I tell her how humiliated I am that I can't deal with it myself. I confess my hypocrisy, professing that I can help other people when I am such a mess myself. She responds that some of the best therapists are the ones with the most darkness in their lives" (Manning, 1994, p. 70).

The phrase "physician heal yourself" survived because of the Bible, but it occurs only in the gospel of Luke, which makes sense, as tradition considers Luke a doctor. Entertaining tradition, one can easily imagine the memory of this phrase – in the research done for his books – to be triggered by the author's profession. In modern times, the saying has come to mean something like, 'Take care of yourself, those who take care of others,' which of course is a valid and necessary concept, but simultaneously quite different from its original context. From the biblical story, we can ascertain that the proverb was used to call out quacks, i.e.: 'if you're selling a cure, prove it on yourself, and then we'll believe you.' For better or worse, Jesus rejects the demand, as did the author of the work selected for this Humanities Highlights: psychologist and depression-sufferer Martha Manning – albeit it with far more turbulence. I thought of both meanings when reading her fantastic mental health memoir, Undercurrents.

A copy of Undercurrents by Martha Manning sits on a shelf.

The book opens as a domestic comedy, with Manning describing her too-stuffed life with self-deprecating wit and a solid sense of scene making. It could be a family movie – tagline: woman has great career and family, if she can keep the plates spinning! – except for the darkness hinted beneath the surface, the titular "undercurrents," recounted through childhood memories and stories of her grandmother.

The opening allows us to appreciate her sensibilities before we dive into her depression, demonstrating the high contrast of lights and darks that can color the life of the depressed, and preempting stereotypes of the mentally unwell in the process.

As a psychologist herself, Manning suppresses guilt about her own depression, wondering how she can serve her patients while feeling "like an orthopedist in a full body cast giving consultation to someone with a broken leg" (p. 84). But with gumption and high tolerance, she pushes through – until she can't. She seeks treatment, beginning with talk therapy before cycling through SSRIs, and when those don't work, electing to try Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT).

The assistant head nurse gives me a tour and asks how I have gotten so depressed. I stare at her blankly and can't find the words. She might as well ask me why I have brown hair or why I'm not taller. I tell her that I am mostly depressed about being depressed. Her expression informs me that this clearly is not the correct answer. . . . She says dubiously, "Dr. Samuel said you are a psychologist," as if somehow that should make me more articulate about my pain. I reply sheepishly that I am a psychologist but that I'm not very good, in the hopes that this will explain any deficits in my clinical presentation. (p. 111)

But pain, by its very nature, is inarticulate. A burned hand may provoke a life time of philosophy but in the moment hardly prompts more than a monosyllable. The grammar of psychotherapy can only push a DIY mental health intervention so far, but Manning's guilt is understandable. Burdened by their own authority, healers risk this sense of guilty and maybe even fraudulence.

When used to suss out charlatans, "Physician heal yourself" may have limited merit, but clearly, a surgeon – outside of some remote disaster, getting crushed under a boulder when no one else is around – would not perform surgery on themselves. Nor would the dentist fill their own tooth. But when it comes to the mind, it's easy to assume we can operate on ourselves. This should not be.

We all need other people – and their expertise. We do not know everything, and sometimes we experience mental blocks that others can help us hurdle. But, because Manning undergoes these experiences, she is better able to understand the patient's humiliation. She lightens the pressure to dispense insight and better learns when she just needs to "look squarely at people's pain" (p. 172).

It's a great book, one whose application greatly exceeds the particulars that germinated it.

References: 

Manning, M. (1994). Undercurrents : a life beneath the surface (1st ed.). HarperCollinsPublishers.

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Feature image for the Fall September Study Break Guide

Adams Morgan Fall PorchFest

Date: November 1, 2025

Location: Adams Morgan

Cost: Free

One of the District’s most popular neighborhoods showcases some of DC’s best musical talent. Adams Morgan Fall PorchFest will feature nearly 100 artists playing an array of genres, including classic rock, funk, go-go, rap, reggae, bluegrass, classical, and pop. Twenty porches, business patios and parks, as well as the closed 18th Street, will become stages for the day, drawing music-lovers from around the region into the tree-lined streets and small businesses of Adams Morgan.

