Description

Team science looks great on paper, but what happens when real people, real roles, and real constraints are involved? Join us for the final Team Science Seminar Series session of the 2025-2026 academic year to find out!

This session will feature a panel of research team members (PIs, professional research staff, recent graduate students) who will explore real-world team science challenges at the intersection of interdisciplinary collaboration and everyday constraints, using the 6 Conditions for Team Effectiveness as a guiding framework. Panelists will share candid examples of how their teams struggle—and adapt—when purpose is unclear, roles and decision rights are misaligned, norms fail to support psychological safety, or organizational systems fall short. The discussion will highlight practical strategies teams use to diagnose breakdowns, make mid-course corrections, and strengthen collaboration to achieve meaningful impact in complex research and clinical environments.

This opportunity is open to all eligible persons regardless of race, sex or other identity. Scroll down to register!

Learning Objectives

By the end of this session, participants will:

1. Gain an understanding of teaming in different roles and career stages
2. Describe practical strategies for strengthening team functioning
3. Select at least one actionable practice to implement in your current and future teams.

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About the Panelists

Warren Szewczyk, MS, is a research scientist at the UW School of Nursing and has a master’s degree in Epidemiology from the UW. His research interests focus on psychiatric epidemiology and the psychological and behavioral aspects of disease. With more than a decade of professional experience in various staff roles in human subjects’ research, Warren has been on research teams ranging in size from a handful of people to more than two dozen. Through this time, he has seen firsthand both the challenges that arise from poor team functioning and the opportunities that emerge when teams collaborate effectively.

Deana Williams, PhD, is a community-based Research Investigator at the MultiCare Health System. For nearly a decade, her research has focused on advancing health equity alongside LGBTQ+ populations and communities of color through community-engaged, strengths-based approaches. Dr. Williams also leads the Health Equity Research Program within her organization, an interdisciplinary collaboration between community members, researchers, and healthcare professionals working towards health equity and racial justice. Her current work is centered on remedying cancer and reproductive health disparities, and she serves as the PI and co-PI of two studies funded by Washington State’s Cancer Endowment that are piloting interventions to close gaps in clinical trials. Dr. Williams has been an invited speaker at several national and international conferences, sharing equitable strategies for sustaining meaningful collaborations with community and clinical partners. She also holds expertise in strengthening community research capacity, supporting long-term investment in advancing community research leadership.

Carrie Heike, MD, MS, is pediatrician at Seattle Children’s Hospital and a professor in the Department of Pediatrics at the University of Washington School of Medicine. She completed her clinical fellowship in the Craniofacial Center at Seattle Children’s Hospital and has Master’s degree in Genetic Epidemiology at the University of Washington. Dr. Heike has a passion for providing clinical care to children with craniofacial differences. Dr. Heike and her research teams focus on improving pediatric health through studies focused on clinical outcomes, population health and quality improvement.

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Are you interested in learning more about CRISP, the Clinical Research Intensive Summer Program? Join course organizer Stephanie Lee, MD, MPH, for an information session and get all of your questions answered. This opportunity is open to all eligible persons regardless of race, sex or other identity.

Join Zoom Session (https://washington.zoom.us/j/2724054765)
Meeting ID: 272 405 4765

Add event to calendar: Apple  Google  Office 365  Outlook

The ITHS Technology Development Center is looking for researchers who are ready to prepare for the founding and leadership of a startup company to join the Translational Science Entrepreneurship Program (TSEP). This year-long hybrid program is designed to help researchers accelerate the translation of scientific and technological innovations into practical clinical use. The application period is February 23–April 3.

This program is open to all post-doctoral scientists, PhD graduate students, and inspired faculty members in health-related fields from Washington, Wyoming, Alaska, Montana, Idaho, and Oregon academic and clinical entities, as well as CTSAs across the nation. If you have a project you’re ready to translate into a product and company, the TSEP may be right for you!

Join ITHS Director of Technology Teddy Johnson for a virtual open house on Friday, March 20 at 12pm Pacific and get all your TSEP questions answered! This opportunity is open to all eligible persons regardless of race, sex or other identity.

Click here to join Zoom meeting
Meeting ID: 939 6128 6835
Passcode: 176814

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This opportunity is open to all eligible persons regardless of race, sex or other identity.

Workshop Description

Use professional social style and conflict mode assessments to better understand how you communicate with your team in this in-person Team Science Workshop. Effective team science depends not only on technical expertise, but on strong interpersonal skills—how we communicate, navigate differences, and respond to conflict under real-world pressure. This in-person 3-hour interactive workshop equips participants with practical tools to improve communication, navigate differences, and manage conflict in ways that strengthen collaboration, trust, and productivity. Come in teams or as individuals.

