# Community Engagement Core

> **NIH NIH P50** · VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER · 2021 · $353,998

## Abstract

Tackling health disparities requires a transdisciplinary framework that cuts across scientific and
organizational silos to integrate multiple disciplines. Equally important are strong collaborations between
researchers, community- based organizations, healthcare systems, public health agencies, and other
stakeholders. Such a collaborative approach helps ensure that relevant, contextually appropriate research is
conducted and, importantly, that findings can be translated into long-term sustainable community and system-
level changes that promote health equity.
 The Community Engagement Core (CEC) of the Southeast Collaborative for Innovative and
Equitable Solutions to Chronic Disease Disparities (the Center) will bring together institutions, faculty and
community partners with expertise across a range of disciplines – behavioral, social, genetic, and
environmental. To accomplish this, the CEC will pair each academic study team with one local Federally
Qualified Health Center (FQHC)/ FQHC network which will provide community oversight and input to all
programmatic aspects. CEC faculty will also facilitate dynamic ongoing process aimed at engaging the
research teams and FQHC partners in a more participatory engagement approach. The goal of the Center’s
Community Engagement Core (CEC) is to nurture productive bi-directional working relationships between the
academic and consortium partners aimed at addressing diabetes, cardiovascular disease, obesity, and related
conditions.
 The CEC’s role will be to ensure the perspective of such partners, representing African American and
Latino communities throughout the Southeast, are integrated into the Center’s priorities and infrastructure by
instituting the following specific aims:
Specific Aim 1. Establish a Community Advisory Board that will provide guidance and direction
on the Center’s overall goals and priorities, provide input regarding strategies to enhance community
engagement, selection of SDH measures, and accelerate implementation, dissemination, and adoption of the
Center’s findings.
Specific Aim 2. Provide community input into the selection and execution of pilot projects.
Specific Aim 3. Foster participatory partnerships between the three large research projects and local FQHCs
in developing, adapting and implementing socially and culturally appropriate interventions addressing
disparities and having outcomes which can be readily tailored to the FQHC context.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10437312
- **Project number:** 1P50MD017347-01
- **Recipient organization:** VANDERBILT UNIVERSITY MEDICAL CENTER
- **Principal Investigator:** Olveen Carrasquillo
- **Activity code:** P50 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2021
- **Award amount:** $353,998
- **Award type:** 1
- **Project period:** 2021-09-24 → 2026-06-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10437312

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10437312, Community Engagement Core (1P50MD017347-01). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10437312. Licensed CC0.

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