The training program begins with a week-long in-person “summer camp” workshop. The workshop is led by MS-CEDI faculty and national D&I experts. The workshop is scheduled for August 10-15, 2024 at Solitude Mountain Resort (about 45 min outside of Salt Lake City). The workshop includes DIS conceptual components, hands-on application of concepts, DIS grantsmanship essentials, and consultation opportunities with the expert DIS faculty. Following the workshop, training fellows participate in a 9-month (September 2025 to May 2026) mentored DIS grant development process. The week-long workshop and 9-month grant development are not standalone components. Applicants are applying to the full training program.

The mission of the Mountain States Partnership for Community-Engaged Dissemination & Implementation (MS-CEDI) Training Program is to build capacity for community-engaged, health equity-focused, prevention D&I research among faculty in Mountain West states (Arizona, Colorado, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, New Mexico, and Utah). MS-CEDI began as a collaboration of implementation scientists at Arizona State University and the University of Utah and has expanded to include Mayo Clinic Arizona, the University of Arizona, the University of New Mexico, and Johns Hopkins University’s Center for Indigenous Health whose work is mainly with Tribal Communities in Arizona and New Mexico. The rationale for a regional partnership structure for this training program is rooted in its demographic make-up, which includes rural, frontier, and Indigenous communities facing large and pervasive health disparities; a high proportion of the country’s persistent, enduring, and extreme poverty counties; and the limited amount of current and historical community-focused D&I science.