Building Capacity for Health Disparities Research

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DESCRIPTION (provided by applicant): Governors State University intends to increase its collaboration with the University of Illinois at Chicago (UIC) to develop a Center for Healthcare Research, building upon the work done through an R24 EXPORT Center of Excellence in Health Disparities Research and enhancing the infrastructure and capacity for health disparities research at a minority serving institution. UIC will serve as the mentoring institution for the Center for Healthcare Research as a part of the Research Infrastructure at Minority Serving Institutions initiative. The mentoring activities, coordinated through the UIC Center for Population Health and Health Disparities will involve faculty from the College of Dentistry, Department of Physical Therapy in the College of Allied Health, the Midwest Latino Health Research Training and Policy Center, Jane Addams College of Social Work, the Department of Sociology in the College of Liberal Arts, and the Institute for Research on Race and Public Policy in the College of Urban Planning and Public Affairs. A member of the faculty in the School of Public Health will also serve as a biostatistical consultant to the project. Additional mentoring with faculty from the College of Nursing is planned for later in the project. There are six goals of the project: 1) Create an effective research environment that is shared across GSU colleges; 2) Prepare faculty to conduct high-level biomedical and related research; 3) Prepare students to enroll in advanced graduate programs to earn professional and research doctoral degrees; 4) Implement career development plans for faculty; 5) Implement and complete the individual faculty research projects as a foundation to independent funded research related to reducing health disparities ; and 6) Develop a quality Center for Healthcare Research through effective administration and project management. The project will also provide the resources to enrich the physical research space at GSU and provide specialized faculty research equipment. Creation of a Center for Healthcare Research at GSU focused on reducing health disparities will benefit the Chicago Southland region. Research projects as a part of this application focus on major health care issues affecting the African American, Hispanic/Latino, and Native American populations in the region. Furthermore, many of the investigators who will gain competency are themselves a part of the populations experiencing health disparities.