# Community Outreach and Engagement

> **NIH NIH P30** · UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR · 2024 · $143,213

## Abstract

COMMUNITY OUTREACH AND ENGAGEMENT: ABSTRACT
Oklahoma has the fourth highest overall cancer mortality rate in the United States. High rates of poverty, lack
of health insurance coverage, obesity and tobacco use, and low rates of cancer screening all contribute to the
state’s excess cancer risk. Furthermore, Oklahoma’s cancer health disparities are strikingly higher for the
state’s American Indian (AI), Black / African American (Black/AA), rural, and other underserved minority
populations. The Stephenson Cancer Center (SCC), the only NCI-designated cancer center in Oklahoma,
leads efforts to decrease the state's cancer burden through facilitating scientific discovery, and by engaging
with patients and communities in the statewide catchment area. SCC's Community Outreach and Engagement
(COE) Core is central in this effort. COE is guided by four interconnected Specific Aims: 1) to monitor and
evaluate the Oklahoma Catchment Area (OKCA) cancer burden and disparities through surveillance of cancer
incidence, mortality, survival, and risk factors; 2) to engage communities throughout the OKCA in bidirectional
communication to stimulate planning of cancer research and control efforts; 3) to communicate community
needs to SCC Leadership, Research Programs and the Clinical Trials Office / Protocol Review and Monitoring
System to catalyze research focusing on high-priority cancers and cancer problems affecting the OKCA; and 4)
to collaboratively implement and disseminate SCC cancer control activities and policies to reduce cancer
burden throughout the OKCA and beyond. Under the direction of Mark Doescher, MD, MSPH, the SCC's
Associate Director for Community Outreach and Engagement, and Dorothy Rhoades, MD, MPH (Kiowa), who
is the SCC's Director of AI Cancer Research Initiatives, COE has achieved a strong record of creating and
sustaining authentic partnerships with Oklahoma’s AI, Black/AA, rural, and other communities to address
multiple cancer-related concerns. Increasingly, COE is applying its expertise to extend outreach to and
collaboration with additional underserved communities in the OKCA, including the Hispanic/Latino/a. COE
conducts surveillance to identify priority cancers and cancer problems having the heaviest impact on
Oklahomans. COE community advisory boards enable community members to inform programmatic and
research priorities for the SCC and its catchment area. COE increasingly links communities to training and
education programs that diversify the cancer research workforce. Strategic plans for the next five years include
expanding community-engaged research focused on addressing priority cancers across the OKCA, as guided
by a logic model that includes short-, intermediate- and long-term metrics that are used to gauge progress and
signal areas for future growth. COE’s cultivation of long-term, mutually beneficial partnerships with
communities will continue to foster an environment that enables SCC to advance its vision to eliminate cancer
...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 10838561
- **Project number:** 5P30CA225520-07
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** MARK P DOESCHER
- **Activity code:** P30 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2024
- **Award amount:** $143,213
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** 2018-05-01 → 2028-04-30

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/10838561

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 10838561, Community Outreach and Engagement (5P30CA225520-07). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-26 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/10838561. Licensed CC0.

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