From programmer to PhD staff scientist, with a stop for film school: a Kaiser Permanente researcher’s eclectic journey
As Isaac Ergas was completing his master’s degree in public health at the University of California, Berkeley, in 2001, he clicked on an email publicizing programmer opportunities at the Kaiser Permanente Division of Research (DOR). “It sounded interesting,” he said, “so kind of on a whim, I applied.” That chance opportunity led to a decades-long career at DOR that has also incorporated a master of fine arts in film and television production from the University of Southern California (USC) and a PhD in epidemiology from UC Berkeley.
We spoke with Ergas, who is now a DOR staff scientist, about his career path and the similarities between directing a film and managing a research study.
What research areas have you focused on while at DOR?
My first position fresh out of school was as a programmer with Research Scientist Assia Ferrara, MD, PhD. At that time, Monique Hedderson, PhD, was her project manager, and I started working with them on their gestational diabetes studies. As a programmer, I was responsible for analyzing and evaluating our clinical data and addressing any data problems. After a few years, I decided I wanted to do work that felt more personal. There were many people in my family who had had cancer, and so I spoke with Larry Kushi, ScD, who told me he was starting a study called Pathways: A Study of Breast Cancer Survivorship. That sounded interesting to me, so I switched from diabetes to cancer and began working as a programmer for Larry.
Are you the only person at DOR who also has an MFA?
I might be. I had always been interested in movies and filmmaking and in 2007 my wife, Ojig, and I moved to Los Angeles so I could go to film school at USC. When I told Larry my plan, we agreed that I could stay on and work remotely, and this was before working remotely was even a thing. So, between my film classes I’d get out my DOR laptop and do programming for the Pathways study. For my thesis, I brought that science side of me into my filmmaking, getting a Sloan Foundation grant to make a short biopic film about John Snow and the iconic story of how he traced the cholera outbreak in 1850s London to the Broad Street water pump. Larry was the science advisor on the film, which has screened at many film festivals. (It can be seen on YouTube.)
After I graduated from USC, I kept working for DOR while I tried to get funding to turn my short film into a feature-length movie. And then, I was diagnosed with prostate cancer. I had been doing cancer research for several years, but nothing quite gives you insight into cancer like getting a cancer diagnosis. Like so many other cancer survivors, after I completed treatment, my priorities changed. I had so many questions about cancer survival and was eager to learn what I could do to help myself and other survivors live long healthy lives. I decided to go back to school, and my wife and our 2 sons, Nshan and Jano, moved back to the Bay Area so I could go to UC Berkeley and get my PhD in epidemiology.
How did your work at DOR change after you earned your PhD?
I was a programmer for so long, and it was difficult to extract myself from that role after I earned my PhD and later became a staff scientist. It was a big shift, and it was scary, but now I’m writing papers and presenting at conferences, and trying to land my first big National Institutes of Health grant. I’m collaborating with the Kaiser Permanente Lifestyle Medicine Department to study the feasibility of a novel online tool that will make it easier for physicians to assess a breast cancer patient’s diet quality. We are also preparing an R01 grant submission to evaluate a 12-week Lifestyle Medicine Intervention in breast cancer survivors to improve heart health. Our goal is to transfer what we’ve learned from our years of productive research of breast cancer survivors, into practice. Also, because of my own diagnosis, I’ve wanted to study prostate cancer, and I’m now starting to collaborate with Stephen Van Den Eeden, PhD, on a potential project to examine long-term outcomes and decisional satisfaction in men diagnosed with low-risk prostate cancer.
Does your MFA influence how you think about research?
My writing and that type of creativity are an important part of who I am. I recently shared with my wife that starting a research project and writing a grant reminds me so much of making a movie. With a film, you come up with an idea, write a script, find funders, and then bring together everyone to help make the movie; with research, you identify a question, write a grant, convince people it is important to fund, and then build a team. In both settings you need to answer a lot of questions and overcome a lot of doubts. Also, in both cases you hope to have your final product — the film or manuscript — shared by a prestigious source — a film festival or journal.
What do you like to do in your free time with family or friends?
With my sons, I like to play video games, like Fortnite. My older son plays football at Albany High School, and I do the announcing and the music for the games. I’m also a member of the Pinole Community Players theater group, which gives me the opportunity to act. More recently, I joined the Oakland Interfaith Gospel Choir — and that brings me the most joy of anything I do. Right now, we are preparing for our annual holiday concert at the Paramount Theater in Oakland.
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