# Community Engagement and Outreach Core

> **NIH NIH U54** · UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR · 2020 · $812,040

## Abstract

The Community Engagement and Outreach (CEO) Core has the goal to sustain and grow collaborative
research that addresses health equity in Oklahoma with the direct involvement of communities, patients, and
providers. There is a range of underlying health issues that affect the tribal and rural populations in the state
that contribute to Oklahoma's burden of chronic illness. Nearly all the communities in the state have high-rates
of diseases that include diabetes, heart disease, rheumatologic disease, and cancer. As an original key
component activity of the Oklahoma Shared Clinical and Translational Resources (OSCTR), the CEO Core has
been highly successful in building relations and collaborations that have resulted in major statewide or
community-oriented approaches to address these health issues. The core has supported two practice-based
research networks and established the Oklahoma Primary Healthcare Improvement Cooperative (OPHIC) to
provide test beds for primary care and pediatrics clinical and translational efforts to disseminate and implement
research findings that improve the delivery of healthcare and improve health outcomes. The Core has provided
support to grow research capacity and activities in tribal communities through the highly successful Tribal
Engagement Unit and our unique partnerships. The Core will continue to work closely with its primary
community partners, including the Southern Plains Tribal Health Board, which represents 42 federal tribes and
55 tribal/IHS health facilities in Oklahoma and Kansas, the Cherokee and Chickasaw Nations, and OPHIC to
broaden these activities and infrastructure support for community engagement efforts in tribal and rural
populations, as well as in primary healthcare settings. The CEO Core is expanding on its previous activities by
working with the Pilot Projects Program to implement a new Community-Engaged Research Exploratory Award
program to provide small awards to seed new collaborative efforts between researchers and communities. The
core is adding direct support to OSCTR investigators and Scholars through highly-trained and experienced
research assistants who are already embedded in communities and can help launch dissemination and
implementation research projects to improve the health and health care of tribal and rural populations. The
CEO will work with the other OSCTR cores to establish new programs to mentor and train individuals in
community-engaged research. The CEO Core activities, and our inclusive Community Advisory Board, are
critical for sustained stakeholder engagement that allows our researchers to gather information from our
communities, explore community research needs, protect communities from research risks unique to minority
populations, resolve barriers to research efforts and complete effective research projects. The CEO Core will
continue to strengthen relationships between OSCTR partners that allow for durable and meaningful
collaborations to address the primary heal...

## Key facts

- **NIH application ID:** 9979934
- **Project number:** 5U54GM104938-08
- **Recipient organization:** UNIVERSITY OF OKLAHOMA HLTH SCIENCES CTR
- **Principal Investigator:** PAUL G SPICER
- **Activity code:** U54 (R01, R21, SBIR, etc.)
- **Funding institute:** NIH
- **Fiscal year:** 2020
- **Award amount:** $812,040
- **Award type:** 5
- **Project period:** — → —

## Primary source

NIH RePORTER: https://reporter.nih.gov/project-details/9979934

## Citation

> US National Institutes of Health, RePORTER application 9979934, Community Engagement and Outreach Core (5U54GM104938-08). Retrieved via AI Analytics 2026-05-22 from https://api.ai-analytics.org/grant/nih/9979934. Licensed CC0.

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