Meet the Faces of GSDM: Kendrick Smaellie, Assistant Director of Predoctoral Research and GSDM’s Center for Clinical Research Program Manager
Kendrick Smaellie, assistant director of predoctoral research and program manager at GSDM’s Center for Clinical Research, has spent a decade guiding members of the GSDM community in their research endeavors.
When Smaellie graduated from Wellesley College in 2014 with a degree in psychology, she was initially looking for career opportunities in clinical psychology. But an administrative assistant position at GSDM’s Center for Clinical Research caught her eye because of her interest in research. She applied—and then got the role. Four job titles later, she joked that she doesn’t do any of the tasks she was first hired to do.
In her current roles, Smaellie provides management, development, and oversight for both the Center for Clinical Research and the Predoctoral Research Program. For the former, she does everything from assisting Institutional Review Board (IRB) applications to editing presentations and manuscripts for peer review publications to managing clinical projects and developing patient-based projects—and more. Smaellie said she helps answer any administrative-based research questions, no matter how big or small.
“Research is not something that you can just jump in without knowing. There are very specific protocols and regulations you need to know,” Smaellie said. “We support faculty, residents, and students through all steps of the process. We help with protocol development [and] building the right team with the right investigators and the right expertise.”
Smaellie also supervises the Predoctoral Research Program, which includes serving as course director for the Intensive Research Elective Course (IREC) curriculum and the research portion of the first year APEX (Applied Professional Experience) rotation by delivering one-on-one student advising and grading assignments. She is currently developing new outreach programs to increase the number of students participating in research.
“I help match students with mentors based on their interests, availability, and what’s happening at the school,” Smaellie said. “I serve as a course director for those electives with the logistics of assignments and grades.”
Smaellie also organizes GSDM Science Day, an annual event at which students, residents, and fellows can present their findings to the Boston University Medical Campus community. Smaellie solicits and approves abstracts and manages the judging assignments for oral and poster presentations.
“There is an art to assigning three faculty judges per project to evaluate the presentations,” said Smaellie. She needs to ensure a student or resident’s faculty mentor isn’t also their judge, but she also needs to make sure a research topic fits a faculty member’s knowledge and expertise.
To find the sweet spot, Smaellie cuts Post-it notes and writes down the names of the student presenters and potential judges. She moves the color-coded pieces around on her desk until she finalizes the perfect judging lineup.
“It’s quite a puzzle figuring out who’s available,” Smaellie said. “Not all faculty are available for all sessions, who fits with what project, what’s feasible to judge in the time that we have. That’s probably the biggest component that always has a little bit of a question mark to it until it works.”
Smaellie said she feels a sense of pride every year when Science Day is successfully organized and well-received.
“It’s always a broader scope of research than I expect once it all comes together. It’s really cool to see it all in one place,” Smaellie said. “It’s always very gratifying to see the students, residents, the faculty, leadership, our guest keynote speakers, and the community come together and have those opportunities to discuss their projects.”
Smaellie’s priorities are constantly shifting throughout the academic year. In the fall semester, she is matching students with research mentors, re-enrolling them in electives, and supporting the development of new projects. From January through March, she is focused on organizing Science Day and supporting students presenting at other research and organized dentistry meetings. Near the end of the academic year, Smaellie is helping students finalize their research reports and presentations and matching students to the APEX summer rotation program. Then she monitors those 15 to 20 students as they begin their research experiences during the summer.
One thing that never changes is Smaellie’s commitment to making research at GSDM better and more accessible. “I think a common problem is that faculty and students, with their busy schedules, don’t feel like they’re able to do research, but there are many ways people can add research in with whatever they’re doing,” she said. “We have a lot of really interesting questions that we could ask and data we could collect with the clinical and educational work faculty are already involved in. If they’re interested and want that opportunity, we can help them figure it out.”