Korean Treasures: Collected, Cherished, Shared

Date: November 8, 2025 – February 1, 2026

Location: National Museum of Asian Art, 1050 Independence Ave, SW, Washington, DC 20560

Cost: Free

The National Museum of Asian Art surveys ancient times to the present in a stunning exhibit that displays works that beautifully speak to the diversity of Korea’s artistic legacy across the world. Once private treasures are now public, depicting the evolution of innovation, shifts in style, and technology.

Kennedy Center Millennium Stage-Extraordinary Cinema: Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight

Date: November 9, 2025

Location: 2700 F St., NW, Washington, DC 20566 in the Justice Forum at the REACH.

Cost: Free

Don’t Let’s Go to the Dogs Tonight captures the childhood of eight-year-old Bobo on her family farm in Zimbabwe (formerly Rhodesia) at the end of the Zimbabwean War for independence in 1980.

African American Civil War Museum Reopening

Date: November 10-11, 2025

Location: Smithsonian American Art Museum, 8th & G Streets, NW, Washington, DC 20004

Cost: Free

Celebrate the grand reopening of the African American Civil War Museum (which is supported by the African American Civil War Memorial) with two days of events. The DC institution will debut its new home (part of the redevelopment of the Grimke School) with a dedication of its new Lincoln statue (depicting the 16th President signing the Emancipation Proclamation), a trail march, a public ribbon-cutting, a happy hour, a Reading of the Names, and more.

Veterans Day: Honor Those Who Served

Date: November 11, 2025

Location: various monuments, memorials, and special programming

Cost: Free

Many of the monuments and memorials in the nation’s capital honor service members, shedding light on the immense sacrifices that the U.S. Armed Forces have made to protect this country. Any time of year, but especially on Veterans Day, choose from a collection of monuments, memorials, and special programming to celebrate and honor those who served.

DC Holiday Market at Dupont Circle

Date: November 14, 2025 – December 23, 2025

Location: 1500 Block of 19th Street NW, Washington, DC

Cost: Free

30-plus small businesses with artisanal goods, boutique brands, worldwide handcrafts, and unique gift items, plus festive decor, local performers, and beloved holiday treats. 

DowntownDC Holiday Market

Date: November 21, 2025 – December 23, 2025

Location: F Street between 7th and 9th Streets NW, Washington, DC

Cost: Free

This year's edition of the DowntownDC Holiday Market will occupy the street and sidewalk on F Street between 7th and 9th Streets, NW. Now in its 21st year, its bright lights bring Penn Quarter and Chinatown to life, providing a holiday spark to the neighborhood. The spacious, open-air village is free and open to the public, kicking off the season just ahead of Thanksgiving (closed on Thanksgiving Day) and closing just before Christmas.

Zoolights

Date: November 21, 2025 – January 3, 2026

Location: Smithsonian’s National Zoo, 3001 Connecticut Avenue, NW, Washington, DC 20008

Cost: $6 

Join the thousands of visitors who make ZooLights, powered by Pepco, a part of their annual holiday tradition. The event includes live music performances, tasty winter treats, and plenty of opportunities for holiday shopping. Environmentally friendly LED lights and dozens of glowing animal lanterns transform the Smithsonian's National Zoo into a winter wonderland. Note that timed passes are required. Admission is just $6.

Season’s Greetings

Date: November 22, 2025 – January 4, 2026

Location: U.S. Botanic Garden, 100 Maryland Avenue SW, Washington, DC 20001

Cost: Free

Trade in your dreams of a white Christmas for something even better – a green Christmas. At this year's Season's Greenings exhibit at the U.S. Botanic Garden, displays will feature not only holiday lights, but thousands of poinsettias, unbelievable plant-based sculptures, a circuit of model trains, and pollinators galore. Tickets are not required. This year's theme? Dinosaurs. 
The Botanic Garden will stay open late on Dec. 9, 11, 16, 18, 23, and Jan. 1. It is closed on Dec. 25.

Kennedy Center Millennium Stage Films – Extraordinary Cinema: East of Wall

Date: November 23, 2025

Location: 2700 F St., NW, Washington, DC 20566 in the Justice Forum at the REACH.

Cost: Free

East of Wall is an authentic portrait of female resilience in the “New West,” inspired and played by the women and girls who live it.

