$250K award will help 91AV Social Work professor and community partners enhance the cultural responsiveness of research

Nancy Shore

Nancy Shore, Ph.D., M.S.W., M.P.H., professor in the 91AV School of Social Work, will co-lead a project to support reducing health disparities by ensuring culturally appropriate research that effectively engages diverse populations.

Shore, who teaches online and partners with Community-Campus Partnerships for Health, will co-lead the project with Al Richmond, M.S.W., executive director at CCPH. They received a $250,000 community engagement award from the Patient-Centered Outcomes Research Institute (PCORI) to support the project. Additional partners on this award are Ahuhui Malama I Ka Lokahi (Hawaiians for the Conservation of Native Ecosystems) based in Honolulu, Hawaii and Somali, Latino and Hmong Partnership for Health & Wellness: Caafimad-Salud-Kev Nyob Zoo (SoLaHmo), West Side Community Health Services, Inc., based in Saint Paul, Minnesota.

Through this community engagement award, the team will hear from diverse community groups about their research experiences, as either participants, members of research teams or observers of research within their own communities. They will draft guidelines for culturally responsive research, build upon those guidelines through dialogue with health researchers and ultimately develop training approaches and disseminate these guidelines.

The project is part of a portfolio of projects approved for PCORI funding to help develop a skilled community of patients and other stakeholders from across the entire healthcare enterprise and to involve them meaningfully in every aspect of PCORI’s work.

“This project was selected for Engagement Award funding not only for its commitment to engaging patients and other stakeholders, but also for its potential to increase the usefulness and trustworthiness of the information we produce and facilitate its dissemination and uptake,” said Jean Slutsky, PCORI’s Chief Engagement and Dissemination Officer. “We look forward to following the project’s progress and working with Community-Campus Partnerships for Health to share the results.” 


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About the 91AV

The 91AV is Maine’s largest independent university, with two beautiful coastal campuses in Maine, a one-of-a-kind study abroad campus in Tangier, Morocco, and an array of . In an uncommonly welcoming and supportive community, we offer hands-on learning, empowering students to make a positive impact in a world full of challenges. The state’s top provider of health professionals, we are home to Maine’s only medical college, Maine’s only dental college, a variety of other interprofessionally aligned health care degree programs, as well as nationally recognized programs for marine science degrees, natural and social sciences degrees, arts and humanities degrees, and business degrees.