The University of Kentucky’s Center for Clinical and Translational Science (CCTS) has a new director who’s looking forward to creating synergy across the campus, promoting collaborations and advancing the health of the Commonwealth.

Katherine Hartmann, M.D., Ph.D., said the reach of the University of Kentucky and the teamwork between disciplines to find answers to pressing health questions is why she was drawn to Lexington.

“Being the hub for a state that’s deeply invested in the well-being of a state is unique and powerful,” said Hartmann. “It’s phenomenal to have 16 colleges on the same campus. I’ve never had access … to the number of experts in so many different locations. I believe UK really has it all.”

Hartmann is an obstetrician-gynecologist (OB-GYN), epidemiologist and health services researcher.

“Pregnancy research is one of the fields that has been relatively bereft of research because it’s hard to do,” said Hartmann. “Most of my questions have been driven by that level of skepticism that the right amount of high-quality information doesn’t exist for women and their care providers.”

Hartmann graduated from University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill’s epidemiology Ph.D. program and Johns Hopkins University’s M.D. program.

She comes to UK from Vanderbilt University where she recently served as associate dean for clinical translational scientist development. At Vanderbilt University Medical Center, Hartmann was vice president for research integration. She also served as deputy director of the Institute for Medicine and Public Health at Vanderbilt from 2006 to 2020.

As a physician scientist, Hartmann has years of expertise with research involving large community-recruited cohorts, behavioral interventions and clinical trials.

Her groundbreaking findings include Black women are at risk for adverse pregnancy outcomes as early as the first trimester, and that there is no safe level of alcohol use during pregnancy with respect to miscarriage risk. She also studies uterine fibroids, pelvic floor disorders and risks for cardiovascular disease.

The mission of the UK CCTS is to accelerate discoveries to improve health through a multi-faceted approach to support research from bench to bedside to community.

In 2021, the UK CCTS received a $23.5 million, five-year award from the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences (NCATS) at the National Institutes of Health. This was the third time the CCTS successfully competed for the prestigious Clinical and Translational Science Award, with continuous funding since 2011.

Hartmann sees her role as championing ways to accelerate science and expand discoveries to new therapeutics and better clinical care and prevention.

“How do we support models for community-based intervention that can work across some of the wonderful things University of Kentucky is doing in Hepatitis C intervention, substance use intervention and increased screening for cancers?”

Hartmann noted the work of UK research investigators in and with Kentucky’s rural and urban communities not only reflects a heart of service, it means UK can meaningfully contribute to representative research on a national scale.

“We’re uniquely situated to help people who want to do the right thing, which is have representative samples of the U.S. population in their studies,” said Hartmann. “So, it’s both a leadership position, and we’re able to do that sort of work, but also an inspiration that this is the sort of state and the university that can do it.

In addition to leading CCTS, Hartmann serves as associate vice president for research, clinical and translational science. In the UK College of Medicine she serves as associate dean of research development and synergy, and as a professor of obstetrics and gynecology.

The University of Kentucky Center for Clinical and Translational Science is supported by the National Center for Advancing Translational Sciences of the National Institutes of Health under Award Number UL1TR001998. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Institutes of Health.