Community Outreach, Research, and Engagement Branch (CORE)

Promoting Strategies to Foster Health Equity in Community Engagement

CORE seeks to explore strategies for equitable participation in underserved communities to support engagement, bidirectional communication, and community-engaged cancer disparities research. Further, the branch endeavors to foster cancer education, outreach, partnership, and dissemination efforts.

Priorities

• Increase the participation and representation of diverse populations, particularly underrepresented and underserved groups, in precision oncology (e.g., clinical trials, research studies, biospecimen studies).
• Enhance culturally and linguistically appropriate community engagement and education efforts to improve cancer prevention, early detection and diagnosis, and survivorship in diverse communities, including underrepresented and medically underserved groups.
• Promote culturally competent training in areas such as cancer and cancer health disparities (CHD) research, social sciences, behavioral research, clinical practice, and allied health professions.
• Advance the translation of cancer -omics and precision medicine to reduce disparities and improve health outcomes for diverse groups.
• Multidisciplinary team science (e.g., genetic risk assessments and genetic counseling).

Programs

• Transformative Educational Advancement and Mentoring Network (TEAM)
• Connecting Underrepresented Populations to Clinical Trials (CUSP2CT)
• Participant Engagement and Cancer Genome Sequencing (PE-CGS) Network Administrative Supplements Community Health Educator Supplement Program
• Administrative Supplements for the NCI P30 Cancer Center Support Grants for Multi-Channel Communication Campaigns for Improvements in Cancer Education and Outcomes (MICEO) in Underserved Populations

Staff

• Dr. LeeAnn Bailey, Branch Director
• Molly Boyajian, Program Analyst
• Dr. Maria “Jay” Revilleza, Program Director
• Dr. Whitney Steward, Program Director
• Dr. Sandra San Miguel-Majors, Program Director
• Dr. Anil Wali, Program Director
• Dr. Sarah Szurek, Program Director (C)