# Transdisciplinary Research, Equity and Engagement Center for Advancing Behavioral Health

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR · 2022 · $1,000,000

## Abstract

We propose to expand the scope of the current NIMHD-funded U54 (Transdisciplinary
Research, Equity & Engagement Center [TREE Center]), maximizing our participatory and
transdisciplinary team science aimed at testing multi-level interventions that advance behavioral
health and health equity for diverse racial, ethnic, rural, urban, border and tribal populations in
the southwest. Drawing on the expertise of transdisciplinary health researchers, a well-
established statewide Communities of Practice Network embedded within a strong co-
leadership structure, this supplement will enhance the participatory transdisciplinary team
science of multi-level intervention research, employ culturally adapted approaches, and
accelerate the knowledge translation and dissemination of our Year 1-5 results into practice,
research, and policy. By 2050, 50% of the US population is expected to be racial/ethnic
minority, underscoring the significance of disparities in behavioral-related health outcomes in
these populations. New Mexico is a minority-majority state where 49% of the population identify
as Latino and 11% as American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN); 34% of the state’s 2.1 million
residents live in rural and frontier areas. Given our unique racial, ethnic and geographic
diversity, we are uniquely situated to further our public health impact by advancing
transdisciplinary, culturally-centered, and community-engaged approaches in order to reduce
the devastation from behavioral health inequities in New Mexico and nationally. The grave
impacts of structural racism, pre-existing health inequities, and the COVID-19 pandemic on
behavioral health is a pressing public health priority that our TREE Center will address in this
proposed supplement. We will enhance the participatory transdisciplinary team science of
multi-level intervention research, employ culturally-adapted approaches, and accelerate the
knowledge translation and dissemination of our Year 1-5 results into practice, research and
policy through three aims: 1) Integrate the team science generated in Years 1-5 of the Center
across cross-cutting etiological, methodological, and intervention innovations for translation into
the next stages of research, implementation, and dissemination; 2) Train and mentor early-
stage under-represented minority pilot research project investigators to conduct rigorous,
community-engaged, multi-level, intervention research focused on behavioral health disparities
in New Mexico; and 3) Build on the established Communities of Practice for Dissemination and
place-based networks in order to accelerate knowledge translation and co-dissemination of
transdisciplinary research evidence into practice, policy and future research.

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10597350
- **Project number:** 3U54MD004811-10S2
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF NEW MEXICO HEALTH SCIS CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** Lisa Marie Cacari Stone
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2022
- **Award amount:** $1,000,000
- **Award type:** 3
- **Project period:** 2010-05-01 → 2024-12-31

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10597350

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10597350, Transdisciplinary Research, Equity and Engagement Center for Advancing Behavioral Health (3U54MD004811-10S2). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-25 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10597350. Licensed CC0.

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