Member Details

Health Equity/Research Interest

I am excited to work with the CCHEq and will continue to draw on my expertise, experience, and responsibilities as the Executive Director of Cornell University Cooperative Extension’s New York City Programs (CUCE-NYC), Director of Outreach and Community Engagement within Cornell’s Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research (BCTR), and Core Director of the Weill Cornell CTSC’s Community Engagement in Research Component. Because my roles link the Cornell Cooperative Extension system and key translational science institutions on Cornell’s Ithaca campus and at Weill Cornell Medicine, I am uniquely positioned to contribute to this work. In addition to these institutional roles, my work with the CCHEq will draw on my long history of community-engaged research and education on HIV/AIDS and strong track record in participatory planning and evaluation. I am strongly committed to dissemination and implementation research and to research translation. I’ve developed systematic participatory approaches to engage participants, program staff, and other stakeholders in data interpretation (“data dialogues”), which enable rapid utilization of research findings to guide program improvements. This method also aids in deepening collaborations among different constituencies involved in community based participatory research. I believe that systems and infrastructures that support and enhance collaboration are vital to community engagement, the development of research agendas that benefit communities, and the translation of research into improved programs and policies. In line with this, I was instrumental in developing the Research Synthesis Project and the Research Navigator Initiative at Cornell’s Bronfenbrenner Center for Translational Research www.bctr.cornell.edu and continue to contribute to their innovative research translation efforts.