Chanukah Holiday Market

Date: December 2, 2025

Location: Edlavitch DCJCC, 1529 Sixteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC

Cost: Free but RSVP required

Join us for one of the largest Chanukah holiday markets in the city! Shop handmade goods from independent artists and food vendors – we’ll have everything from holiday cards to jewelry to baked goods. It’s Etsy IRL! In addition to our vendors, we will also have hot beverages and snacks for sale.

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The Rotation occasionally turns its lens on standout teams across the GW community. Today, we’re featuring the GW Cancer Center: where groundbreaking research, compassionate care, and community engagement come together every day. We spoke with scientists, clinicians, and outreach leaders from both the GW Cancer Center and the GW Cancer Prevention and Wellness Center to share a behind-the-scenes look at the innovation and impact driving their work. This post is the second post of a two-part series. Check out part one of this exciting discussion from last week!

The Cancer Center is involved in educating the next generation of researchers and health care providers in various aspects of cancer prevention, detection, and treatment. What types of educational programs, research training, and professional education are available for students, researchers, and practitioners interested in cancer research?

Photo of Alison Hall

Alison Hall, PhD: Associate Center Director for Education & Training; Senior Associate Dean for Research; Director of the Institute for Biomedical Science; Professor of Neurology and Rehabilitation Medicine

Speaking for our education and training portfolio, we’ve built a true pipeline - from early undergraduates to practicing clinicians - that equips people to conduct impactful, equity-minded cancer research at GW. 

Undergraduates:

  • GW-SPARC (Summer Program Advancing Research on Cancer) is the flagship 10-week, mentored summer program co-led by Drs. Alison Hall and Ed Seto. SPARC places diverse rising juniors in GW Cancer Center labs for hands-on research, and features a robust program of skills training and career development centered on addressing the cancer health needs of our catchment area. Students present posters at summer’s end. This program is supported by the American Cancer Society and GWCC.
  • Biology of Cancer Course: GW undergraduates participate in the popular BISC 2213 Biology of Cancer course, taught by Dr. Daoud Meerzaman of NCI.

Medical Students:

  • Clinical & Translational Research Scholarly Concentration: A longitudinal track (≈50 students/year) that pairs medical students with mentors, strengthens research methods, and advances projects from idea to dissemination. Students present posters at the GW Research Showcase. This program has been shown to increase graduates’ careers in academic medicine (Radville et al., 2019).
  • GW Summer Fellowships: Medical students also compete for GW summer fellowships from the WTGill Fellowship as well as the Health Services Fellowship, and are encouraged to seek external support.

Graduate Students and Postdocs:

  • GW Cancer Biology PhD Program: Outstanding students from around the nation participate in the Integrated Biomedical Sciences Program and earn a PhD in Cancer Biology. Graduate program directors, Dr. Jiyoung Lee and Dr. Dalia Haydar guide PhD students through the program, and many win NIH F31 awards for their study.
  • NCI-Funded Cancer Biology Training (T32): GW’s T32 selects postdocs and one PhD trainee annually for a 2-year program combining discovery research, coursework/workshops, and a focus on cancer health needs in our region. This grant application is currently up for a competing renewal.
  • Early-Career Researchers and Professional Education: Additional structured training and mentored awards are available through the New Investigator workshops (third Thursdays at 4), leading to K and fellowship applications.
  • Services and Training: Study design, REDCap/PowerTrials, data management, regulatory tools; grant writing, plus short courses and workshops lower barriers to starting and completing rigorous studies. 

New faculty are also coached about faculty mentoring committees by Dr. Alison Hall and Dr. Pavani Chalasani.

Across all tiers, our priorities are the same: mentored, hands-on research experiences; structured skills training; near-peer and faculty mentoring; and attention to cancer health disparities in our D.C. catchment area. That’s how SPARC and our broader portfolio are “seeding” the next generation, and how we’re growing a workforce ready to make cancer research more effective, inclusive, and patient-centered.

What advice would you give to medical students or early career researchers who want to get started in cancer research?

Photo of Jenna Clements.
Jenna Clements: PhD Candidate; Seto Lab
Photo of Bethel Sebesbie.
Bethel Sebsebie: Clinical Research Coordinator

Jenna Clements: My advice is first to build a surface-level knowledge base spanning the many arms of cancer research, and then choose your niche and dive deep into that one thing. Once you nurture a deep knowledge base centered on a single topic, a larger web of understanding will naturally develop because of the interconnectedness of all the subfields of cancer research. But if you try to understand everything deeply from the beginning, you’ll quickly be overwhelmed. It will all come with time, but it does take time!