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Participants will be introduced to two evidence-based frameworks widely used in team and leadership development: the SOCIAL STYLE® Profile and the Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI®). Through brief didactic content, reflection, and applied discussion, participants will increase self-awareness of their communication and conflict preferences and improve their versatility in adapting their behavior to others. Emphasis is placed on applying these skills to real-world research team scenarios, including interdisciplinary collaboration, role-based power dynamics, and competing priorities.

By the end of the session, participants will be equipped to communicate more effectively, manage conflict constructively, and contribute to healthier, more resilient research teams.

Pre-Work

• Each participant will be sent instructions before the workshop to complete the TKI and the Social Style Profile. Assessment costs (a $100 value) are covered by ITHS for participants in this workshop.
• Assessments take about 90 minutes to complete

Who Should Attend

• Faculty investigators, research staff, and trainees
• Interdisciplinary research teams (previously established or newly forming)
• Individuals seeking to strengthen communication and conflict management skills in research settings
• CTSA-affiliated scholars and team members engaged in collaborative science

What You’ll Walk Away With

• A clearer understanding of your own communication style and dominant conflict modes
• Practical strategies for adapting your behavior to work more effectively with different styles
• Tools for choosing constructive conflict approaches tailored to specific situations
• Actionable skills to improve trust, collaboration, and team functioning in research settings

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Registration

Registration for this event will close on April 30, and space is limited. Click the link below to sign up now!

If you have any questions about the workshop, please contact Laurel Barchet (lah19@uw.edu).

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About the Frameworks

Social Style Profile

• Develop and expand your basic understanding of your Social Style. Recognize how to enhance effectiveness in working with the other three styles
• Learn to adapt your behavior (versatility) to others to foster better communication, reduce conflict and build trust.
• Improve relationships by showing empathy and meeting others’ needs

Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Mode Instrument (TKI)

• Provides a framework (TKI) for understanding conflict modes
• Enhances self-awareness to help individuals recognize their dominant conflict style
• Builds skills and flexibility to equip people with strategies to choose the most appropriate conflict mode for given situations
• Promotes constructive outcomes by creating solutions that improve relationships, trust, and productivity

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About the Speakers

Brenda K. Zierler, PhD, RN, FAAN, is a Professor and Chair in the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics in the University of Washington (UW) School of Nursing and co-lead of the ITHS Team Science Module. Dr. Zierler conducts interdisciplinary research that advances the fields of interprofessional collaborative practice, team science, implementation science, and quality improvement to improve team and patient outcomes. Dr. Zierler teaches Team Science and Leadership in the PhD program and Quality Improvement, Patient Safety and Informatics in the undergraduate nursing program. Her primary appointment is in the UW School of Nursing but she holds three adjunct appointments – two in the UW School of Medicine (Department of Surgery, Division of Vascular Surgery & Department of Biomedical Informatics and Medical Education) and one in the UW School of Public Health (Department of Health Systems and Population Health).

Erin Abu-Rish Blakeney, PhD, RN, is a co-lead of the ITHS Team Science Module and Research Associate Professor in the Department of Biobehavioral Nursing and Health Informatics at the UW School of Nursing. Dr. Blakeney’s program of research focuses on how teams work together and how their teamwork influences the production of new knowledge and translation of research into practice along the entire classroom to bench to bedside spectrum. She has nearly 15 years of experience developing, implementing, and evaluating team approaches to interdisciplinary education, healthcare, and research.

Jennifer Sprecher, MS, is Director of Strategy Development and Deployment with the School of Nursing. Ms. Sprecher works with organizations to achieve excellence through Strategy development, Lean Project Management, balanced scorecards, change management, benchmarking, team problem solving, team and leadership coaching.

Ms. Sprecher is a strong team facilitator, called upon to facilitate high-level teams where interaction and reaching objectives are critical. Sample facilitations include strategic planning, building collaborations, designing and developing new services, products and processes, implementing process improvements, implementing research studies and creating new research centers. She has worked extensively in the past few years within the arena of team science and applying team concepts to innovative development and research teams.

Before the UW School of Nursing, Ms. Sprecher focused exclusively on health research in the Institute of Translational Health Sciences, also within the University of WA. Prior to the UW, she spent 7 years as Executive Director of the Washington State Quality Award (WSQA), a Baldrige-based non-profit organization. With a background in Industrial Engineering, Ms. Sprecher has been working with process improvement for over 25 years using continuous process improvement methods including Lean, Lean-Sigma, Plan Do Check Act and 6S (5S workplace organization combined with Safety) and Total Quality Management.

Ms. Sprecher has a bachelor’s degree in Industrial Engineering, a Master’s of Science in Management Systems, is a certified Lean Six Sigma Black Belt and an International Coaching Federation ACC certified Leadership Coach.[/box]

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