Engaging for Equity: A Community Based Participatory Research Workshop

In October 2017, Rebekah Angove, Engagement Director, and Upama Aktaruzzaman, Engagement Coordinator, along with Tulane Assistant Professor, Alessandra Bazzano, attended the Engage for Equity workshop on Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) held in Albuquerque, New Mexico by Nina Wallerstein, an accomplished thought leader in CBPR.

The workshop brought together 25 community-academic health partnerships from around the country to participate in a weekend of reflection and discussion. The intention was to give each partnership new tools for conducting community engaged research, including a Promising Practices Guide. Participants also had the opportunity to gather in Academic and Community groups to share current approaches, challenges, and lessons learned.

Rebekah Angove, Upama Aktaruzzaman, and Alessandra Bazzano represented LPHI and Tulane’s partnership on the Louisiana Experiment Assessing Diabetes outcomes (LEAD) Study, which is being conducted with the CDC, NIDDK, and PCORI funded NEXT-D2 Program. Rebekah and Upama lead patient engagement initiatives for the LEAD Study, integrating patient and community perspectives into the research process to understand how population-targeted policies affect diabetes outcomes. Upama reflects, “This workshop allowed our team to assess our own approaches toward patient engagement, and it was inspiring to see how other teams are approaching this throughout this country.”

In addition to strengthening the LEAD study partnership, this workshop was an opportunity for LPHI staff to share strategies with others across the county doing this work and stay updated on current best practices in the field of CBPR. Rebekah and Upama will share what they learned with the organization and identify ways to implement these approaches at a local level.