It was during the COVID pandemic that Professor Jennifer Tidey remembers Brown University School of Public Health scholars discussing how they could make a positive difference in Rhode Island.
“I started hearing across SPH that our faculty, staff and trainees really wanted to use their research skills to help our local community,” said Tidey, who is the school’s associate dean for research. “They wanted to do community-engaged research the right way—by engaging with community members in true partnership.”
In 2024, the School of Public Health’s Community-Academic Research Partnership Fund began supporting projects to do just that. Each year, the fund supports research partnerships between Brown faculty and community practitioners with privately funded awards that recognize the expertise and values that community members bring to the field, and supports relationships that advance research and public well-being.
Sarah Bouchard, who is director of the School’s Office of Community Engagement and co-leads the research partnership initiative with Tidey, says the funding creates a unique opportunity to blend community and research expertise with a variety of public health topics and issues that matter significantly to local partners.
“These projects bring together lived experience, deep contextual knowledge and rigorous academic scholarship, which results in research that can be translated into practice and holds the potential to impact the health of Rhode Islanders," Bouchard said.
Both Bouchard and Tidey say they are especially excited for the latest round of grants, which have been awarded to the following partnered projects:
An Analysis of Private Equity in Rhode Island’s Health Care System
PI: Yashaswini Singh, assistant professor of health services, policy and practice, in partnership with Shamus Durac, senior attorney, and Sam Salganik, executive director of RIPIN, a nonprofit that helps Rhode Islanders navigate systems of health care, special education and healthy aging. Other collaborators are Nina Harrison, policy director at the Economic Progress Institute and, from the Center for Advancing Health Policy through Research, Erin Fuse Brown, professor of health services, policy and practice, Nathan Hostert, assistant director for state policy, and research assistant Hasan Quadri.
Strengthening Supporters: Increasing resources for supporters of loved ones with substance use disorders in a community outpatient clinic
PI: Melissa Pielech, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences and of psychiatry and human behavior, in partnership with Lisa Peterson, chief operating officer at VICTA, a comprehensive outpatient substance use disorder clinic, and Laurie MacDougall, family peer recovery specialist at REST, which supports individuals and family members impacted by substance use disorder.
Understanding the perspectives and experiences of Latina doulas and their Spanish-speaking clients to advance Latina birth justice in Providence, RI
PI: Madina Agénor, associate professor of behavioral and social sciences and of epidemiology, in partnership with Sara Castañeda of Doulas Conectadas, which supports Spanish-speaking families through pregnancy, birth and postpartum periods.
Feasibility and Acceptability of a Web-Based Physical Activity Program for Latina Women in Community Health Settings
PI: Lauren Connell Bohlen, assistant professor of behavioral and social sciences, in partnership with Morgan Leonard and Jackie Medrano of Clínica Esperanza, which has provided health care to more than 40,000 uninsured adults living in Rhode Island since 2010.
Anticipating & Preventing Disruptions in Rhode Island Nursing Home Care
PI: Cyrus Kosar, assistant professor of health services, policy and practice, in partnership with Marti Rosenberg of the Rhode Island Executive Office of Health and Human Services. Emily Gadbois, associate professor of health services, policy and practice, and Rosa Baier, director of the Center for Long-Term Care Quality and Innovation and professor of the practice of health services, policy and practice, are also working in support of this project.
The five projects are expected to begin later this month.