CSUN - San Fernando Valley Center to Reduce Health Disparities

描述（由申请人提供）：拟议的CSUN-San Fernando Valley （SFV）中心的目标是建立一个研究中心，从几个学科和方法的角度减少弱势群体的健康差异。该中心将服务于三个重点领域：(a)教师支持——培训来自多个学科的CSUN教师，主要是心理学，以及社区活动家，对服务不足的人群进行文化上称职的、相关的和有效的研究，并将这些信息传播给学术界、非专业公众和政策制定者；(b)学生支持——通过提供课程、培训、研究经验和资源，为进入研究生课程并取得成功，培养一支传统上在健康差异研究中代表性不足的本科生和研究生骨干，从而发展工作场所的多样性；(c)生态有效的健康差异研究和传播——建立一个卓越的生态有效研究中心，探索大学研究人员与社区组织、学校和其他机构之间的联盟，以确保在与健康有关的研究和社区研究中具有更大的生态有效性。CSUN-SFV减少健康差异中心将成为未来合作工作的中心，通过开发EcoLab来支持健康差异研究人员，EcoLab是一个可改装的实验室，可以制成具有厨房和客厅的家庭代表环境，以研究家庭互动并进行访谈，焦点小组和社区会议；研究饮食行为的餐馆；或者一个医学检查室来研究卫生保健问题，如沟通、期望和刻板印象。到目前为止，我们已经与三个学院的7个系达成了合作协议，拥有28名RIMI教职员工，一个由博士组成的顾问委员会。Steven Lopez, Raymond Buriel, Michele Cooley，以及社区的Mayra Bamaca和Stephanie Saliger女士。我们还获得了8名培训师和导师的协助。我们计划支持10名RIMI学生，为他们提供课程、旅行和GRE支持，以及在实验室和社区机构的研究经验。

DESCRIPTION (Provided by the Applicant): The goal of the proposed CSUN-San Fernando Valley (SFV) Center to Reduce Health Disparities is to develop a research center to reduce health disparities for vulnerable populations from several disciplinary and methodological perspectives. The Center will serve three areas of emphasis: (a) faculty support - to train CSUN faculty from many disciplines, primarily Psychology, along with community activists, to conduct culturally competent, relevant, and valid research with underserved populations and to disseminate that information to the academe, to the lay public, and to policy-makers, (b) student support - to develop workplace diversity by developing a cadre of undergraduate and graduate students who have been traditionally underrepresented in health disparities research by providing coursework, training, research experiences, and resources to enter and succeed in graduate programs, and (c) ecologically valid health disparities research and dissemination - to develop a center for excellence in ecologically valid research that will explore alliances between university researchers and community organizations, schools, and other institutions to ensure greater ecological validity in health-related research and community research. The CSUN-SFV Center to Reduce Health Disparities will serve as a hub for future collaborative work that supports health disparities researchers by developing EcoLab, a modifiable laboratory that can be made into environments that are representative of a home with kitchen and living room to study family interactions and to conduct interviews, focus groups, and community meetings; a restaurant to study eating behaviors; or a medical examination room to study health care issues such as communication, expectations, and stereotyping. Thus far, we have collaborative agreements with 7 departments spanning three colleges, with 28 RIMI faculty members, an advisory board consisting of Drs. Steven Lopez, Raymond Buriel, Michele Cooley, and Mayra Bamaca and Ms. Stephanie Saliger of the community. We have also enlisted the assistance of 8 trainers and mentors. We intend to support 10 RIMI students by providing them with coursework, travel and GRE support and research experiences in the laboratory and in community agencies.