Bethel Sebsebie: Research is very important to the future of medicine. It’s through research that diseases once thought incurable are now being cured and treated today. For medical students or early career researchers, I encourage you to stay curious and open to learning. Each clinical trial and each lab discovery is a step forward to new, innovative treatments for cancer and many other complex diseases. We've already come so far, but there is still so much more to discover. So to anyone considering a career in cancer research and medicine, stay curious, be compassionate, be persistent, collaborate with others, and get involved early. Whether you're working in the lab or at the bedside, your contributions are part of a much larger mission - to improve lives and bring hope to patients everywhere.

Tell us about the National AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (NACSR) and the AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC), and their impact on patients, not just at GW, but worldwide.

Photo of Jeffrey Bethony.

Jeffrey Bethony, PhD: Professor of Microbiology, Immunology, and Tropical Medicine; Professor of Epidemiology; Bethony Lab

The GW Biorepository Core is deeply involved in advancing cancer research for people with HIV (PWH), serving as home to two major National Cancer Institute (NCI) programs: the AIDS and Cancer Specimen Resource (ACSR) and the AIDS Malignancy Consortium (AMC).

Together, these programs connect clinical care, laboratory innovation, and global collaboration to accelerate discovery and improve outcomes for people affected by both HIV and cancer.

As Director of the ACSR, I lead a national effort headquartered here at GW and established by the NCI in 1994 to provide high-quality, well-annotated biospecimens and data that drive clinical, basic, and translational research. For more than 30 years, the ACSR has served as the world’s primary biorepository dedicated to individuals with HIV and cancer, supporting studies that span the pre- and post-antiretroviral therapy eras. Our global network, which includes satellite sites in São Paulo, Brazil, and Cape Town, South Africa, ensures that specimens are ethically collected, meticulously curated, and accessible to researchers around the world. Within the ACSR, the AMC Biorepository Program provides the laboratory and governance framework that supports both domestic and international AMC clinical trials, integrating specimen processing, storage, and data management across sites.

In addition to directing the ACSR, I chair the AMC Laboratory Resources Committee (LRC), where I work with colleagues across the consortium to connect laboratory science with the AMC’s clinical trials. This bridge, linking what happens at the bench to what happens in the clinic, ensures that discoveries made in the lab can quickly inform patient care. Here at GW, the AMC Clinical Site, led by Dr. Sharad Goyal, enrolls patients in cutting-edge trials for HIV-associated cancers such as Kaposi sarcoma and lymphoma, offering access to promising new therapies.

Together, these initiatives create a seamless translational pathway, from patient enrollment and biospecimen collection to laboratory discovery and biomarker development. Our shared goal is both simple and profound: to turn science into solutions that improve the lives of people living with HIV and cancer, in the U.S. and around the world.

Is there anything else you’d like our readers to know about the GW Cancer Center?

Photo of Julie E. Bauman

Julie E. Bauman, MD, MPH: Dr. Cyrus Katzen Family Director of the GW Cancer Center

The GW Cancer Center is driven by a bold and compassionate vision: to create a cancer-free world through groundbreaking research, innovative education, and equitable care for all. That vision is what inspired me to join and lead this extraordinary organization. It speaks not only to scientific excellence but to a profound responsibility: to eliminate health disparities and ensure that our work is rooted in the realities of the communities we serve.

Our commitment to our catchment area, which includes Washington, D.C., and surrounding counties in Maryland and Virginia, is at the heart of everything we do. Guided by the voices and leadership of our Community Action Council, we engage deeply with our community, design programs that reflect our communal lived experiences, and build lasting partnerships grounded in trust. Together, we are working to make sure that every individual has a fair and fighting chance against cancer.

Thank you so much for taking the time to share more information about the GW Cancer Center, the exciting research happening there, and the great work being done. 

References:

Radville, L., Aldous, A., Arnold, J., & Hall, A. K. (2019). Outcomes from an elective medical student Research Scholarly Concentration program. Journal of investigative medicine: The official publication of the American Federation for Clinical Research, 67(6), 1018–1023. https://doi.org/10.1136/jim-2018-000943

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