Community Engagement Core

The Meharry Community Engagement Core connects community members and organizations with Meharry researchers to conduct research and share results that will improve health for communities that experience the poorest health outcomes.

Vision

To eradicate health and healthcare disparities through long-term, collaborative, mutually beneficial community/academic research partnership.

Mission

The mission of the Meharry Community Engagement Core is to “combine the passion, knowledge, and skills of community partners and academic researchers to carry out research, share research results, and put into practice research findings that advance health equity and improve health for communities that experience the poorest health outcomes.”

Apart from efforts to increase community capacity to engage in research and partner with them in advancing their own health-related priorities, the Community Engagement Core provides direct support to Meharry researchers, including:

  1. providing community-engaged research training;
  2. identifying and facilitating collaborators with various community members, such as community-based organizations;
  3. identifying potential research study participants; and;
  4. providing assistance for sharing research study results beyond traditional academic venues.

A Community Advisory Board, including representatives form health advocacy, health equity, and faith-based organizations, provides guidance to the Community Engagement Core and serves as one avenue for researchers to get community feedback about their research and explore potential community-academic research partnerships.

Resources

  • Consultations for researcher and community members/organizations
  • Partnerships with more than 100 community members and organizations
  • Community Advisory Board
  • Training modules for researchers and community member
  • Research Volunteer Database
  • Community Engagement Studios
  • Community/Academic partnership development support
  • Lay Research Dissemination Procedures and Methods

For any inquires contact, Community Engagement Core Director, Stephania Miller-Hughes PhD MS, smiller@mmc.edu or Co-Director, Leah Alexander PhD MPH, lalexander@mmc.edu or Program Manager, Mariah Chambers MHA, mchambers@mmc.edu

Partnership Opportunities

To learn more about the Community Engagement Core, visit their website below.

Community Engagement Core Publications

The organizational trauma resilience assessment: Methods and psychometric properties.
Leslie Lauren Brown, Jacquelyn Pennings, Sukey Steckel, Michiel Van Zyl

Equity-Driven Sensing System for Measuring Skin Tone-Calibrated Peripheral Blood Oxygen Saturation (OptoBeat): Development, Design, and Evaluation Study.
Alexander T Adams, Ilan Mandel, Yixuan Gao, Bryan W Heckman, Rajalakshmi Nandakumar, Tanzeem Choudhury

Toward personalized skin cancer care: multiple skin cancer development in five cohorts.
Lee Wheless, Kai-Ping Liao, Siwei Zheng, Yao Li, Lydia Yao, Yaomin Xu, Christopher Madden, Jacqueline Ike, Isabelle T Smith, Dominique Mosley, Sarah Grossarth, Rebecca I Hartman, Otis Wilson, Adriana Hung, Mackenzie R Wehner

Voriconazole metabolism is associated with the number of skin cancers per patient.
Jacqueline I Ike, Isabelle T Smith, Dominique Mosley, Christopher Madden, Sarah Grossarth, Briana R Halle, Adam Lewis, Frank Mentch, Hakon Hakonarson, Lisa Bastarache, Lee Wheless

Methods to Utilize Pulse Wave Velocity to Measure Alterations in Cerebral and Cardiovascular Parameters.
Andrea G Marshall, Kit Neikirk, Bryanna Shao, Amber Crabtree, Zer Vue, Heather K Beasley, Edgar Garza-Lopez, Estevão Scudese, Celestine N Wanjalla, Annet Kirabo, Claude F Albritton, Sydney Jamison, Mert Demirci, Sandra A Murray, Anthonya T Cooper, George E Taffet, Antentor O Hinton, Anilkumar K Reddy